Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He had been alone for so long.

Too long.

Traveling an empty road, repetitively reliving the loss of his siblings lives. Seeing their faces, feeling their pain. The entire world feels so distant now, but it always had. He had never been one for feeling emotions, or feeling anything, really. But this, it was more than his mind could ever handle. He felt the weight of every burden on his shoulders, and he couldn’t stop running. The guilt of leaving them all, he wondered if he wasn’t so selfish, then maybe he had been able to save them. 

But alas, wishing never saved them. He never was able to bring it off his mind, seeing them again would bring him a sort of euphoria that he had never experienced before, or so he believed. He wanted and longed for nothing more than to see Luther’s disappointed but amused face again, to hear the whoosh of Diego’s knives past his ear, to hear the laugh of Allison after he told an unfunny joke, to hear Klaus and Ben fighting over something stupid, and to feel Viktor’s hand in his as they played in the garden. He would’ve killed to even see their faces again. 

He wrote on every surface he could find, numbers and numbers, more and more. Equations upon equations until his hands cramped and his numbers turned into desperate scribbles.

He was so alone. Trapped in his distant cycle of loneliness and violence, and hatred and death. 

But then there was Dolores. 

With her smile, that never faded, her bitter-sweet remarks. It was so liberating to have the light of his life appear after all this loneliness and drinking. And he let her shine, he let her light guide him for miles. She was his sun. His soul. His purpose. He kissed her forehead and whispered sweet nothings into her ears. She never got bored. She never got mad. And she never, importantly, left him. She never scowled at him, or nitpicked his every move, she cared. Which was something that he hadn’t felt in so long. 

He walked for miles on an empty stomach, he sang his heart out, strumming on a half-broken guitar as Dolores cheered him on, her smile motivated him, surely the only reason he hadn’t placed that gun between his eyes and pulled the trigger. He didn’t share his thoughts with Dolores, but she seemed to know anyway. She knew him better than anyone else would ever. All he ever longed for had seemingly been solved. He had a beautiful wedding. He had a beautiful wife, and maybe if he walked long enough, he’d find a nice suburban neighborhood with a white-picket fence. The American dream. Despite all that had happened, he was not alone anymore, but that wasn’t enough. 

It wasn’t enough. 

He barely even remembers the first time he met her. He just remembered grabbing his gun and pointing it straight towards the woman with a keen eye. It was the only person alive that he had seen in 30 years. But a tingle in his gut told him that she was someone he did not want to be enemies with. Even after all these years, his training from the academy had kept him alive, so he supposed it was better to listen to his gut than his heart, who was begging him speak to someone other than Delores. His wife was great, but she certainly wasn’t a talker.

The woman, he knew as the Handler, took her under his wing. She saw opportunity in him, somehow. She saw something in this 45 year old with an interesting talent for time-travel. How did she know about his powers? He was uncertain, and it made him curious and more eager to ask questions. He loved mysteries, and this woman seemed to be one of her own. 

She employed him, the only assassin she had ever taught with powers, or so she told him. He had a strange liking for her, despite the foundation of their relationship being built on how desperate he was to leave the apocalypse. She offered him an opportunity, a new life, discarding his sad, old, one for a brand-new shiny clean one. He took it, after careful consideration, (He basically said yes before she was finished presenting him the job.) 

Some part of him wished he had gone back, changed that. And just spent his remaining years alive with him and Delores. The other part, well, he was severely understimulated, he had seen far too much nothingness, that he soon became obsessed with the first sign of life he saw, even if that meant he was taking a bit in the process.

He replayed the scene in his mind, over and over. They scraped his mind raw, strapped to a chair, they tore apart his identity. One by one, those memories locked behind a wall in his mind, as they injected him with the blood of psychopaths. Every single famous murderer’s blood that they could possibly get their grubby little fingers on was injected into him, like a drug. He was their little experiment. It seemed, no matter where he went, his purpose was to be written down on a paper and observed. But this time, he made sure he wouldn’t be a failure like he was for his father. This time, he would become the perfect little killer that they wished for.

So, he did.

Well, he had told himself that he “Would Kill to see his family’s faces again,” hadn’t he? Well, this was his chance to prove it.

He was paired with others, other assassins, to see his compatibility. But he was always a lone wolf, a hunter, a shark. Ready to prey on the smaller schools of fish, exactly what The Handler had told him he was.

The first few kills felt like euphoria. They felt like warm beach sand on cold toes, they felt like the first sip of coffee on a rainy day, they felt like finishing an essay and getting the grade you deserved. They felt like the sun shining on his skin. 

It was addicting. Like the alcohol, like the delusions, like his wife, even. The thought of it gave him the jitters.

After a while, they weaned him off the drugs. The Handler had convinced him it was for the purpose of his safety, and he believed her, like he always did. She would whisper whatever she wanted into his ears and that would be his command. They called him a legend, showered him with love and trust. It was like a family. 

The killing got easier, they started injecting him less and less, as he got more stable. They even stopped testing his powers, seeing as they’d done everything they could to make sure he would stay contained. He hadn’t known it yet, but they slowly switched roles, and were scared of him. He was no longer just an asset, no longer a liability, but a partner, almost. If one of his co-workers couldn’t do it, it was his job. Any job remotely seen as difficult was easily completed within a few moments by none other than him. 

But after his first few years, the rush whenever he shot someone between the eyes became a bit old, and the adrenaline faded. 

The Handler took notice of this, and it was right back to the room for him. The room with the needles and the tests, it had worked before, hadn’t it? It has to work again. But, for some reason, those feelings, the memories of his family and his childhood, weren’t locked behind that wall anymore, no. They slowly came back, one by one, memory by memory. It would be a normal day, 1925, and he would miss a target by a centimeter because of the sudden flash of memories he had received. 

He convinced himself he was insane, but once again, he faded away from partner to liability, and the place felt much more like a sad job than a family yet again. He was pumped full of drugs, this time, they stayed much longer than he had hoped. 

But he was getting old, if he ever wanted to see his family again, he had to get working. 

So, much like he used to, any surface capable of writing on, his rifle case, old-shredded papers, a restaurant napkin, he started jotting down numerous equations. Each would give him a different result. He calculated instead of watching. Being an assassin was sometimes a boring job, why not spend that time doing something worthy? 

He knew he somehow had to go back in time, though he had never been able to figure it out before. All he had ever done was jump foreword, who knows what would happen if he jumped back. Well, that's exactly what he was going to find out.

One day, of particularly annoying tests, he was finally given another opportunity out in the field. He had involuntarily shown  them his obsession with killing had returned, even though he desperately wished it hadn’t. 

The opportunities sprouted like weeds, and he took every one, desperate to see humanity yet again. Sometimes, he’d have conversations with the victim whilst he prepared their deaths, he’d ask them about their lives, their families, and although most responded with a scream or maybe even passing out from shock, he did get some pretty good responses every once in a while. 

He enjoyed hearing about the life of a normal person. Some could even say he wished he had that. But he was being ungrateful, his life, with The Handler, the other assassins, was bliss compared to the domestic home-life of boring old humans. But a thought crept into his mind, “What if my life was like that?” 

He pushed it down, shot it. But he never told a single soul, he didn’t know if his mind was able to handle any more of those drugs, or the injections, or those god-awful horrendous tests. Sometimes, waiting for the results was worse than outright being tortured. At least his mind was able to think right when he had some sort of distraction, the pain kept him sharp, focused, and cleared his mind, whilst the silence reminded him of the emptiness in his stomach, mind clouded by the drugs he was on, hearing the sounds of the nurses and workers buzzing like bees around him, it all slowly drove him insane. 

But those thoughts.. the ones wishing for a better life. They came back. Sometimes persistent enough to throw him off his roll, much like the memories. By then, every book, every sheet of paper, every wall in his room, it was filled with little equations. Numbers that wouldn’t make sense to any mind but his own. 

On one particular mission, his mind had been swirling like a tornado the entire time, thoughts racing a hundred miles a minute, he was on the cusp of something, anything. After all the pain, the math he had done maybe could have paid off. Five years worth of pain and suffering for this, he was ready. 

He peeked over the fence, mind running faster than any other part of his body could keep up with. He was blasting with adrenaline, it sure could've been the coffee he had earlier, but he hadn’t felt this way in years. The memories flooded back like a storm, all at him at once. It bombarded him with discomfort, but he was always one to confront reality face to face with a loaded gun. That was just who he was. 

So, he took his time, glancing down at his watch, and adding a few more numbers to the end of his answer, glancing up at the sky with wonder-filled eyes. He felt like a child again. At once, he felt a smile grow on him. This time not from a particularly-fun fight or anesthesia during surgery. This time, it was pure blissful memories, thinking of all the things him and his family used to be. And what they would be very soon.

His fingers twitched with energy, warmth radiating from them as he rechecked every little number, twice, but something felt wrong, something felt terribly wrong. He just couldn’t place it. Every number felt right, every decimal- he couldn’t find his error. A single misplaced number could be fatal. But he couldn’t place his finger on it, so he hacked it up to simple paranoia. It was just his mind messing with him before a huge event that could change the course of his and his entire family's lives. He knew the commission would be after him, but he was fine with the extra challenge, who knew, maybe he would have fun fighting off his former employer’s playthings. He was sick of being a doll, and this was his chance to be on his own yet again. He was perfectly resourceful, this would be fine, right? Well surely there was no returning now.

He felt insane from the excess of happiness that filled himself as he spread his fingertips, feeling a sudden gust of wind pushing him back, his shoes dragged at the concrete, but he stood his ground. The green grass before him erupted into a burst of blue, swarming like bugs in a circle. The portal’s edge was so sharp it threatened to slice him in two, but he was ready, he was ready to play into his own palms and leave his life behind. 

He couldn’t help but remember younger him, naive and stupidly arrogant. He never listened to his father, never listened to his brother, he was the boss of his mind. He would protect his siblings. That is why he was doing this. He needed to save his family’s ass one more time. 

Gathering the courage to take a few steps, he saw his family. Same as they looked so many years ago, after the apocalypse, whilst he stared at their corpses longingly, wishing for them to scream it was a joke and throw their arms around him, and for him to brush them all off and say that he didn’t care and he knew it was a joke anyways, acting like nothing happened. But this time, they were alive, they were here, and nothing could stop him from getting to them. 

He unexpectedly got bonked in the side by a fire-extinguisher, it didn’t hurt, but it certainly got him confused. He looked back down, seeing Klaus, his brother, seeming quite confident and proud of himself for throwing a fire-extinguisher at him. Wow. What a man.

It was quite ironic that it happened to be the last thought that crossed his mind as he pushed into the portal. It rattled him, and he felt his entire body buzz with energy. He felt his bones stretch. He felt compressed in the atmospheric pressure, it felt so wrong. Had he really messed up the calculations? There was no simple way. He had spent so many years leading up to this moment, but all he could feel was an absurd amount of dizziness as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, his mind spun and his eyes watered, and quickly, he felt his body change into something he didn’t even recognize. Without a warning, he felt cold air and rain patter against his skin, and suddenly, he was falling, blood rushed to his head. He straightened his legs and prepared for impact against the ground, the fall racking his body, and he felt his knees buck down under him. His arms came to shield his head, but there was no reason to protect himself.

He felt sick to his stomach, and he heaved dryly onto the grass below his palms and bruised knees. His stomach lurched, growling, and his brain shook inside his skull, ears ringing like someone had screamed at him. The blue light behind him dwindled away, the warmth in his fingertips faded into a pinkish, almost as if it was cold. He grasped at the dirt, his fingers intertwined with the grass, he gasped, deep breaths making him shudder. 

His insides cramped and felt fried at the edges, he took shaky breaths, hands covering his face in a desperate attempt to feel himself. No - No way. He had a realization: The calculation was incorrect. How had I not noticed! The decimal point was of- He looked up, between his fingers he saw five, very confused individuals. 

Oh, right.

“Does anyone else see little number five or is that just me?” 

Five shakes his head, glancing up at his siblings and then looking down at his very-not 58 year old- self. An oversized suit jacket hung off of his shoulders, the slacks not much better. The exact outfit he was wearing when he went through the- what exactly would someone describe the portal? 

“Shit.” 

Chapter Text

“Shit.”

He spits out, stumbling. His family watches him like he’s some exoatic zoo-animal. Five pushed himself to his feet, knees bruised and scraped but still relatively fine, he rolled up his sleeves, his siblings with jaw-dropped expressions looking like they’re about to either run or fight him as if he’s an alien. He doesn’t take it to heart.

Shaking in the air, he pushes past them, nearly slipping. It wouldn’t be an immediate adaptation to this body, but if he had it before, he could certainly have it again without issue.

They followed him into the kitchen. Where he sat on the counter, contemplating something-rather. No one says anything, just as he was expecting. The family was dysfunctional as always, what would change when he came back? Nothing, nothing at all.

“What’s the date,” He paused, clarifying, “the exact date?”

Viktor was somehow the only one with enough courage to answer, “The 24th..” He let it escape his lips, looking back at Five as he leaned with his elbows against the table.

Five let his hands travel across the kitchen counter, finding the knife-holder and sliding a knife out of its socket. Luther, of course, stands up and starts putting his hands up defensively, leave it to “Numero 1” to be quick to assume.

“Of what?” He shook his head.

Viktor’s voice cracked, still obviously a bit nervous. “March.”

He looked around for a moment, remembering. “Good enough.” He fiddled with the knife in his hands, resituating the suit on his shoulders.

“So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?” Luther spoke as if he was relieving the tension, but the entire room just felt even more stuffy. The boiling suspense was sharp enough to slit someone’s throat. Everyone fiddled anxiously, waiting for Five to answer. He doesn’t. Klaus looks around like some sort of bored child, scratching at the back of his neck. Viktor does the same, he leans off of the table, gulping and looking around. Allison and Diego involuntarily match expressions, arms crossed. Luther shifts in his seat, still a bit shaken up somehow. If anyone should be shaken up, it would be Five.

Five pushed himself off of the counter, slowly swinging the knife between his palms. Number One starts to have his usual- self-righteous temper tantrum. He starts with a scowl, “Its been seventeen ye-“ Five furrows his eyebrows, not letting him finish.

“It's been a lot longer than that.” He stands his ground, looking up at Luther with blank eyes. He doesn’t spare his brother another glance, other than that, the knife gets tossed, flipping in the air, everyone watches it curiously, wondering if Five would catch it, or if it would stab through his hand.

He shifts into that familiar blue light, appearing behind Luther just as the knife stabs into the wooden table. The last time they had seen him use his power- he barely could jump a few feet from where he started, but he had just cleared about seven feet of room with a simple shift.

Other than the obvious, everyone had the same question: “Where were you?” but no one seemed to have the heart to ask it. The tension remained thick, like a batter.

“The future is shit, by the way. Thanks for asking, everyone.” Five spat despite his siblings’ looks of discomfort. He climbs onto the counter, reaching the pack of first aid that was hidden in every room.

“Called it.” Klaus whispered out, breaking the tension, he smiled as he said it, getting the attention of everyone else in the room.

Five shook his head, still frowning. “I should’ve listened to the old man.” He rested the first aid on the table, pulling the knife out as he kept rambling. “Jumping through space is one thing..-“ He sighed, “Jumping through time is basically tossing a dice...”

No one seemed to understand the reference.

He looked up at Klaus. “You look nice.”

A grin beamed on Klaus’s face. “Thank you!”

“Wai- So- How did you get back?” Viktor said between stuttering, thinking this was absolutely insane. They had all been there.

“In the end..” He opened up the first aid kid. “I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself-“ He saw them looking at him like he was talking nonsense, he sighed and summarized it. “I basically pushed my mind into a version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time.”

“That makes no sense.” Diego shook his head, glowering down at his older-younger brother.

“Well, I wasn’t explaining shit to you, was I?” Five glanced briefly at him, then grabbed the gauze out of the first aid kit. Diego furrowed his brows and charged, but Luther tilted his head and pushed his brother back down into his seat. “Control your dog.” Five shook his head, and Diego looked like he was just about to start steaming.

“Soo… how long were you there?” Allison was finally the one who said anything, hands on her hips with an interested look. As if she was trying to analyze him.

“About 46 years or so. Give or take. I guess you could say my consciousness is about..” He twitched his head, “58..” He shrugged, shifting into another slash of blue light as he shoved the first aid kit back where it belonged. “My body is 13. Again.”

“How- What-“ Viktor looked like his mind was just basically rerouted, and it was taking time for it to reconnect.

“What part of the future do you not understand?” He picked up the gauze and the knife, stuffing it into his pockets.

“Where are you going? What are you doing with that?” Diego assumed his defensive attitude again, as if his brother was a threat to be assessed. The others too seemed a bit confused and maybe even concerned on what he was planning to do.

Five shrugged, tossing the knife again as he made his way to the exit of the kitchen. “Which question do I answer first?” he answered neither, disappearing into the blue light yet again, he could basically hear Luther’s annoyed sigh from upstairs.

Five reappeared in his old bedroom, basically throwing the suit over his head. He shoved the gauze and the knife onto his desk. He knew the drill. He closed the blinds on the windows, turning off his lamp and admiring the empty walls. Five figured he needed some clothes by now, and went fishing through the closet, sighing

…Ahh shit. As he stared at the same outfit, over and over. He picked the one with the least amount of dust on it.

After throwing on his old uniform, he headed over to his desk impatiently. It was time to get down to business. He had too many things to do and too little time. The apocalypse was in what, 8 days? 9? Who knows. Well, he was supposed to.

He rolled up his sleeve, pressing his thumb against his cold skin until he felt a lump near his elbow. Right.

Five rested the knife at his forearm, taking a deep breath as he cut a vertical line down the center of his forearm, hot blood against the cold kitchen knife. It was nothing worse than he had before, but this body- it was odd. It was almost as if his pain tolerance just basically tanked into one of a 13 year old boy. If he knew this would happen, then he should’ve listened to his gut when it told him his calculations were wrong. Blood pooled on his desk, dripping down the sides of his arm, he rested the bloodied knife down and winced as quietly as he could muster, throwing his head back slightly and letting his fingers creep into the fresh wound.

They dug into the cut, searching. Five desperately held back hisses, as he stared at the wound, eventually he found the culprit, such a tiny little bug causing so much discomfort. Much like himself, to say the least.

He grabbed the gauze as quickly as he could, this wound was dangerous if not taken care of. He wouldn’t usually care about a cut like this, but the commission wasn’t here to save his ass anymore, and he would have to get used to that. He wrapped his arm, trying to shake off the pain. He flicked the specks of blood off his fingertips, wiping it onto his blankets on his bed hastily. He shoved the bug in his pocket, he needed to get far from their home and fast.

Five opened his door, as to not draw unwanted attention. He quickly paced down the hall, and into their father’s office. When they were young. It felt so much bigger. Almost like an holy place. They were never allowed to come in unless he specifically requested it, and he never specifically requested it unless it were Ben, Luther, or himself. The others didn’t get the privilege of getting their asses handed to them after failing an assignment, somehow it was number six’s fault when they messed up shit, not only number one’s. (Although he did understand why his father would blame Five as well for something stupid happened on missions. He happened to do stuff he shouldn’t.)

Much like this. Stealing from his father.

Five leaned on top of his father’s desk briefly and disrespectfully. He smiled at the thought of his father seeing his son being disgraceful and rebellious even whilst he was beyond the grave. He quickly made his way over to his father’s cupboard, a personalized .357 resting patiently on a holder. His fingers crept over the dusty exterior, wondering if his father remained oiling it.. of course he did, it's Regi after all, he’d rather watch his kids die one by one then leave a gun unoiled. Five checked it, fully loaded. He smiled at the sight. That’ll do nicely. He tucked it into the back of his shorts, seeing Viktor out of all of his siblings peeking behind the door frame of their father’s office.

Five acted like he hadn’t noticed his brother, “Surely Dad taught you to hide better than that.”

“Five. Why did you steal our father's gun?” He seemed to completely disregard Five’s previous statement, a bit more focused on the fact that his brother may be planning some shit. Which is fair, he was, after all.

He did the same as his brother did, if he ignored him, five would ignore him back. “An entire square block..” He leaned against their father’s desk. “Forty-two bedrooms, nineteen bathrooms..” He looked up at Viktor, who didn’t know where he was going with this. “And not a single drop of coffee.”

“I thought dad.. y’know.. hated caffeine?” Viktor let his shoulders drop. “Five, what did you do to your arm?” Vik appeared startled and tried to take his brother’s arm. Five jumped, appearing across the room in a speedy fashion.

“Oh, this old thing? I had to pull out a tracker.” He shrugged, rolling down his sleeve. It was stupid of him to leave his sleeves up in the first place. People would certainly ask questions, but he saw no point in lying to his brother. He reminded himself to thank Vik later for pointing it out.

“..Are you in danger?” Viktor gulped while asking, taking a few steps out of the doorway as he looked at Five. “..Who is tracking you?”

Five turned towards the window. “I cannot think of a single scenario where that concerns you.” he scoffed, “Why are you following me?”

“Dad’s funeral is about to start- I thought I’d..” Vik paused, seeing his brother’s cold expression as he pushed past.

“Tell them I’m getting a cup of coffee. I’m taking the car.”

Viktor gulped as he tried to stop Five, “Hey- hey. I don’t think you should go alone- Do you even know how to drive?”

“I know how to do everything.” He spat exaggeratedly. And yet again, he disappeared into thin air. A streak of blue being the only sign of him ever being there in the first place. The sound of a car engine rattled through the empty alleyway. The day was cold and rainy. How fitting for their cold-blooded father’s funeral.

Five wished it was hot rain just to spite the old fucker.

Chapter Text

Klaus twirled an umbrella anxiously in his hands, this was not gonna be good. Whenever the whole family was together, it usually ended up with everyone either attacking each other, hurting someone’s feelings, or dying. For their sake, he hopes it's just feelings that are damaged, but for his sake, he hopes its more.. watching them kill each other would be very  entertaining.  

This morning was an interesting one, Klaus almost thought it was all an illusion and just an aftermath effect of his withdraws, Ben humbled him. It was truly as if their brother appeared out of air, quite literally. He fell from the sky. It was insane, and Klaus felt his head spin whenever he thought about it all. 

So, apparently his brother- baby brother? Big brother? Pocket of sunshine? …Was 60 years old. It confused the fuck out of Klaus, “Maybe if he had actually listened to Five’s explanation you’d understand, ” Ben said between clenched teeth begrudgingly, “ but whatever.” 

Klaus chose to ignore Ben, only giving him the validation of a spare glance, he hadn’t even paid attention to any of the words being said, but when he looked back up, his brother’s were yelling useless words at each other and trying to make them sound threatening. He puffed out of his cigarette, rain pattering against his umbrella. Ben told him off for smoking. Klaus didn’t stop. 

An endless cycle. 

Five didn’t show up to the funeral. “ That’s fine, nobody can force him anyways.” Ben was right, the little shit was a slippery fucker, even Luther couldn’t pin down the rabid cat. “ He wouldn’t wanna be called a rabid cat.” Klaus smiled. Well he isn’t here to stop him anyways. 

Between the blurring words in his mind, Klaus heard Diego blurt out a simple, “He was a monster.” 

Klaus giggled between puffs, everyone looked at him and Diego like they had just killed someone, “ or… laughed at someone’s funeral .” Ben said again annoyingly. 

Diego continued with an unwanted scowl, “He was a bad person and a worse father.” his family looked down at the ground, Viktor nodded in agreement, and Klaus waved around his hands and made faces until they came to some sort of unwanted awkward silence. “World is better off without him.” Diego bit his lip, holding back. Allison narrowed her eyes with a frown. 

“Diego..” 

“Look, you wanna pay your respects? Go ahead.” Two stepped out of line, announcing whatever he felt was important enough to interrupt a funeral for. “Go ahead.” He shrugged. “But at least be honest about the kind of man he was.” 

“My name is Number two. Number two. ” Diego waved his hands, “Because he couldn’t be bothered to give us actual names. He had mom do it.” 

Their mother smiled when she was mentioned, and Viktor held her hand and tried to comfort her. 

“You should stop talking, right now.” Luther spat between his teeth, stomping his foot like an enraged toddler, he held their father to a level that no one else did, a higher one. Despite all the abuse, physically and mentally, he somehow still held a large shred of respect for the now deceased. 

“Out of everyone, you should really be on my side here, Number One .” Diego reminded him of his name, growling as he kept going.

“I’m warning you.” 

“It's not our fault that he shipped you a million miles off,” He waved his hand in Luther’s face, “Just because he couldn’t stand the sight of you.” 

Luther fumed, Klaus and the others could basically smell his anger. The two got into a fist fight, and Viktor shook his head, looking down at his feet as he guided their mother back into the house, Allison bared her teeth.

“Boys, stop this at once!” Pogo shouted above their grunts. 

Klaus used a hand to shield Viktor and their mother from the fight, but he kept cheering them on despite all, it was surely entertaining. “Hit him, hit him!”

Allison rang out with a worried face, “Stop it, you two!” 

Ben groaned, “ We don’t have time for this. ” He called for Klaus from the door to the house.

They all turned their heads to a clang and then a loud smash, it sounded like stone, and Klaus’s smile fell when it turned out to be Ben’s statue. 

“And there goes Ben’s statue.” Allison rolled her eyes, continuing back inside. 

Diego pulled a knife from his belt and preparing to do the unthinkable, Viktor yelled, “Diego, no-“ 

The knife whooshed past Luther, causing him to grunt in distress, Klaus sighed and shut the door behind him, setting his umbrella up onto the shelf and stomping on his cigarette. He breathed in the night rain, turning to Viktor and their mother with a smile. Vik downed a fill pills before anyone could stop him, but neither Klaus nor their mother seemed to take much of a notice, but Ben frowned, and looked away. 

“Klaus.” Vik spoke up over the silence, the door was pushed open by Luther, scowling, and stomping up to his room. Allison, Diego and Pogo came in behind him, all seeming a bit irritated. Klaus looked back at Viktor. “Have you seen Five?” 

“Our littlest sibling? No, no, I haven’t. I’m sure I would’ve noticed if the little guy appeared out of nowhere again.” Klaus shrugged, following Vik into the kitchen. 

Viktor looked down at his shoes with a short, unhappy sigh. “That's weird, I uh.. We had a little fight and I haven’t seen him since he drove off.” 

Klaus stuttered, barely holding back giggles, “He-“ pausing, he snickered, “H-He drove off?” 

Viktor shrugged, obviously not finding this nearly as funny as Klaus was. “Can you help me find him? I just don’t want him to do something he’ll regret.” 

“ What does he mean, ‘Something He’ll regret?’ ” Ben asked, turning to Klaus, “ What does he mean by that?!” Of course, leave it to Ben to be the one who always worries about Five. Himself, Vik, and Five were three peas in a pod as children, after all, before Five’s disappearance and Ben’s death. 

“Uhh.. Vik? Something he’ll regret?” 

Viktor began to pace the room, walking back and forth while shaking his head. “He- He uh, he stole dad’s gun. I don’t know what he's going to do- I saw a bandage on his arm, he’s hurt! What should I do?” 

Klaus pulled Viktor out of his trance by his shoulders, “ We are going to find him.”  Vik looked up at him and nodded. “Upstairs? Maybe there's a clue or something! He could’ve left a note.” 

Diego walked in, wearing all his gear, and a bag thrown over his shoulder. “See you guys in what, ten years? When Pogo dies?” Allison comes in behind him. 

“Not if I kill you first.” She spits back, pulling out a chair. 

“Yeah, love you two sis.” Diego stole a small treat off the table, “Good luck on your next movie.” He shrugged, “Hope it ends up better than your marriage.” 

Allison bit her tongue, glaring at Diego as he left. Klaus and Viktor snuck out the back of the room, racing each other upstairs playfully. Viktor got to Five’s room first, pushing open the door while giggling like a child, Klaus smiled, he hadn’t heard his baby brother’s laughs in too long. 

The laughs turned to frowns quickly as Vik shoved open the door. He turned on the lights, seeing the pool of something red sitting helplessly on Five’s desk. 

“ Holy shit.” Ben and Klaus said synchronized. Viktor gulped so loud Klaus could hear it. 

“Is this..?” He dipped a curious finger into the pool of red ink. He spread it across his fingertips, frowning. “Blood. It's blood..” he looked across the papers on Five’s desk, seeing the kitchen knife. “I remember..” Viktor spat out in little stuttery rambles. “He said he had a tracker in his arm- he told me. He said he worked for some Company? Commission? and they were coming for him..”

“Sooo, 13-year old Five cut his tracker out? Sounds pretty spot on to his character.” Klaus shrugged. “That's.. a lotta blood for one little cut.” 

“ Must have not been so little.” Ben chimed in, and Klaus sent him a worried glance. 

“Do you know where he is? The little guy?” He asked Ben, and Viktor looked a bit confused.

“I-“ Ben began

“No.. I- I don’t. We need to find him.” Viktor didn’t seem to catch onto the fact that Klaus wasn’t talking to him. “We need to find him.”

Chapter Text

“So, what’ll it be?” The lady behind the desk asked with a warm smile.

The man beside Five shifted in his seat, smiling at the woman.. ‘Agnes,’ her name tag read. 

“Uhh, give me a chocolate eclair.” The stranger spoke hesitantly, he smiled briefly in Five’s direction.

“Can I get the kid a glass of milk or something?” 

The man looked confused, looking at Five. “That's not my k-“ 

“The kid wants coffee. Black.” Five said with a deadpan, he hated this new trend of everyone calling him short-stack, or kiddo. He hated it.

Anges smiled, shrugging. “Cute kid.” Five grinned from ear to ear, almost menacingly. 

“He’s not my kid.” The stranger looked nervous. 

“Oh, I apologize.” Anges nodded, turning away to go and make their orders. “He’s cute anyways.” she patted Five on the head, and he certainly didn’t like being touched, especially by strangers. 

“I really don’t remember this place being such a huge shithole.” Five rolled his eyes, leaning back in his seat as Anges made their meals. “I used to come here as a kid, sneak in with my brothers and sister, and eat donuts until he puked.” He brushed a piece of hair out of his eyes. “Simpler times, huh?” he chuckled softly. 

The man said nothing, as Agnes handed them their treats. Five smiled at his cup of hot coffee, and the man looked up at Agnes with a grin, “I got his, thanks.” he nodded. Agnes smiled at both of them, taking his card. Five looked at him with a slight smile as a way of thanking him. 

The man soon got up and left, leaving Five alone at the diner. Agnes shuffled behind the counter, leaving briefly to go take a quick break. Five took slow sips of his coffee, each one burning his tongue. He heard the ring of bells behind him, the door shutting. He stifled a gulp, but he wasn’t scared. 

He wasn’t.

Five opened his mouth to give a smart remark, “That was a bit slower than I hoped. You’re starting to slack without me, aren’t you all?” 

The leader coughed into his fist, holding the gun towards Five’s head and not faltering for a second. “So, let's be professional about this, yeah?” He paused, seeming to not expect Five to look like a 13-year old boy. “On your feet, and come with us. They want to talk.” 

“Do they ever want to just… ‘talk’? Because the moment I step foot back into that building, you know exactly what they’ll do to me.” Five spat between his teeth, each word like poison. 

“It really doesn’t have to go like this. You think I wanna shoot a kid? Go home with that on my conscience?” Their leader shook his head, glaring down at Five. 

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m not a kid.” He takes a slow sip of coffee, “And you won’t be going home.” His fingers inched around the table, reaching the coldness of metal against them. He slid the knife into his hand. It was a butter knife, but the challenge just makes it all the more fun. 

Bullets rang out, as he shifted into a mass of blue light, he appeared behind the leader, sliding the knife across his throat, he felt an excess of warm liquid pour onto his sleeves, as he pulled away, kicked their leader’s back, he slid into the table, Five heard a loud ‘crack.’ Well, only like.. a few more to go. 

The lights flickered, bullets ringing out loudly. Five disappeared again, reappearing lying across the table. “Hey, assholes.” 

Bullets flew in his direction, but he was already gone. They were just wasting their time and their bullets at this point. His fingers curled around a metal broom, his foot pressing down on the cloth part and pulling it from the metal hastily, he jammed it into one of the men’s sides, warmth pouring onto him, the body slumped against him, blocking Five from the shower of bullets flying towards him. He jumped into the blueness again. 

One of the men felt something around their neck, he looked down curiously, but it tightened, a foot pressing against his back. He fell onto the table, and Five began to choke him until the man’s skin was pale as a piece of wood. The darkness was a sanctuary for him, as he slid under the table, grabbing a pencil from someone's receipt and spinning it in his fingertips. Two feet stepped next to the table, and this was his time to act. 

Five used all the force he could in this simple body, shoving the pencil under the man’s kneecap and prying, bullets flew to the ceiling as the man screamed in a cocktail mix of surprise and pure pain. He pulled the pencil out, not discarding it, but pushing the man's body down, and using his gun briefly to shoot the other across the room directly between the eyes.  

Five turned back to the task at hand, using the pencil to shove straight into his assaultiant’s eye, he felt blood pour against his hands. Five pushed the body down, now dead. He panted, but quickly came aware of as a few more bullets flew in his direction, he turned, quickly running towards whoever was still alive, he jumped, disappearing into that familiar blue light. 

He really needed to stop doing that, it was wearing him out a shit-ton. 

Five heard a scream as bullets rang through the restaurant, he pulled the man into a chokehold, kicking his knees out and pulling him back until he passed out. He looked up at the next target, jumping again and reappearing in front of the man’s gun. 

‘Click.’ ‘Click, click, click.’ The guy was out of bullets. Five smirked knowingly. He shoved the butt of the gun against the guy’s forehead, slipping out of reach and grabbing the gun from his hands, he raised it above his head, smashing it into the body’s head again. And again. This was getting a bit messy, he should stop. 

He held a deadpan, looking at his now finished work. He sighs, seeing the last victim from earlier, his body slumped against the floor. Five panted, shaking off the shock from earlier, he pulled his tie off of the neck of one of the men, wiping the spit and blood off of it and pulling it back around his neck. This outfit was basically ruined. He needed to change, badly. 

The last one alive groaned in pain, Five stepped over the bodies of his last victim’s pals, and still panting, wrapped his hands around his head, using a technique he learned only from the commission, and snapped his neck. He shook the liquid off his hands, wondering if he should just leave all these bodies here. Well, it's not like he could leave dragging about 8 or so bodies behind him. 

Behind him, eyes peeked over the desk, Agnes. She watched Five leave, dripping with sweat, and blood that was not his own. 

He tossed the tracker onto the ground as he exited through the front door. Five panted, his mind swirling, he hadn’t had a rush like that in a while. Now he knew exactly where he was going.

Chapter Text

Sirens wailed from far away, and Viktor brought the cup of tea to his lips, he gulped nervously.

“So, none of us have any idea where Five slipped off to?” Luther sighed, rubbing his temples.

Klaus tilted his head as he butt in, “Well, he couldn’t have gone far. He’s too… small.”

“Why are we looking for him in the first place? I’m sure he’s fine. Didn’t he tell Vanya where he was going?” Allison shrugged as she bit her tongue.

“It's Viktor.” Klaus spat back defensively, Vik looked at him with a smile. “And yes, all he said was that he was going for.. coffee? And he stole Dad’s gun.”

“He stole dad’s what?!” Luther stood up, his number one attitude coming back strong. “And you let him leave?” He turned to Viktor with a disappointed scowl.

“Well, the old man is dead, I don’t think he cares if one of us uses it.” Diego threw his bag down, seemingly just entered, and slouching into the living room couch.

“That's not the problem! The problem is what Five is going to do with it!” Number one straightened, scowling at each and every one of them, as if it was their fault.

Klaus rolled his eyes, “Calm down, he’s probably just bird-hunting or something.” nobody listened, per usual.

“What was I meant to do? I couldn’t stop him! He teleported!” Viktor said with wide eyes, he looked pale white, and quite disturbed at the thought of what Five could be doing with their father’s gun.

“Why are we worried? I carry knives 24/7, no one's worried about me killing someone..” Diego rolled his eyes, displaying nearly every sign of exhaustion.

“Well, we also don’t have to worry about your mental health. Five did kind of come back after 17- or apparently 45 years of being alone. That could really mess with someone's mind.” Allison added, it seemed like she had quickly switched to Luther’s side after hearing Diego’s explanation. “We also aren’t too worried about the fact that he might.. ‘Kill people.’ I can’t really imagine him doing that.”

Diego scoffed, assuming. “So what, you're worried he’ll kill himself? If you know Five like I do, he’s going down fighting, not with a bullet to the head.”

“Guys- Guys stop.” Viktor rubbed his head, and all eyes were on him again. “He told me he was getting coffee. I’m sure he’s fine.”

Diego got up from the couch, “If it makes you feel better, I’ll go check police files for any reports of crime near coffee shops.”

“Isn’t that.. illegal?” Allison tilted her head.

“Isn’t dating your brother illegal too? No ones stopping you from that.” Number two said as he stormed out, throwing his bag back over his shoulder. Allison and Luther looked quite stunned, Klaus shrugged, taking another sip of his chocolate milk, Viktor looked mortified that he even started his conversation in the first place.

“Did Vik mention, we kinda found blood around his room.”

“You found what?!” Luther and Allison turned to him with wide eyes.

Chapter Text

The door of Five’s room clicked open, he could hear people chatting downstairs, and then someone rushing up the stairs quickly.. a few someones actually. Oh shit. They were coming up to see him. He shoved the door closed, and heard a few whispers outside his door. 

“Five? Are you in there buddy?” A knock sounded on his door. “Are you decent?” 

“No, I am not.” He quickly grabbed a towel, desperately trying to wipe the specks of blood off his face. Shit, they’re dried.  

“Five, let us in.” Five could practically hear Luther rolling his eyes on the other side of the door. “Five.” 

“Give me a second-“ He scrubbed the blood off his hands with his nails, but it only left him red and pink. His knees and shoulders were bruised, and if he used his power one more time he thought he would lose his lunch… except the fact that he hasn’t eaten anything in about three days.

The door opens despite his protests, and he turns around and stares at them with a deadpan and furrowed eyebrows. 

Allison has her hands over her mouth, Viktor is standing on his tip-toes, trying to see over Klaus’s shoulder, and Luther is just standing with his hand on the door handle.

“You broke my lock.” Five said, scowling. 

“What the hell did you do?!” Luther pushed past the others and into Five’s room. “Is that blood?” he points to Five’s hands. “Of course it is.” He held his hand out. “Gun, now.” 

“Actually, sorry to disappoint, but I need it.” Five said as he tried to wipe his face off using some alcohol he stole from the bar.

Luther scowled, pushing Five against the wall with a lot more force than he expected, it rattled Five’s bones and it felt like his brain was spinning. 

“I said, gun, now.” 

Five shrugged, “Sorry, big guy. I don’t have it.” he said in all honesty, staring up with half-closed eyes.

Viktor tried his best to pull Luther’s arms away, “Luther- just ask him what happened- you don’t need to hurt him!” 

“I’m fine, Vik.” The smallest shook his head, kneeing Luther in the stomach harshly, number one grunted softly. Five disappeared into a ring of blue, reappearing behind Viktor and Luther. “I had to take care of some old associates. Don’t worry. You won’t get hurt as long as you listen to me very closely.” 

Luther looked at him, fuming. But all eyes were on him. 

“The apocalypse happens in 7 days. You think you guys can handle being with each other for a few days? Cause we need to work together on this.” Five hums, grabbing the rag back off his desk and wiping the remaining blood off his cheek, and scraping it out of his nails.

Viktor gulped, “Five.. I think I speak for everyone when I say.. You need help-“ 

“I saw it. Vik. With my own two eyes.” He stepped towards his brother defensively. “You're dead. All of you are dead.” He began to raise his voice. “You can either listen to me, or you can suffer your fate. But I am going out there to stop it, and you..” He shook his head aggressively, looking at each of his siblings. “You can help me, but you will not stop me.” 

Viktor felt shivers down his spine at the threat, Luther still had a scowl, Allison stood frozen, and Klaus leaned against the doorframe with raised eyebrows, as Five disappeared into that familiar blue haze. 

“So.. we're gonna talk about what just.. happened?” Klaus broke the silence, and Allison sighed? rubbing her head and just leaving, Luther followed, clearly distressed. Viktor looked him in the eye. 

Vik kept a frown, “Can you help me clean this up?” he glanced over at Five’s desk. “I’m going to see if I can look for him.” 

Klaus was fine with helping, so he gave Vik a quick pat on his head and then went over to Five’s desk. 

“Viktor, I don’t think it's safe for you to be near Five at the moment.” Luther placed a hand on Vik’s shoulder, “He’s… clearly not doing so well. I don’t want him to hurt you.” 

“He’s my brother. He’s our brother. Did you forget that?” He pulled his shoulder away from his brother’s grasp. “I’m sorry- Luther.. but I can’t risk Five getting hurt or worse just because we were scared of some words he said.”

Allison shook her head, agreeing with Luther. “It's not just words, Viktor! He came home, and we caught him red-handed, quite literally.” 

“..Allison, Luther.. I get your concern but I’m not a baby. I can take care of myself. Five would never, ever hurt me.” Viktor turned towards the hallway, “It may have been 17 years for us, but I still believe in him. You should too, we owe it to him after all he’s been through. He’s one of us, after all.” Luther raised a hand to stop Vik from leaving. but Allison pushed Number one’s hand away, letting Viktor be free to leave..

                        >>><<<

Five nearly puked from that last jump, he heavied into the alleyway, his bruised knees stinging against the cold cement. His palms were bleeding from the sharp rocks beneath him. He sighed, straightening his back and pulling up his tie. Was he going to continue casually after that without a single speck of remorse? Yes. Did he feel like puking again? Also yes. But his feelings didn’t really matter when there were barely 7 days left until the apocalypse. 

He stomped his feet, trying to get the gum off the bottom of his shoe. Five took deep breaths, taking a pencil he found in the alley and stabbing the gum, scraping it from his soles uselessly. He feels like he isn’t alone, but when he glances over his shoulders, no ones there. 

Almost like the ghost of a memory, perhaps. 

Five shivered briefly, he didn’t have time for this. 7 days was all he had. 7 days to fix all this shit, and somehow not go insane in the process. The first step to that was getting some new clothes on him. He probably stinks worse than Luther at this time, his clothes caked in a layer of cracked, dried blood, along with some faded drips down his neck and onto the collar. He really wished he hadn’t been so messy with his job sometimes, but that just happens. He gets trapped in the moment, he really, in all honesty, felt addicted to the rush of a fight. It really didn’t matter the aftermath. 

Chapter Text

Diego stifled a sharp gasp when he saw the scene for the first time, it was like straight out of a horror movie. Sure, he and his siblings had seen shit like this before- maybe even they’ve left scenes like this after their work was finished, but something about.. “They all shot each other.” felt so.. off. . 

“So, what happened here?” The other detective asked curiously.

“That's what I’m trying to find out.” One of the detectives looks over her shoulder. She crossed her arms. “A once in a blue-moon situation. Same gun on every victim, all in fours..” Eudora added,. “Even all the casings are the same.. .223s.” She almost sounded impressed.

“Soo.. these guys..“ He held a hand to block his face from the blue-and-red flashing lights. 

“I think these idiots all shot each other.” She said with an exhausted smile. It really didn’t make much sense, but thats exactly what the evidence pointed to. Why would a bunch of guys, same uniforms, same equipment, clearly from the same side, shoot each other?

“And stabbed.” Her partner added. “One throat slit, one in the side with the metal handle of a… mop.” Her partner narrowed his eyes, “And.. another in the kneecap and the eye-“ He shuffled cautiously, “This guy over here got his neck snapped, last one alive seeing as his body was still a bit warm when we arrived.” He added a voluntary shrug, “Quick and efficient kills. These guys definitely were professionals.”

“A mop, really?” Eudora asked curiously, tilting her head at the last victim’s mangled body, his neck twisted quite a bit farther than it was supposed to go. “Who called in?” Her partner pointed to the trembling woman in the corner, her head in her hands. An older waitress with blond hair and warm eyes. Too innocent to be at a scene like this. “Poor girl, that's lousy luck.” 

The detective made her way over to the woman, kneeling next to the table and meeting her eyes softly, “Ma’am? I’m Detective Patch..” 

“I’m-“ Her voice was shaky, “Anges, Anges Rofa..” 

“Is it alright if I sit down with you and ask you some questions about what happened?” She asked, making sure she wasn’t spooking her only witness. Agnes nodded reluctantly, her eyes to the ground as if she was scared to look up. 

“..It started as a slow night- Quiet.. empty. Some days we don’t get many customers.” She looked down at her hands, “I remember- This customer- and this kid..He- made it clear that the two hadn’t come in together. I doubt they knew each other.” 

Eudora listened patiently. 

“The man ordered a donut- no- no.. that's not right.. he ordered an eclair, and the kid had a coffee- black.” She held back tears, but they came despite her desperate tries and welled in her eyes. “I went into the back to count the bills..” Agnes looked to the window, seemingly reliving the scene in her head. “I heard the man’s truck start up- and I assumed the kid left with him..But I came out- I heard- shots.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve, and Eudora nodded, holding Agnes’s hand in her own. 

“I dropped my keys- the ones to the back room, and I hid behind the counter.. I heard so many- Screams.. By the time I looked back up- the kid.. from earlier- the one who ordered the coffee..” 

The detective furrowed her eyebrows. She's saying one singular kid killed all of these men, men with fully loaded guns, and bulletproof vests, without extra help ? Eudora was used to dealing with people who are experiencing trauma from the things they’ve seen- but.. deep down she could feel that Agnes was telling the truth. 

“The kid what?” 

“I heard a snap!” She stuttered, terrified. “I looked over and the kid had his hands around someone's neck- I panicked!” Agnes clutched Eudora’s hands tightly.. 

“..Do you remember hearing any bells- did someone enter.. or.. take the kid?” 

“No, not that I’m aware of.” Agnes shook her head.

“Can you describe them for me? The man and the kid?” 

She nodded softly, her eyes drenched in a layer of fear. “The man.. he was older, maybe in his forties, he had a white beard.. and I remember him his jacket- it had a towing company logo-“ She gulped as she thought about the other,  “..The kid had black hair, it was neat.. he was a bit pale in the light of the store.. I don’t really remember his eyes, but he had a nice smile.. He wore some kind of uniform..” 

“Uniform? Can you draw the logo for me?” 

Agnes nodded, taking the piece of paper she handed to her.. “I really do not mean to be rude- because you sure are a very sweet woman- but do I have to go through all of this again?” 

Eudora raised an eyebrow, already having her suspicions, “Again?” 

-

“Eudora! Let me explain-“ she decked him across the face, it felt personal. 

“You do not, under any circumstances, talk to my witnesses, is that clear?” She pulled him back up by the collar. “Do not call me that- No!” 

“Right, Patch. Did we really agree to keep things professional?” He wiped the blood from his new-busted lip. 

“We never agreed on anything.” She shook her head, taking him aggressively by the arm.

“Now I wouldn’t say that was true- we agreed on many things-“ He tried to convince as he patted him down. 

“This..” She waved around the walkie. “Is mine.” 

Diego shrugged. “That's fine, military surplus is practically giving them away for free.” He smiled back down at the woman, as she sent her hands back into his pockets.

“You can keep whatever the hell is in there.” She sneered, pulling her hands out and gripping his arm again. 

“Listen, I have a feeling that this isn’t just a huge botched robbery-“ 

“In your very professional opinion.” Eudora interrupted, glancing up at him.

“My gut is telling me something is really wrong here. You should listen to my gut.” He grunted as she shoved him against the hood of the police car, shaking her head. “The waitress- she told me the eclair guy was working for some towing company..” 

“Diego, I couldn’t give less of a shit about the tow truck guy. I am looking for that kid.” 

“Kid? What kid?” Diego looked back up at her in rebellion. “I didn’t hear her say shit about some kid!” maybe his new baby brother had been involved anyhow- but there was no way.. he couldn’t do this. Diego couldn’t have done something like this, and he and Five were taught the same techniques. 

“She drew me the logo.” Eudora added, but she didn’t know why she was giving Diego all this information, she knew she shouldn’t be. “Look familiar?” she handed him the paper despite her mind begging her not to. On the paper was a drawing of a badge of some sort, Diego looked intrigued, but recognized it immediately. Eudora pulled it back, seeing one of the officers eyeing her. 

“I’m sorry Diego,” She opened the door to the police car, letting Diego find his own way inside. “You can’t keep acting like you're a part of this, you aren’t police. You really can’t, not anymore.”

“Eudora- I can help you! I know where thats from!” He begged, “L need this case- pleas-'' The car door shut in his face. He sighed. 

“Lord, you test me.” She left Diego stranded in the cop car, not sparing him a single second glance. She wondered what he truly knew about this all

Chapter Text

“Family fucking meeting!”

Diego’s voice rang through the house, as Klaus laid helplessly in Five’s bed, if his smaller brother had seen him now, he thinks the little guy would kill him. Fivety Five was a huge germaphobe when it came to someone touching his bed. Klaus didn’t take it personally.. 

“Yes you do.” The annoying fucker shook his head in the doorway, disapproving. “Are you going to get a lecture from Mr.Walmart Batman or what?” Ben scoffed, his arms crossed.

“Ugh.. I am wayyy too tired to sit through his ‘teamwork’ garbage after scrubbing all that blood off of the Little Cloud of Sunshine’s desk.” 

“Little Cloud of Sunshine? That's a new one. One that Five would surely appreciate.” Ben rolled his eyes sarcastically, “C’mon, get down there before one of them has to carry you like a toddler.” 

Klaus groaned, clearly unbothered. “What if I want them too? My legs are clearly gone, they’re jello.” He wiggled his toes and Ben sighed in disgust and annoyance. 

“Well, a very angry latex man is coming up to grab you.” Ben stifled a laugh, as Diego phased through the ghost  angrily. 

“Family meeting, Pinkie Pie.” He knocked on Five’s door, seeing Klaus laying like a dead body across Five’s bed. Klaus wondered what got Diego so angry, maybe his little detective girlfriend broke up with him again.

Klaus rolled his eyes and glowered, holding his hands up in mock surrender, “Okay- Okay..” He pushed up from Five’s strangely soft and cloudlike bed and let his apparently jello legs wobble across the floor, following Diego down the hall and finally making his way downstairs. 

“Diego, we have news.” Luther’s voice came from inside the living room, and Klaus stumbled into the room and leaned against the couch. 

“Well yeah, pal? I have some news too!” Number two replied with a familiar scowl, stomping his foot as he paced. “I just came back from a murder scene, and almost a full night in jail- our dear sister, Allison, was nice enough to bail me out.” he rubbed his forehead, “And guess what they found on one of the murder weapons?” 

“Please don’t tell me-..” Viktor began, but was hushed by the gasps that came from the rest of them. They all assumed the worst.

“An unsolved case from 1938.. let's just take a small guess as to who would practically be crawling all over that shit?” Diego spat, anger filling his tone. “Let me give you a hint, he’s really a full on ball of sunshine, all the time.” 

They all knew who he was talking about, even without the small sarcastic hint. But Klaus opened his mouth curiously, “But I thought you didn’t believe in the shortstack’s time-traveling shenanigans?” 

“Yeah, well, I never believed him until now. He basically liquidated a bunch of dangerous criminals!” Number two stomped his foot like an emotional toddler, even without the tears he still looked like one as well. 

Viktor shook his head, “Listen- everyone.” The whispers quieted, “I’m sure there's an explanation for all of this! We just need to find Five- again..” 

Diego bit his lip as to hold back another shout, he asked passive-aggressively, “Again? You guys lost him, again?!” He said with an angry smile, “Fuck.” 

“That's what I’ve been trying to tell you, we broke the lock on his door, and there he was, there was blood- everywhere.” Luther rubbed his temples, glancing up at Diego briefly. “We don’t know where the hell he could’ve gone!”

Allison looked incredibly confused. “Soo, just a recap. Our somehow 58 year old brother, trapped in a 13 year old boy’s body, who is apparently murderous, and unstable, has disappeared and you guys can’t seem to find any trace of him?” 

“That sounds about right.” Viktor held down a gulp, hearing it like that was very.. interesting to say the least.

Number three steadied her breaths, “Well, we might as well be shooting ourselves in the foot here.. If we look for him, he may go into further hiding, if we don’t, he may do something we will all regret.”

“We can’t let him walk around, armed. It's not a regular sight to see someone who looks like he hopped out of the nineties with some sort of weapon.” 

Silence filled the room, Viktor cleared his throat, “Are you talking about Five or Klaus?” he sounded like he was seriously asking, and Allison stifled a laugh, and Klaus looked offended and proud at the same time. 

“Fi-Five..” Luther spat between curled lips, almost chuckling himself. Viktor’s phone lit up, it rested on the bar, and Klaus tossed it to Vik from across the room. Viktor smiled as he caught it, checking the text.

“Hey, guys..I need to go. I have some lessons planned that I totally forgot about.” 

“Can’t it wait?” Diego huffed, seeing Vik’s sudden anticipation to leave.

“I’ve been pushing it off for weeks, I really can’t keep-“ He reminded himself that he didn’t need to be explaining his every emotion and act to his family, “I just need to go.” 

They eventually let him off the hook, and he took his coat, pulling it over his shoulders and leaving. The text was, in truth, from one of his most recent new violin-learners, a young man that probably was the worst player Vik had ever heard.. affectionately. He was sparky and lovable. He couldn’t wait to see him again. 

Chapter Text

Viktor shoved the key into the lock, expecting the girl to already be waiting outside his door, but that was fine, he needed to clean up his apartment anyway. He jumped at two eyes in the shadows that watched him. They narrowed. Viktor’s breaths slowed and his heartbeat ran back at a normal pace when he flickered on the lights. 

“Oh, thank god.” He put a hand on his chest when he saw his brother, Five, standing in new clothes, with his hands in his pockets and his familiar deadpan. 

“You should really install locks on your windows.” He said, turning his back to Viktor.

“I live on the second floor..” Vik replies hesitantly, placing his keys onto the shelf.

Five shrugged, “Rapists can climb.” 

Viktor sighed deeply, “Five, where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you-“ 

“Viktor. I’ve decided that you’re the only one I can possibly trust.” He leaned his head against the window, but quickly pulled back and shut the blinds as he looked back at Vik, scowling lightly. 

“W-“ He gulps, stuttering slightly, “Why me..?” 

Five only shakes his head slowly, it was clear he would not give Viktor the answers he longed for. “I’ve helped myself to your medicine cabinet, if you don’t mind.” 

“Whatever you need, Five- just- can you tell me what happened?” 

Five sighs, frowning briefly as he walked over to Viktor’s coffee table and rolled up his sleeve, truthfully, he hadn’t put new bandages on, nor checked the wound since he got it. If it got infected, it was deep enough to take off his arm. Five didn’t mind all too much, he was far too busy for simple tasks, but he knew Viktor would only work with him if he was taking proper care of himself. 

“I got into a rough run-in with some old associates of mine.” 

“Associates? Like during your time in the apocalypse? Five, I thought you were alone...” 

“..Not the entirety of it. The last 14 or so years I worked with a woman, she goes by.. ‘The Handler.’ I was formally working under the commission, but I preferred to stay primarily under her command.“ He winced as he pulled away the gauze from the wound, it leaked liquid. Oh shit. He sighed, the infection wasn’t fatal at this stage, it would just scar far more unless he stitched it, and Five really did not have the patience nor materials to stitch his arm up on his brother’s coffee table. 

“..Did they put that tracker in your arm?” Viktor looked at the wound with a certain disgust. It was expected of someone like Vik himself, but it really did not help Five’s issue.

Five looked up at Vik, with a smile curling on the sides of his lips, “I’ve always liked how smart you are, Viktor.” He paused, “Yes, they did embed a tracker in me. Like they had most of their prized assassins..” He rolled his eyes, clearly done answering questions, he left his wound out to dry for a moment as jumped into the kitchen in a quick blue spark. He shifted through Viktor’s alcohol cabinet, grabbing the first thing he saw, “Whiskey enjoyer, are we?” 

“Wha- You’re a prized assassin? I’m sorry Five- I’m not sure I understand-“ 

Five spun open the cap to the bottle with his bare hands, and took a quick sip. 

“I really do not think it's legal for you to be drinking that.” 

He rolled his eyes at Viktor’s remarks, as his brother tried to grab the bottle out of his clutches. “You sound just like Delores-“ 

“-Five! Who is Delores? Who is the handler- Look at me!.” 

“A bit busy here, Viktor.” He laid out a rag he had remaining in his pocket, pouring some of the whiskey into the wound, he hung his head back. 

“Oh my god, Five! I don’t think you're meant to pour- That..  into an open wound-“

“I’m not? Well, then. I should probably be dead right about now.” Five spat sarcastically in Vik’s direction, “This is what happens when you don’t clean your wounds.” He hissed.

“Are you okay?” 

“What?” He coughed into his hand, “Yes, I’m Fine, what makes you ask?” 

Viktor sighed as if it was hopeless to even explain, he rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You never explained why you trust me more than the rest of our family apparently.” 

“It's complicated, Vik. You know if I could explain it, I would.”

Viktor swallowed harshly. “Just tell me what happened- all you said is that you met some associates.. what does that mean?” 

Vik’s question was met with a sigh, “Yesterday, as we all know, I traveled back in time, which did happen to anger the people I’m employed to.. quite a bit. They want me back. I don’t want to go back.” Five looked up at his brother with a hint of fear and uncertainty. He looked clearly uncomfortable whilst talking about this specific topic. 

“So- so you killed them?” 

“Rest is history.” Five replied with his token grin, taking another sip of whiskey from the bottle, as he began to rewrap the wound. “I have something to share with you, Vik.” Viktor looked quite a bit frightened by Five’s sudden seriousness, as he turned his head towards him. 

“I have been through all this before.” He pulled down his sleeve, fishing a brown rag out of his pocket, it was torn and ripped, stained with who knows what, but Five peeled back the layers, pulling out a literal eyeball.

Viktor jumped at the sight, “What the fuck?!” 

“It's a prosthetic.” He twirled it in his fingers, not noticing Viktor’s sudden aversion, since his brother thought it was real. “I found it in Luther’s hands. Ripped right out of the socket.” he said it as if it was just a normal conversation.

“Luther? What do you mean? You saw us in the future?”

His head whipped around towards his brother, “Like I said before..” He snapped, “I saw your bodies. All except my own. I buried you.” 

“Five- what do you mean- you’ve been through all this before?”

He sighed, he would rather wait than cause the apocalypse 5 days early, but he had to feed Viktor something. “I know what causes the apocalypse.. or who for that matter.” 

“…Who?” 

Five poked Viktor in the middle of the chest. “ You .”

Chapter Text

“My damn wrist is killing me, couldn’t they have made this thing into a backpack or something?” The man groaned, and whatever was in his briefcase clanked as he dropped it to the floor. His partner, looking at him in disappointment, shook her head.

“What the hell are you doing?” She asked as he unscrewed the vent in their motel room, shoving the briefcase into it. 

“It's not like we’re going to use it while we’re doing the job anyway..”

She huffed, “It’s against protocol, we have to have it on us at all times!” his partner rolled her eyes, digging her hands back into the box full of weapons and files. 

“A rule written by a bureaucrat who never had to carry one..” He spat back, screwing back on the vent with his fingers alone. “They can shove that damn protocol up their asses.” his partner shook her head, pulling out a photo from one of the files, an old man with a familiar face. 

“We’re never been after one of our own before..” She bit tongue, showing the photo to the man. 

He huffed, shaking his head and rubbing his temples. “It's such an honor to go after one of the legends.” he leaned back on the bed. 

“You hear what happened to the first guys?” She looked over, a bit intrigued. 

He shrugged, “Liq-ui-da-ted.” He elongated the word, to emphasize it. 

“Dummy local hires, never doing their job right..” She put the photo down, picking up a small device with a green screen, it blinked a little red dot.

“You get what you pay for..”

She looked back over at him, “You think his tracker is still at the scene or what?” 

“If he was smart, he would’ve cut it out by now.” His partner added.

The woman smirked, shrugging in his direction. “Let's check it out, maybe we’ll get to see how really liquidated these motherfuckers are. Get a look at what we’re dealing with.” 

He corrected, “Who we’re dealing with.” 

“I’d say he’s much more of a what than a who. Some of the most famous missions ever were completed by this guy.” 

Her partner looked at the photo again, “Him? Really? He looks like he’d hit you with his cane and then talk about math for three hours.” 

She chuckled amusedly, “Sounds pretty accurate to Number-Five’s description..” 

“Wait- we got a description? Let me see.” It wasn’t often they got to hear about their target, and whenever they did, it was usually so vague that it was funny.

Chapter Text

“What is the plan?” Number two rubbed his eyes, baring his teeth slightly as he asked his sister.

“Why would I know the plan? Ask Luther.” Allison rolled her eyes, clenching her fists and pushing Diego in the side. 

Luther seemed exhausted, he sighed, already sick of their antics, “What plan? What the hell do we need a plan for?” 

“To ask Five what's going on, we need to trap him long enough so that he doesn’t do his little jumpy thingy!” Diego waved his hands around, as if it was obvious. 

“Sounds like a good-enough plan to me.” Klaus added as he took a sip of his lemonade, “Oh, dear Mom! This is amazing.” He patted their mother on the shoulder, she replied with her familiar kind smile.

“So how do we trap him then?” Allison turned to Diego, who glared at her, “What? You seem to have this figured out.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’ll just take his job then.” He glanced at Luther, who shook his head in warning.

Klaus clapped, amusedly, “Oh, fabulous! Number one Diego.” he took another sip of the lemonade as he laid across the couch. 

Luther admitted, “Okay, I get it, I haven’t been the best leader recently.” 

Allison met his eye, awkwardly coughing into her hand, “You haven’t been a leader at all recently.” 

“Who says we need you to lead us?” Diego asked passive-aggressively, as if he had this all figured out to a T. 

Luther huffed, “Well you sounded like you wanted me to do everything for you-“ 

“No, I just asked what your plan was.” Diego interrupted, incorrectly.

Klaus shook his head, “No, no- Latex man, you said the plan.” 

“Klaus, whose side are you on?!” Allison asked with a small smile, kicking him light-heartedly in the shoulder with her foot.

“I don’t do sides, I’m Sweden- is it Sweden? Is that the continent?” Number four barked out a laugh, seeming to ask the air if he was correct. 

Viktor peeked in from the doorway, “Sweden is not a continent.” All heads turned towards him. “Also, I solved the ‘Let's trap Five.’ problem, he’s at my place.”

“You left him there? Alone ?” This seemed to catch Diego’s attention, and he looked quite angry despite Viktor’s success.

Viktor stifled his nervousness. “Yeah, well- uhm.. he’s asleep so..” 

“Please tell me you got photos.” Allison asked, tipping her wine glass towards Vik.

 Klaus nodded vigorously. “Send them to me too!” He added.

“Everyone get in the car now.” Luther pushed past Viktor, and the rest of the family followed him, leaving Vik alone in the room with their mother. 

She waved at him, Viktor offered a smile and waved back warmly, then turned and followed the crowd out the door. There was little chance they’d all fit in the car, but they could certainly try. 

Luther pushed into the backseat, and the car cranked and bent under his weight, Vik sat in the front seat, with Allison in the passenger seat, and Diego and Klaus somehow fitting next to Luther in the back. 

“Get off of me- You're on my knives!” Diego screeched, and the back seats were too squished to even tell who he was screaming at, Klaus wiggled through, laying his legs across Diego and Luther, much to their protests, but it gave them a bit more room to scoot around. 

“When we’re out of this, I’m gonna beat your ass!” Number two smacked his brother in the arm, yet again, and Klaus kicked his feet against Viktor’s seat  Luther just sat in the back like a depressed teenager. 

“Hey- If you wanted to so badly, just ask before touching my nipples!” Klaus screamed again, “Hands off the merchandise!” He grabbed Diego’s hand, and Viktor looked to Allison, who smiled in pain and rubbed her temples. 

Allie had enough, and finally snapped, turning towards the boys in the back. “I heard a rumor..” She paused, “—That you put your fucking seatbelts on!” 

Chapter Text

Five shook himself awake, his mind spinning like those stupid teacup rides. He reached for the coffee table to hang on to, but his hands began to cramp. He grimaced, wincing briefly as he flexed his hand, hoping for some of the pain to subside. Somehow, during his nap, he ended up on Viktor’s apartment floor, the carpet the only thing keeping him from basically freezing.

He shivered, flipping himself onto his stomach painfully and using his elbows to push himself up, how was he hung over? He doesn’t even remember drinking last night.. He looked at the coffee table, two bottles of whiskey. Oh. 

Five was in his brother’s apartment.. he remembers- god, he hadn’t slept in days, it felt wonderful. He almost wished he hadn’t woken up. He finally got himself to stand, and grabbed the jacket that was laid across the couch, it was Vik’s, but it would do. He pulled it over his usual schoolboy uniform, and went to go see if Viktor was awake. 

He stumbled briefly down the hall, his head remained spinning, and he started to see blurry black dots clouding his vision. He gulped, narrowing his eyes and using the wall to guide him. Vik’s door was open. He pushed it, and it revealed his brother’s messy room, blankets thrown onto his bed carelessly. It all smelt like Vik. 

He wanted nothing more than to jump in and sleep for the rest of his life, but he couldn’t. What if Viktor had found the gun? He had stored their father’s gun in Vik’s apartment for the time that her student came by. What if he already had? What if.. Five was too late? 

No, he couldn’t think like that. He spun around, speeding into the kitchen despite his dizzy vision. Five opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out every pill bottle, tylenol, advil, the usual, and slammed them on the counter. He didn’t know how Vik reached up there, seeing as Five himself, (who is a bit taller than his brother,) could barely reach the back of the cabinet. His fingers met cold metal, and he slid the gun into his hands, stuffing the bottles back in there. Good .

He shut a window, stuffing the gun into Vik’s fluffy thick coat’s inside pocket. He made sure he wouldn’t accidentally shoot himself in the rib. Maybe Vik had gone with Leonard after all. Five promises himself that if that was true he’d simply kill both Viktor and the man.. and he really did not want to kill Viktor. 

Like, really , really did not. 

His hand tightened around the doorknob, but he pulled away as it twisted by itself, the jingling of keys. Shit! He ducked back down the hall and into Vik’s room, shutting the door. He really needed to stuff his face with calories if he wanted to jump out of here and not pass out immediately. He prayed to whatever higher power there was- (if there was one-) that whoever was entering the apartment was not Vik or his siblings. 

Well, someone answered his prayers, because he was met with the eyes of Leonard Peabody. 

They widened when they saw him, and Five slowly drew his father’s gun from the pocket on the inside of the jacket. He didn’t let Leonard see it, but it would come out if the man stepped a single foot towards him. 

“Oh! Hey there!” Leonard threw on a smile, not noticing Five’s defensive attitude. “You’re Vanya’s brother right?” 

“..No.” Five spat. “I’m Viktor’s brother.” 

“Oh! Yeah- right.” He laughed it off, but Five did not take it so lightly. No one disrespected Five’s baby brother, especially him . “My apologies.”

He coughed into his hand, “So, why did you break into my brother’s apartment?” 

“Sh- He gave me a key.” He waved it around. “I wanted to leave him some flowers, so he knows I appreciate him.” he chuckled lightly, “Wow! I was not expecting to meet the famous Five today!” 

“..Oh. Yeah.” He kept his smiles light, just the edges of his lips curling a bit. Five crept closer to Leonard as he set the flowers on the table, slowly drawing his gun. 

Both heads turned immediately towards the door as it opened, Luther’s face was the first to be seen in the doorway. Five stuffed the gun back into his pocket. 

The rest of the door opened, and Klaus skipped in like a sugary child, “Hey sunshine!” He began to wrap Five in a big hug, but pulled back at the sight of the stranger. 

Viktor perked up when he saw Leonard. “Oh! Hi.. Leo. I wasn’t expecting you to stop by so early-“ he stepped back lightly, “Are those for me..?” He looked at the flowers.

“Oh, the surprise has been ruined! Agh..” He smiled, taking Vik’s hands. 

The rest of the family’s eyes were on Five, Luther had a distinct glare, Allison looked a bit amused at the sight of him, Klaus grinned from ear to ear, and Diego looked like he was about to punch Five’s teeth out. 

Allison was the first to move, hands clasping Viktor’s shoulders. “Whose this, Vik?” 

“Oh.. This is Leonard, he's one of my students.” All heads whipped towards Leonard, each one with a very different expression. Five’s said silently.. ‘If you even touch her, I will rip every cell of skin off your body and then leave you in a gutter for the rats to eat.’ he meant it.

“Bringing you flowers? Is that a normal thing that students do for their teachers..?” Allie asked seductively, as she teased the two of them. Five did not let his glare subside. 

Leonard chuckled, “Oh- Oh my! It’s great to finally put names to a face- although I think every person in the city knows your faces..” He added an unnecessary and quite uncomfortable laugh to the end. Almost as though he was threatening them. What was he doing? There were sev-.. Six of them and one of him. 

“Oh yeah, we’re a bit.. famous.” Klaus waved his hands, “But nobody recognizes us now, we’re sooo.. old.” he seemed to also notice was something off about him. 

“I would really like to get your autographs or something.. this is so coo-“ Leonard looked like a child on Christmas. 

“Hey, it's been nice getting to meet you- But we need to talk.. Just family.” Luther interrupted whatever conversation they were having, and Viktor looked a bit sad as Leonard nodded, smiling one last time at them all and exiting through the front door. For once, Five actually appreciated the stoic-intimidation factor of Luther’s size. 

But he prepared himself for a very interesting morning. 

The door shut, and he was alone again. Except for the five family members staring him down like he was the last slice of pizza.

Allison, being the most emotionally mature, sighed, and opened her mouth, but was interrupted by Five flicking into a blue light, and appearing next to Viktor's coffee machine. The machine made a funny noise, as he poked buttons.

“What are you doing, Five?”

The boy in question looked over his shoulder, with a big sarcastic grin. “Something illegal, obviously.” he huffed, “From the way you’re looking at me, it's as if I’m some kind of criminal.”

Diego pushed past his siblings, pointing a finger in Five’s face. “That's because you are. I know what you did.” number two sounded a bit threatening, but Five remained unphased.

“Sorry, you’ll have to be a bit more specific?” He stole a mug from Viktor, filling it up with coffee. “I’ve done quite a few things people like you would describe as.. ‘Immoral..’ or, ‘Against human rights.’ in the past few years.” 

“You killed those men.. At Griddy’s.”

He froze, looking towards Diego. That's not what is supposed to happen, not at all. “Wait a minute- You’re not supposed to know it was me.” 

“Yeah? Well, fortunately some nice old waitress was there to watch you snap some guy’s neck!” 

“Shit. That is not how this is supposed to go.” Five looked down, shaking his head, Luther narrowed his eyes. 

“Are you wearing my coat?” Viktor asked, almost warmly.

He sighed, not answering, and leaning against the counter, deep in thought. “Right.. well I didn’t have time to explain this before but-“ He took a breath. “The apocalypse is in 6 days, as I've said already. Although I have shared what I deem ultimately necessary, there are some things you you don’t know of..” Five gulped, preparing, “I’ve already lived through this all before.” 

“What are you on about?” Allison narrowed her eyes at him. 

“This..” He signaled to everything around them. “It's already happened. I’ve already lived through this exact situation, but this time.. something has changed.” He grinded his teeth together. “Agnes was meant to go into the back to grab more change..  but since he gave her a tip-“ Five sighed. “She didn’t need to. There was no reason she needed to go into the backroom. Therefore- she saw everything.” He looked furious, stomping his foot and almost spilling his coffee. “This isn’t good. This is really not good.” Viktor could see the fear shining slightly in his brother’s eyes. He had never seen Five so afraid before.

Diego placed a hand on his chest forcefully “What's not good is that you killed a bunch of innocent men, I don’t know about you- Five, but The Umbrella Academy doesn't do that. We don’t kill innocents.” 

Five put a hand in front of Diego, telling him to shut it. He turned towards the window. “All of you need to get down, now, away from the windows..” He shouted, drawing his gun from the coat pocket.

Klaus immediately dropped to the floor like an obedient toddler, but Luther tensed up at the command, as well as seeing the gun, he wasn’t used to being told what to do. Viktor looked around at his siblings, but then was pulled down to the floor by Klaus, Allison glanced at Luther, not wanting to oblige. Diego also remained rebellious. “What's happening? What did you do now?!” Number two snapped, and Five groaned, pulling him down to the floor by the collar. 

“Stay still-“ He threw Vik’s coffee cup at the glass window, then blinked over to the other and kicked it until it shattered it as well. His siblings watched him like he was insane, but Five knew what he was doing. The glass wouldn’t stop the bullets, there was no use for it, if Cha-Cha or Hazel shot out the windows, there would be glass flying right into his family’s eyes, and Five did not want to have to lug around a bunch of glass wounded siblings of his during their escape.

Without warning, the sound of gunshots rang through the apartment, bullets embedding themselves in the furthest wall.. Five could feel Diego’s heartbeat quicken against his own chest. Allison and Luther pressed themselves against the floor as well, Five was unsure if they were harmed by their slowness to listen to Five’s commands, but he doubted they were unscathed.

Five pulled himself up, leaning against the wall, waiting for the bullets to subside, his attackers needed to reload at some point. 

They stopped, the ringing in Five’s ears fading slightly. “Get- Go! Get out!” He yelled, more serious as he’s ever been. Allison threw a hand over Viktor’s shoulder, and crouched down low. They were all trained for situations like this, except Vik. Although the rest of them didn’t have guns, they had the ability to protect their youngest brother. 

Five took the opportunity as the enemies reloaded to look out through the window, narrowing his eyes to help him see farther. It was dark out, light peaking through the buildings, that was a shame, his eyes were much more adjusted to the darkness than the light. 

He took the moment to begin shooting back, although he had to be careful, he didn’t grab this gun for a shootout, he grabbed it for the chance to kill Leonard. But it turns out it was his best bet at the moment. As he aimed and shot carefully, he backed against the wall, crouching down next to Allison and Vik, and then opening the door for them, Klaus army-crawled across the floor quickly, he grabbed Five’s hand as he helped him up. The bullets began again, and it appeared that a bullet had embedded itself in Viktor’s arm. 

“Get him out of here!” Five commanded as he sent warning shots back their direction, he guessed that the twins were hanging out somewhere in the apartment across from Viktor’s, Hazel & Cha-Cha were some of the best, but they were like children compared to Five. There was a high chance they would escape this alive, but.. unhurt? Out of the question.

He stumbled back at a quick and painful slice in the side of his abdomen, and Five threw himself against the wall, he felt the warm, stingy blood cling to the inside of his clothes, it was only a graze, he would be fine. 

Eventually their attackers ran out of bullets again, and as they did, Five followed the rest of his siblings out the door, ushering them down the stairs as he reloaded his own. 

Luther’s voice called above all, “To the car, go!” he shouted, pulling Viktor into a hug that quickly turned into a carry, he reached his hands under Vik’s legs and pulled him up. The rest of them ran just fine down the stairs. 

Five couldn’t explain the boiling hatred he felt for Cha-Cha and Hazel at the moment, he swore in his mind those two would get what they deserved-.. but , he remembers.. In 1963, Hazel saved his ass. Five couldn’t risk harming the timeline even more, so, Cha-Cha would be the one paying for their crimes.

The bullets slowly became a bit quieter as they poured out onto the street, the two assassins following Five were ballsy, but their job was to kill Five, not shoot aimlessly into the street, so they were safe as they poured into the car.

Five hopped into the passenger seat, and somehow, Diego ended up in the driver's seat, and Allison and Viktor sat in the back, Allie pressing her scarf against Vik’s arm wound. Luther sat in the trunk, though he had to duck his head between the back seat and his space, it worked pretty well. And Klaus was in the middle seat.

Viktor spat between pained gasps. “Holy cannoli.” 

Diego turned to Five with an unreadable expression, all he got from it, was that Number two was so angry that he physically was smiling. “Who the fuck were they?!” 

“Thats Hazel-“ He sucked in harshly as he slid his seat belt over him, as it pressed against his fresh wound. “And Cha-Cha.” 

“Care to explain?” Allison asked, though it felt more like a demand than a question. 

“So.. As I told Vik before.. In the last 16 years or so of my life in the apocalypse, I was given a job opportunity..” 

All eyes fell towards him, even Diego looked a bit curious beneath all that uncontrollable anger. 

“I worked with a woman named The Handler.” Five hated that he still said that name with a curl on the sides of his lips, he frowned, forcing the thoughts of her away. “I was trained to become an assassin. They injected me with many experimental drugs, blood samples- just basically scientific shit.” He said as if it was as simple as taking two steps, but instead it was like taking two steps off a cliff, having to swim five miles during a storm, and then feeding a whale a donkey whilst riding on a seal. “The commission, the place I worked at, protects the timeline, so if someone, or something, changes the outcome of time, I stop it anyway I can. Usually resulting in whoever causes that glitch to.. die.”

Viktor gulped deeply, still in pain from the wound, everyone else remained relatively quiet, except number one. 

“So.. you’re like.. a licensed murderer now? You just shoot whoever they point at?” 

Five sighed, Luther was always one to assume. “No, only people who affected the overall timeline. Like I said before, this body is a result of pushing my consciousness into a version of myself that existed over every instance of time- it's similar to that. In the main timeline.. The 13 year old me always exists, that's what allows me to use this body. I protected this timeline. But I escaped. I don’t work for them anymore, I’ve become a glitch of my own, perhaps.”

The car remained in silence, but then Allison began shouting something unintelligible over Luther’s question, and Klaus started screaming at Diego about his driving, and then Diego started yelling back at Klaus to get into his seat, and Viktor and Five just stared at each other, unimpressed. (If Ben were here, he probably would be staring at Five, Vik and Klaus as well. Five wished he was.)

Viktor finally got sick of this, and opened his mouth, “That's enough!” he stomped his feet against the car’s soft interior carpeting. “That's enough. Like Five said earlier, we either all get along, or the world is gonna end.”

“Right. And it's likely I’m gonna believe ‘Mr.. I love black coffee with all my heart,’ over here!” Diego signaled to Five, who huffed in offense.

He raised his voice, “I do not love straight black coffee, I add sugar sometimes!” 

Diego slammed on the breaks at a stop sign, turning to his brother. “Sugar is irrelevant! We’re talking about black coffee here, it's basically shit in a cup!” 

“I’d rather drink shit in a cup then sit anywhere near you for more than three minutes, every second I spend with you, I basically lose four years of my damn life!” Five shouted back, and Viktor curled up with his head in his hands in the back, Allison leaned her head against the window, Luther was somehow sleeping through this all, and Klaus was rubbing Vik’s back reassuringly. 

“Oh, yeah? You think you're such a delight, huh? Just a pocket of sunshine, don’t you? Well, Five, let me tell you, no one waited for you to come back! We were relieved, I got to wake up for once knowing that I didn’t have to see your face!”

Five gulped harshly, furrowing his brows in a scowl, “No, Diego . You we’re happy to wake up and know that your competition took care of himself. You won. Congratulations.”

It was true, after all. 

Their father only had so much “love” to give, and the boys were basically always fighting over it, whoever could run the fastest, jump the highest, physically push their limits again and again, the ones who were willing to destroy their body the most, they were the most “loved.” The most cherished, the most cared for. That just happened to be between Five, and Two. Diego and him had butted heads since the moment they were born, in a very different way to Diego and Luther, because Five stood a chance. His talents were exceptional, and his will to keep going was too, even after throwing up every meal, being beaten senseless again and again during missions, Five was the only one willing to pick himself up again, and keep destroying himself, despite his hate for their father, he always wanted nothing more than to be the favorite. 

Well, now Diego had it. He has the title. But now, without the challenge. It meant nothing. 

The car retained silence after that. No quiet conversations, no yelling, no smart remarks, no comedy. Just the quiet rise and fall of Viktor and Luther’s chests as they breathed, and the sound of Klaus picking at his nails with his teeth, the bouncing of Five’s leg, and Diego’s loud clearing of his throat. 

Five felt tears gather in his eyes, he bared his teeth at even the thought of crying right now, but he perked up as he felt two hands in his shoulders from the backseat, Klaus smiled, poking him in the side, Five winced, just loud enough for Klaus and himself to hear, and Klaus apologized silently, as he asked if Five had been injured. 

Most of the members of the academy had mastered the art of communication through eye or hand movements, not sign language, but a language through gestures. To speak to each other during missions, or on the car ride home, even on days where they weren’t allowed to speak at the table because their father was listening to the news and that was apparently much more important than the whispers of each child to the other.

 Sometimes, when Klaus was afraid, he’d tip-toe into Five’s room, which was far down the hall. But Five always let him in despite the time. He’d let Klaus pick wherever he wanted to sleep, and made sure his brother was comfortable, whilst still maintaining his cold-blooded reputation that was always on screen.

Although Five had to admit, it was hard to treat his siblings with anything but trust and kindness when he started out, but slowly Five grew into the personality, he barely felt a single shred of anything, at least not in front of another person. Years of being an assassin also built onto that attitude of his. 

He replied to Klaus with a nod, and was quickly snapped out of his thoughts as the car pulled onto the side of the street, those two familiar trees growing from grassy holes in the pavement, and the gates of their home, adorned with the sign of an Umbrella. 

Home may have been a strong word, especially to Five. He didn’t have a home. No roots. No friends. The world was his oyster, and at times, even that didn’t feel enough for his adventurous mind. But his family filled that gap. They filled that missing part of his heart that he was always searching for. The one which he filled with addictions.. those used to be Dolores and twinkies, then quickly changed to The Handler and steroids, then finally to Homicide and time-travel. It became a part of him, Those things would never shape or change, but they made his heart into a dagger, his family filled the rest of the hole, making him have a heart again.

Now.. It was nothing but alcohol, homicide, and the occasional thought of his family being normal for once. 

Chapter Text

Klaus can’t seem to get himself to come to the terms that maybe, after all, his baby brother may have just gone a little bit nuts. Just a little. It's fine, it runs in the family. It's happened to Diego, Luther, Allison, .. probably will happen to Viktor at some point in the foreseeable future.. and even Klaus himself! They go back to normal after a while, to their usual selves, disregarding the fact that they ever lost their marbles to begin with.

But Number four does also need to come to the terms that maybe.. Five isn’t being insane about this whole thing. Maybe the world is ending. Maybe- just maybe, Klaus could be of some sort of use to stopping the fucking apocalypse. 

Although, Ben clearly doesn’t agree. He claims that he loves Klaus’s spirit, but even drugs couldn’t get Klaus out of bed, and he seriously doubts that some silly speech from their youngest little ball of sunshine would give him enough motivation to fight against this upcoming apocalypse.

Klaus loves it when Ben is wrong, so he has to prove him wrong. 

He could probably even recruit Five into this, anything to make sure that Ben will sit and wallow in self-pity after learning that he. is. wrong.

Or, once again, Klaus could come to the terms that maybe, Ben is just trying to motivate him. Well, in that case, he gets up off the couch, and instead of grabbing a bottle of wine, he grabs some lemonade. 

“Is there alcohol in lemonade?” Klaus seemed to be seriously asking, and Ben actually didn’t know if he should, one, slap the shit out of Klaus, two, mess with him, or three, tell him the truth. He ultimately decides on three, as to preserve his own sanity.

“No. No there is not.” Ben shook his head disapprovingly, kicking Klaus in the side. This newfound ability that allowed Klaus and Ben to interact was great.. for Ben of course, not so much for Klaus.

“Why do you insist that I eternally suffer from your presence for the rest of my life?? Why must you commit these heinous crimes against me, a I am a mere child in this grown-up world!” 

“Alright, shakespeare. Get your ass up, it's time to prove to me that you're not completely incompetent.”

“Oh, dearest brother, what have I ever done to puncture your ego?!” 

“I hate you.” 

“I love you too, Benny.” 

The room was silent again, except for a quiet sigh from Ben, as he reached a hand out to help Klaus from the floor. Klaus dusted off his pink-crop top and resituated his low-waisted jeans with a sparkly sequins belt. Fabulous, as always. Nothing less, usually more.

“That Lemonade may very well be spiked, actually. From the way you're acting.” Ben rolled his ghostly eyes, “I’ll get Allison to ridicule you if you don’t start showing your worth, Juliet.”

“No, Romeo! Don’t sentence me to an insufferable fate-“ Klaus came to a realization. “Wait a minute, you can’t get Allison, she’s alive!” He giggled, taking a sip of the lemonade.

 “Oh, Juliet, I’m going to fucking stab you.” Ben said blankly and irritatedly as if he was making fun of Klaus.

Allison took a sip of lemonade from her own cup, standing next to Five, who looked like he could use a year-long-nap. To be honest, anyone in this family could really use a self-care day. But they didn’t really have a single day to spare, Cha-Cha and Hazel could be on their tail, and Allie and Five seemed to be thinking hard as they stood quietly.

Allison narrowed her eyes as Klaus pretended to kiss the air. “Who do you think he’s talking to now?” 

Five shrugged, taking a sip of Allison’s lemonade. “Hitler.” 

“Oh, really? Have you met him?” She asked with curiousity in her eyes, a hint of chaos as well.

He gave his sister a knowing look, still a bit hungover. “Have I? Is that a question? I’m pretty sure every single one of the employees at the commission has probably been put on a case including the motherfucker.” 

She frowned a bit as Five told his story, a smile tugging at the sides of her lips, he looked happy to share stories, but- Allison knew as well as anyone else in this house that no matter what, they really could not sit still as Five laughed and giggled whilst explaining how he killed Queen of England, or how many times he had to join the army, or even just anything that involved him killing someone innocent. A question floated around her mind, absently, was it really true when Five said they pumped him full of injections like an experiment? Was this really not the same brother she had 17 years ago? Physically and mentally? Like his DNA had been altered? He had really glazed over that part, either he felt it wasn’t important, or there's something about it he hadn’t shared yet.

“Hey-“ She tapped his shoulder as he turned to leave, “I have a question?” 

Five stopped in his tracks, but remained silent, looking over his shoulder at his sister. 

“Was it true when you said that they ex-“ 

The room was suddenly full of a very, very annoyed Diego. He stomped his feet, seemingly talking to someone that nobody could see from the living room. They whipped their heads towards him, evern Klaus stopped his antics for a moment to just watch.

“You’re the one who let him die whilst you were out jacking off in space!” 

“I was not jacking off!” Luther shouted back in a much calmer tone. “I am the only one who has an alibi for his death! The rest of you were perfectly capable of carrying a malicious plan out!” 

Five stood with a deadpan like a disappointed grandpa, and for once, Allison could actually see the old man in this 13-year old’s expression. 

“Oh yeah, Cause I wasn’t in prison,” Number two rolled his eyes sarcastically, pointing to each of his siblings, “Because Klaus totally has the brains to do that, Allison wasn’t filing for divorce, and Five he was totally ‘in our timeline.’.” 

Five raised his glass full of lemonade. “Correction, I was in this timeline, just..in 1963.” 

“You are really not helping your case.” Diego groaned back.

He huffed, taking a sip, “Don’t bother defending me if you're just going to spout useless and incorrect information like an underpaid lawyer.” 

Diego threw his hands in mock surrender, turning towards Luther again. 

“What about Viktor?” Luther questioned.

The mention of his name froze the tension in the room, all looking up at the very mention, Klaus and Five involuntarily shared confused and worried glances at one another. Allison leaned back on the couch and stole Five’s cup of lemonade, downing it and getting up to grab another. Allison readjusted the blanket covering Vik, who was sleeping. She was amused, tipsy, and ready to sucker-punch a knock-off batman or humanized hulk if she needed to.

“..Viktor? You think Vik, of all of us, could’ve killed dad?!” Diego almost laughed at the irony. “I think he's the least capable.”

“We have motive, opportunity..”

Allison choked out a string of laughs, and she rested her hands on her knees. Looking pissed, she marched over to Luther and Diego, and now all eyes were on her as she barely held back laughter.

She put a hand on his chest. “Thats my fucking brother your talking about.” Her laugh fell into a death glare. “How dare you even say something like that. About Viktor. He’s our family, you think he would kill dad?” Allison growled through her teeth. 

Luther looked stunned, he hadn’t expected Allison to just blow up at him out of the blue, defending Vik, Luther’s debatably ‘Least favorite sibling.’ (Although Five & Diego was also fighting for that spot on Luther’s list.) His mouth suddenly felt a bit dry, and he didn’t know what to say. Klaus sent him a glare, and Diego looked betrayed. Five stood right next to Vik, who was sleeping soundly with a blanket thrown over him. He looked peaceful, and none of them were going to let Luther ruin that.

“What makes you think that you have the right to come here after we hadn’t seen each other in like four years, and accuse us of killing our father!” Number four whispered into Luther’s face angrily, making sure he wouldn’t wake Vik up. “That's just wrong! So wrong!”

“Well- I uh thought..” Luther began.

Diego scoffed, amusedly, “No, no, you didn’t think.” he pushed past Luther, who was still frozen whilst his siblings ganged up against him. 

Five furrowed his brows, hands in his pockets. “Remember, the apocalypse is in 6 days, so maybe we should try and not fight like complete idiots.”

Allison finally decided she would humor him, for the moment. “Fine then, Five. How did you stop the apocalypse from happening the first time?” 

“I had to do something that I really do not wanna do.” He groaned, blinking over to the doorway of the living room. He pulled the gun out of the coat, for the second time. “I’m gonna need something better than this.” 

“For what exactly..?” She sighed again.

Five didn’t respond, instead he cleared his throat into his fist. “Alright, listen up. I really don’t have the time nor patience to repeat myself..” he paused briefly, “I need Luther to take Viktor and Klaus and get as far as you can, I don’t care where you end up, just keep driving.” He loosened his tie, loading the gun. “Allison, Diego, come with me.” 

Diego rolled his eyes at the commands, “Why?” He asked what everyone wanted to ask.

“Hazel and Cha-Cha know us, and they know a lot more about me than I’m comfortable with.” He grumbled, “They’re going to be here any minute. I need you and Allison to help me get rid of Leonard.” 

Allison opened her mouth, a bit confused. “Rid of Leonard? Why? Isn’t that Viktor’s boyfriend?”

“Well he causes the damn apocalypse.” Five turned to Klaus, “Go, get in the car, Luther- take Viktor, I’ll explain when I call you?” 

“Five, is this really necessary? Can’t we all go with you?” Number one asked, though they all knew that he didn’t care, he just didn’t want to sit in a car with Viktor and Klaus for the next two hours.”

He nodded his head, closing the blinds to the windows. “I can’t risk Klaus or Viktor getting hurt, they're too important to the timeline.” They’re too important to him. “Fine, you don’t have to drive too far, just- get out of our way. Make sure that Viktor does not try to come to save him, alright?”

Five started to walk towards the door, but turned back to Luther. 

“Here's a tip, unless you want your throat slit,” He tilted his head with a smirk, “Or worse.. Be a good brother, okay?” He patted Luther on the shoulder, remembering what happened between Allison and Vik the first time around.

Luther looked like a cocktail of panic, confusion, and just being overall exhausted, but he sighed, making his way over to the couch and gently shaking Viktor awake. 

“Allison, I need you and Diego to keep a lookout for Hazel and Cha-Cha for me,” Five added, “Don’t kill Hazel, actually. He’ll be of use to us. Make sure you give Cha-Cha a painful death- cut off her arm.. set her on fire.. something painful.” 

Klaus finally spoke up, “Five! this is crazy- What is going on?!” he looked over to Luther, “You're gonna kill Leonard?” 

Five shrugged as he turned to leave, “He’s a serial killer, I think he deserves to die.” 

Allison chuckled to herself, grumbling. “I think he’s met his match.” 

“Serial Killer v.s Serial Killer. Can’t wait to watch this.” Diego matched her attitude, following Five, they should really stop him, but all of them got a pretty thick suspicion that Five was right. There was something off about Leonard. 

But whether he was a murderer or not, they were determined to kill him. This piqued the interest of Klaus.

“Hey, Klaus, why don’t you get into the ca-“ Luther turned towards the bar, but it was empty. “God damn it.”

Chapter Text

>>>>V<<<<<

December 9th, 1952. 

She laid a hand on his shoulder, quietly caressing him. He didn’t appreciate the physical touch, and she knew that, but he was grateful that she stayed so much longer than anyone else. She stayed with him during good times, and times where he had broken down into tears after a particularly hard mission, nothing, even years upon years of Academy training stripped away all emotions. 

He felt vulnerable in her arms, though he didn’t show it, shrugging her hand off as always, but she leaned her head against his, looking over at his papers with curiosity, he wondered why. She was the one who assigned him this mission, why was she showing so much interest? Well, he had enjoyed the woman’s company mainly because she was a total mystery, and Five was one for solving mysteries. 

The woman brushed against his thigh as she sat down at the table, next to him. She leaned an arm against his shoulder, and played with his hair, which was annoyingly longer than he enjoyed at the time. 

He didn’t entirely hate it, but he scoffed when her hand ran up his chest. “What do you want from me?” He choked out, fear inching into his voice as she stared into his eyes for a bit longer than he was comfortable with. 

“Tell me how the mission went.” There was a seductive tone to her voice, Five shivered, hating every second of it. He debated with his mind to just pick up his knife from lunch and pin it against her throat, but that would simply bring no good for either of them. Especially himself. Remaining on her good side required him to do things that he would much rather not put himself through, especially not with her. 

“As well as either of us expected.” Five remained calm, despite the panic spilling into his tone. He gave her a glance, warning, but she never listened to warnings, especially ones made by him.

Her hands curled around his abdomen, another cupping his cheek. “Did you have fun with your victims?” 

He gulped, feeling it deep in his chest. Nausea hit him suddenly, seeing her so close made him overwhelmingly sick to his stomach. She pressed his lips to his neck. “It was fine.” Was all he choked out as she whispered to him. He couldn’t build up the courage as she bit his ear. 

She pulled her hands away from him, finishing her fun, and turning towards the door, “Well, why don’t you tell me all about it later, during your injections? I have some meetings to attend to.” She said as if it was Five interrupting her day, and not the other way around. But he managed to let out a sigh of relief as she left him alone, and he no longer had to clench his fists so tightly.

Five straightened his back, but quickly felt his stomach churn, he stumbled into the nearest commission bathroom, his hands grasping the ring of the sink as he emptied his lunch down the brain. He sobbed helplessly, his hair covering his watery eyes. He scrubbed his hands in the sink, desperately digging and dragging his nails into the skin, begging for the water to simply wash everything away. He wish he could empty his mind like he emptied his stomach, but instead he just pressed his back against the told tile, gasping for air.

Five couldn’t stand this much longer, he had to leave.

Chapter Text

“So, why does killing Viktor’s boyfriend magically stop the apocalypse?” 

Allison’s question was met with a harsh glare from their older brother, and she huffed, throwing her hands in the air. Five grunted as he pushed open the car door, and shot a glance towards Allison as he began to speak.

“As I’ve explained before,” He sighed, “Harold, or ‘Leonard’ steal’s the family’s book, the one written by our father that has some.. interesting to say the least… amount of information about us and our powers.” 

Diego looked at him with a deadpan, “..So we have to kill him for it?” 

“Let me finish.” He snapped impatiently, shutting the door of the car. The other two in the car followed Five outside, as they stood in front of a woodworking shop. “He’s going to reveal to Viktor that he has powers. Which causes Vik to kill him, and then-“ He looked to Allison, eyes filled with desperate exhaustion. “He slit your throat.” 

Allie smiled sarcastically, thinking he was joking. “Right.” Five turned back towards the building, and Diego looked at Allison and swirled a finger next to his head, signaling that their older brother was a bit coo-coo. Allison stifled a laugh, covering her mouth. “So, we’re actually gonna kill this guy?”

“No, I’m going to kill this guy.” The older spat towards his siblings, a bit of unexpected poison on her tongue. “You two are standing guard out.” 

Diego shook his head, sighing. “Five, this is a bit crazy, I get it the guy’s a creep, but you can’t just kill him because of some shit you saw on an acid trip.”

Allison clearly wasn’t expecting this response, as she involuntarily began to giggle uncontrollably, Diego grinned. Five was not so optimistically attituded, he scoffed, furrowing his eyebrows as he kicked in the door. “I don’t do drugs.” it swung open on its hinges, you’d think a serial killer would board their door up a bit more. 

Allie and Diego looked curiously through the doorway, watching Five pull their father’s gun out, Diego glanced out towards the street, looking back towards his sister with wide eyes. “Cops- there's a squad car.” He pushed Allison through the door, hopping in after her, much to Five’s unapproval. 

“You idiots.” Five hissed in a tone barely above a whisper. 

“You want us to go to prison for your crazy ass?!” Diego spat back, in the same whispering tone. The place was pitch dark, and Five blinked around the room in some hopes of getting some sort of light, his powers did happen to give the room a blue hue, since he disappeared into flicks of light whenever he jumped. 

He finally just settled for using his hands, they could radiate some of his energy, and Diego and Allison seemed totally fine with that, and Five marched around and started to look through all this stuff. It was just furniture, there were couches, wooden barstools, wooden tables, you name it, it was here and it was made of wood. Even little action figures sat on the desks for people to stare at, some on display shelves as well, and Five would recognize his siblings anywhere, the shelf full of wooden figures of them all standing in a circle, similarly to one of the tiny sculptures they had lying in a glass box at their home, the only thing missing was their father giving out his stupid commands in the middle. 

“Holy shit.” Diego stared at his wooden-figurine self as a child. “This guy is a fuckin’ weirdo.”

“I’ll say..” Allison looked at herself.

Five, although intrigued, remained to himself, searching the floors for any clues of a break-in or muddy footprints- woodchips- anything basically. He remembered that Leonard had no home, no responsibilities, which was how he managed to spend a majority of his day destining the entire universe to an apocalypse.

Wonderful. 

Sure, Five didn’t like to babysit all too much, but this gave him the opportunity to keep an eye on his siblings, and though he did think it would be pretty entertaining to watch them try and break out of jail, they were much more useful by his side than eating moldy mashed potatoes and showering in public spaces. 

They followed the bursts of light that accompanied Five’s hand, it took quite a bit of energy out of him, and he sighed as Diego turned the lights on.

“..Turn the lights off.”

“Why?”

Five blinked over to the door, turning off the light. “Do you want the police to arrest us?!” 

Diego turned it back on. “They won’t even find us! The street is empty, no police.” 

“Keep the fucking lights off.” Five turned them off.

Diego turned them back on, pushing Five away. He pushed back, and Diego stumbled, tripping and falling right through the front window and onto the sidewalk. He groaned, caked in a layer of glass.

And that's how they ended up arrested.

It had been a few years since Five had been arrested, it had been two days for Diego, and it had been.. never for Allison. 

They were an interesting bunch. 

The police took all of Diego’s knives, all of them, it was embarrassing. They even took Allison’s pocket knife and their father’s gun from Five, who was shouting mercilessly that this was against human rights. 

The door slammed shut, and all three of them were now sitting in the same holding cell. 

“Well, on the positive side, Five’s assassin buddies will have a much harder time killing us now.” Diego shrugged, pulling another piece of glass out of his shoe sole.

“No, they have me locked in a cage. This makes it so much easier.” 

Allison huffed, “Will they really try to kill you when you're sitting in a jail cell? Really?” 

“I would.” Five inspected the outside of the bars, seeing the keys dangling on the belt of one of the officers in the lobby. 

“You are not gonna reach that.” Diego seemed quite amused as he reached down to pull a lockpicking kit out of his shoe. Five pushed his hand away.

Five pointed to the ceiling. “Cameras. They’ll be on your ass before you can even open the door.” 

Diego let his hands drop to his sides, “Alright then, what's your plan?” Allison rested her face against the bars, sitting on the only seating in the entire cell. She was sleeping soundly, how exhausted did someone have to be to sleep sitting straight up, in a jail cell, with 6 days until the apocalypse? They had to be Allison for sure.

“Give me your tools.” Five held out his hand, and Diego rolled his eyes as he placed the kit in his brother’s hands. Five seemed to be weighing it, calculating it in his mind. “That works.” That familiar blue hue began to radiate from Five’s hands, and then the kit was gone, and a set of keys was placed carefully in his grasp. 

“Wha-“ Diego’s jaw dropped, “How the fuck did you do that?!” 

He looked towards Diego like he was insane, “You’ve seriously never seen me do that before?” he sighed, “Well, if I were to explain it, it's simply just relocating a form of matter,” He shoved the keys into the lock as he spoke, twisting them quietly, “and transferring the information from that form of matter to another location, but in this case, instead of just transferring the data from that form of matter, I swapped places between two forms of matter.” 

Diego narrowed his eyes. “You lost me at the first, ‘form of matter.’” 

Five shook his head disapprovingly, he twisted the lock, pushing the door slightly open, “Wake up Allison, I'm going to take out these idiotic guards.” He blinked, leaving Diego alone with his sister. 

Number two inched over to Allison, nervously. He hated when he was the one who had to wake her, she was a monster when you woke her up, especially from naps. 

He laid a hand on her arm, shaking it lightly and preparing for her to grab his throat, but instead she just yawned, blinking open her eyes and narrowing them in the harsh light of the holding cell. 

“Mornin’ sleeping beauty. Were breaking the fuck outta here.” Diego grinned amusedly, watching as Allison smiled back.

She looked around briefly. “Where's Five?”

“ ‘Taking care of the guards.’ “ Allison gave Diego a look, “Yeah, I don’t know if that means knocking them out or killing them.” 

“Knowing Five, probably both.” Allie nodded as she stood up, stretching. “So your job was to just wake me up? That's it?” 

“Apparently that's all I’m good for now.” He sighed bitterly, “Now let's get out of here. After this, I wanna be the one who beats that son-of-a-bitch to death.”

Allison blinked blankly, “Which one?”

“Cha-cha.” He guided her out the door, meeting Five in the lobby. The guards were nowhere to be seen, and his brother looked relatively clean. So he guessed they were either choked or they weren’t dead at all. Either way, Diego was fine with it, Allison looked a bit disturbed on the other hand.

“Let's find a car.” Allison nodded to her brothers as she grabbed the pocket knife the police took from her, Five took the gun back, and Diego took his knives. His siblings helped him carry them all since he had so many and not enough time to place them all back into their slots on his vest and belt.

They pushed out the front doors of the station, Diego holding all his knives close to his chest, and Five checking how many bullets were left in their father’s gun as Allison used her heel to pry-open a random car’s door. 

“Don’t let me ever underestimate her again.” Diego whispered to Five, who scoffed and crossed his arms in amusement. 

The door flung open, and Allison began hot-wiring the car, she used her teeth to pry off the covers of the wires and then began pressing them together and hoping to make any sort of spark. 

“You know how to hot-wire cars?” Five raised his brows in an impressed manner.

Allison huffed, passive aggressively. “Maybe if you didn’t disappear when you were 13 you would’ve been there for the lesson.” 

The engine began, and the car shook violently. Diego pulled open the door to the passenger side, but Five had blinked into the seat.

“Kids sit in the back.” Diego hissed, grabbing Five’s foot. 

“You’re right, they do.” Five kicked Diego in the stomach, closing the car door as his brother stumbled backwards. Diego angrily forced himself into the back seat. 

“Alright girls, calm down, you’re both beautiful.” Allison grumbled from the front seat, putting the car in reverse and pulling out of the station’s parking lot. 

“I am so much more beautiful than Five.” Diego snapped back. 

His brother barked out a laugh, “Keep dreaming, asshole.” he grunted when Diego kicked his seat. 

A phone rang, and everyone scrambled to see whose it was, unsurprisingly, it was Allison’s. She sighed, handing the phone to Five to answer as she drove. Her ringtone was light and fluffy, but it had a dark undertone. Five didn’t know why he liked it so much. He answered the phone and put it to his ear.

“Allison?” A voice rang from the phone, it was Viktor.

“It's Five.” He pulled Allie’s phone away from his ear, putting it on speaker.

“Okay- well- we have a problem.” 

Allison furrowed her eyebrows, and Diego watched the chaos unravel. “What happened? Are you okay?” 

“We’re fine!” Viktor assured, but then coughed into his fist, “But uhm..”

“Spit it out.”

“Luther lost Klaus.” 

Diego scoffed, “How the hell do you lose klaus? Just follow the trail of butter-fingers or illegal substances and boom, he's right there!”

“I don’t know! I was sleeping! Luther refuses to ask for help!” Viktor was obviously already done with dealing with Luther’s annoying, ‘I don’t need help.’ hero bullshit. 

Diego sighed,“Alright, we’ll find him, get out of the city.” he dragged a hand over his face. Why did Klaus always have to do the stupidest shit ever?

“Wha- What? Why? What's going on?!” Vik started to ask his game of twenty questions, which they didn’t have time for. 

“Luther will explain everything, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Five hung up before Viktor could ask anymore questions, and tossed the phone to Allison, “Pull over.” 

“What, you’re actually going to look for him?” Diego sounded quite surprised, they usually just waited until Klaus wandered back like a stray puppy.

“I don’t need to, I already know where he is. If you two could try your best not to mess up killing Harold Jenkins I would really appreciate it.” Five sighed into his fist, “I should’ve known, everything from the original timeline was probably gonna happen again sooner or later. I just hoped I could stop it..” 

Allison didn’t have the patience for Five’s self-pity, “Get Klaus, meet us at the fountain.” They all knew what she was referring to, the fountain at the park that they used to meet at after they finished missions, or if they had gotten lost, they’d meet back at the fountain, if they didn’t show up, that meant that they were either dead or compromised. 

“If I’m not there by..” He looked at his imaginary watch, “7:48.. I’m dead or captured.” Five slammed the car door shut, leaving Allie and Diego by themselves. Diego grinned, climbing into the front seat.

“I can’t wait until 7:48 so I can breathe the first sigh of relief I’ve breathed in my entire life.” He leaned back in his seat dramatically, playing with a knife. 

Allie shrugged, “I dunno, you seemed pretty relaxed that one time that you had some of those brownies that Klaus made when we were like.. 16.” 

Diego huffed, a bit embarrassed. He hated it when people mentioned that. “Listen, relaxed and relieved are very different.”

His sister signaled to Five’s silhouette in the distance, walking alone in his stupid little uniform. “He's a bit of an asshole, isn’t he?”

“A bit? Remind me to kill him before he becomes a double grandpa.” Diego shivered. The thought of Five being old mentally and physically almost made him sick. 

“I’m gonna tell him you called him that.” Allie hummed.

Diego looked betrayed. “And I’m gonna tell him you called him an asshole.”

“Touche.” She smiled back at him, with a glint of chaos in her eyes

Chapter Text

He had an annoying headache behind his eyes, the same one he got after a night that he drank too much or popped a bit too many pills. A headache he got when he wasn’t sober. But he was.. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was walking out the door behind Allison, Diego and Five, but now his vision is blocked by something, some sort of soft cloth against his skin. It tickled, but when he reached his hands up to pull the cloth away, they were trapped, frozen, beneath some sort of retraints

All the memories flowed back to him, as light flooded through the closed curtains of the window. He shook his head violently, the cloth falling off and revealing to him the room. His mind buzzed blankly, and all his joints were numb, his muscles stung, unsatisfied. He took a breath of fresh air, looking at the blood that dripped down his chest and stained the shirt he was wearing. 

One of the voices grumbled, “Shit, he’s awake.” they sighed. The other whispered back, and they bickered about something quietly as he waited for them to get on with the nonsensical torture.

He forced out a pained laugh, his chest feeling like it collapsed after every breath. 

“What's so funny, asshole?” The masculine voice got closer, slapping him on the back of the head, it stung a lot more than he expected it too, and he let out a pained yelp. 

“Well..” His voice was shaky and unsure, “For one.. You’ve spe-spent the last ten hours beating me senseless..” he grinned, wincing, “and you’ve learned- Absolutely nothing.” 

The two figures behind him let out annoyed groans, stirring quietly.

“I mean.. Nobody tells me shit!” He had a hint of bitterness to his tone, “The truth is.. I’m the o-one person in that house.. that nobody will even notice is gone.” he giggled, “You assholes kidnapped the wrong guy!” His laughs were met by another smack to the back of the head.

“Let's waterboard him.” The feminine voice seemed happy to do so, she grabbed a rag and pressed it over Klaus’s sweaty face, the other grabbed a bucket of water that had been sitting near their beds, dumping it onto his clothed face slowly. He let out pained gasps for air, then slowly became quieter and quieter.

Their smiles fell as he began to gulp, the water pouring down his throat. The one with the bucket backed up, sighing as he threw the bucket down. The other hesitantly pulled the cloth away from his face, but Klaus bit down on it, trying to sip every last drop of water. She finally pulled it away from his teeth, throwing it down as well.

He sighed in relief,”Ah.. I needed that.” The assassins behind him groaned. 

“Come on..” The masculine voice shouted, throwing his hands up in defeat. 

“I’m parched!” He grinned, licking the water off his lips. “So.. Parched..” his eyes filled with tears, though his smile signaled that he was happy as can be. “Thank you.” He sobbed gratefully. 

The two left him alone, stombing to the other side of the room and conversing quietly, not loud enough for Klaus to hear. A faucet began running, but it was turned off quickly, and he leaned his head against the back of the chair.

They left whatever room they were in with their masks back on, ready to beat the shit out of him again. Klaus sighed, kicking his feet back and preparing to mess with them for the next few hours

>>>>>>>VII<<<<<<<.

He leaned against the window of Luther’s car, slowly taking breaths. The two of them had never been close, so even being in the same car was brutally painful. He felt the urge to just hold his breath, for whatever reason. As if he may bother Luther if he breathed a bit too loud. 

Viktor pulled his feet to his chest, he could basically feel the panic that Luther was experiencing, and Vik guessed it had something to do with whatever everyone wasn’t-telling him. He had a feeling it was about him. About that night where Five was drunk and telling Vik he had powers. Sure, he had waved it off and acted like it didn’t happen, but he wanted nothing more than to call them up right now and ask if it was true. If Five was just drunk and spouting lies, or if Viktor really did have powers, and if they had something to do with all of this secret-keeping.

The radio played static, as Luther reached over to flip through the stations, but nothing good was on. They settled for a channel that only played the songs, “Y.M.C.A” and “Physical” on repeat between 7 painful minutes of ads. But Viktor didn’t mind so much. The two were finally about eighteen miles from their home, they hadn’t been driving for long, but there was traffic today, which meant that the sound of the freeway didn’t overpower the sound of silence at the moment, since all cars were basically stopped. 

The silence drilled into Viktor’s ears, and he could hear Luther’s heartbeat from across the car. That was odd, he had never been able to before, maybe this was a part of Luther’s set of powers? He glanced at his brother, who sat stiffly, finger lightly tapping the steering wheel to the song that was playing. 

Why had they sent Luther, him and Klaus away? Even if Klaus wasn’t with them at the moment, they wanted him to go with Luther and himself, why? Luther hadn’t even attempted to explain anything other than the fact that, “It's for your own safety.” and “It's complicated.” he refused to say anything other than that, and Vik had a feeling that Five had commanded (as he had been doing quite a lot lately.) them all to say nothing.

It was fine. If something was wrong, they’d tell him right? Well, they never did tell him much. Viktor also suspected that Five didn’t want to be anywhere near him, Vik had seen the guilty look on his brother’s face when he got shot, Five thought it was his fault. He wanted to pull Five into a big hug and cradle him, telling him it wasn’t his fault, but.. Viktor couldn’t even bring himself to believe that. It was his fault. But the blame game wouldn’t bring him any good, so he’d try his best to pester Luther for questions, eventually the big guy would break.

“Luther. Where are we going?” 

His question was met with silence, as his brother bit his lip, thinking of an answer. “Far away from here.” 

“Why..? Why aren’t we looking for Klaus with the others?” Viktor felt worry creep into his voice, and his eyes gloss over with unshed tears. 

Luther gulped deeply, “I uh..” He sighed lightly, “We need to keep you safe. They’ll do fine on their own.”

The answer was so vague that it could mean too many things. Anything from protecting him from himself, to protecting him from his siblings. 

“From those people at my apartment? The ones who shot at us?” 

He stayed silent, but nodded slowly. “Cha-Cha.. and Hazel.” 

Vik’s eyes widened as he came to a realization. “Those people after Five.” He had forgotten about that, maybe they were the reason, and Viktor was just overreacting. He started to feel a bit bad, he shouldn’t have been so hard on Luther.

“He never explained why they were after him, did he? All he said was that he left that woman he was working with. Do you think she sent them after him?” 

“Well, you heard what he said.. He said he was his own type of glitch in the Timeline.. so they probably sent other assassins to kill the one responsible just as he used to do..” It all came flooding back to him, and it all made sense. He leaned back in his seat. So why not just tell him the truth? There was something that he didn’t know. They had brought Viktor away from the city for a reason, and he doubted it was simply for his own safety. This was clearly not Luther’s decision, he would never choose to leave his siblings in a time of need, so this was probably Five’s plan. 

“Why would they try to kill us though?” 

Viktor shrugged, “I know as much as you do..” It was true. 

Number One and Number Seven being in the same room was a bit odd, let alone the same car. But despite all the harsh words, the forced loneliness, being at the butt-end of every joke, they got along. Well, if getting alone meant that they didn’t try to kill each other every three seconds like Diego and Luther… Or Luther and Five.. Or Luther and Klaus.. Basically everyone but Allison and Luther. 

Viktor shuddered whilst thinking of Allison and Luther’s relationship, it had always been a joke throughout the family. One day Allison, when she was 8,  wanted someone to love her, so she rumored Luther to have a huge-old crush on her, the rest is history. But even if their relationship was built on a lie.. (or a rumor.) Luther somehow still fell in love with her despite it all. He was never angry when she told him the truth, he seriously loved her, even when the effects of the rumor had worn off years after. 

But Allison moved on, she had a husband, a baby girl, and a real life. She was an actor, a movie star, she had gotten olympic awards at some point, she had gone to college, she owned a financial business in her early twenties, Allie was her own woman, but Luther.. decidedly, was not.

Luther was the face of the Umbrella Academy, the one everyone looked up to as a leader, strong, independent, resilient, unstoppable, but past the lies on television, Luther was barely anything but a boy who got a bit too attached to his father. He was nothing like Allison, and would never be like Allison. He was clingy, protective, assertive but very kind, and a complete nobody, he was that one guy that was always in the gym, the one running with a hotdog on a cold day, nobody knew his story like they knew Allison’s. Nobody watched his reality TV shows, or even bought his merch. He was truly just a guy, while Allison was a queen.

Or so he believed