Word count: 3698

𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 stood outside of a tall, well-lit building, which had the bright blue, glowing letters 'SOUTHLAND LIFE' propped up on top of the overhead of the entrance.

It was nearing seven, and the appearing moon and stars told them just as much as the sky darkened to a deep blue. A chilly wind blew against both of them, causing Elizabeth to shuffle closer to Five for extra warmth.

Five turned to her, his eyebrows furrowing as he glanced at the entrance. "Do you still have the invitation?" he murmured.

"Mhm." Elizabeth reached into the pocket of her blazer and felt the folded paper, and pulled it out, handing it to him as she faced the front doors.

He unfolded it, checked the address and then looked back up at the building with a small nod. "This is it," he sighed, folding the invitation and pocketing it.

The two of them headed inside, the cold they were feeling now gone as they met the room-temperature atmosphere. The panels that lined the ceiling glowed brightly, reflecting on the glass panes that guarded the landing of the top floor.

There were two sets of staircases in front of them, leading to either side of the top floor, which they then climbed up.

They walked past the beige walls that had murals of vivid flowers to reach an elevator that was surrounded by tiled walls.

Five leaned forward and pushed the up button before stepping back next to Elizabeth, his fingers intertwining with hers as she gave him a nervous smile.

The doors were about to close before a hand stopped them, and with a small grin, Diego entered. He was followed by the rest of the group, who all settled inside the elevator as the doors finally closed.

"Good," Five said with a nod. "We're all here."

Only silence filled the air as the elevator went up, the only noise being the occasional ding from the speaker as they passed each floor.

Interrupting the stillness, Luther let out a small grunt, and it wasn't long until they smelled it.

"Luther!" Klaus groaned as the rest of the group pinched their noses and scrunched their faces in disgust.

"Sorry," Luther mumbled to them, "I'm nervous."

The doors opened a few moments later, and the group rushed out, desperate to breathe in fresh air.

"Nasty," Klaus exclaimed. "I'm choking!"

After a good minute of coughing, the group headed towards a restaurant—the Tiki Lounge—their wondrous eyes roaming around the island-themed room as they walked inside.

There were a few vividly decorated circular tables that were spread around the room, and it seemed as though the middle one was for them, considering the large number of chairs that were placed and the plates and cups that were already set up. A large fruit platter sat in the middle of the table, a few toothpicks stuck into the cubes of various fruit as they waited to be eaten.

"All right, when Dad gets here, I'll do the talking, okay?" Five instructed as he walked over to the middle table, looking around at the group with raised eyebrows.

Diego nodded, his eyes hardened and his lips pressed together tightly before he muttered, "Got a few questions for him myself."

"Diego, no," Elizabeth sighed.

"Hey, we don't wanna scare him off," Five responded irritatedly. "He might be able to help us stop the apocalypse and get us home."

"No," Diego refused, "we need to figure out why he's planning to kill the president."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she leaned over and swatted his arm. "Diego, no."

"This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile!" Five exclaimed angrily as he pressed his hands on the table, his eyes set on Diego as he glared at him.

"Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking. Yeah?" Vanya proposed with a small shrug. She looked around at the other tables before her eyes lit up, and she picked up an orange-and-white conch that she then showed to everyone. "Here, whoever has got this conch shell gets to talk."

Five shook his head. "Vanya, we don't have time for a debate, okay?"

"Maybe I should lead," Allison suggested as she took the conch from Vanya, shrugging. "We all know I'm a better public speaker than the rest."

Diego snorted. "Okay, Daddy's girl."

She raised her eyebrows as she returned, "Oh, jealous, Number Two?"

"Hey, no more numbers. No more bullshit." Diego shook his head as he looked around at the group. "We're Team Zero. We're all Team Zero."

"Uh, Diego." Luther, who had taken a seat at the table, pointed out with a smirk, "You don't have the conch."

Diego snatched the conch out of Allison's hands and threw it at the wall, watching with satisfaction as it collided with the surface and smashed into a million pieces.

A humourless smile played on Allison's lips as she remarked, "Classic."

Their attention drew to the door as it opened, and they nervously watched as the tall figure of their father strode inside. Clutched in his hands was the black journal that brought back memories of their childhood, and that only increased their agitation.

He crossed the room, not seeming to notice everyone's sudden pause, and sat down at the very back of the table. The rest of the group quickly sat themselves down, their postures straightening and their throats suddenly a little dry.

Elizabeth sat between Five and Diego, her eyes tensely shifting between Reginald and the others as she waited for him to speak.

Reginald adjusted the cuffs of his sleeves and looked around at them before starting, "Not only have you burglarized my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occasions, called me—"

He didn't finish talking as Klaus, who had been busying himself at the bar behind them, plopped into the chair next to him and greeted, "Hey, Pop. How's it hangin'?"

"—'Dad'," Reginald ended as he stared at Klaus. He sighed before turning back to the group and continuing, "My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB, certainly not MI5, so . . ." he said as he suspiciously stared at each individual face, "who are you?"

The group all looked at each other, waiting for someone to speak up. Five finally took the responsibility as he leaned forward in his seat and informed him, "We're your children. We're from the future. In 1989, you adopted us all and trained us to fight against the end of the world. Called us the Umbrella Academy."

Reginald's eyebrows knit together as he looked around at them. "Why on earth would I adopt seven—"

"Eight," Allison cut in. "One of us isn't here."

"Dead," Diego corrected with a sigh. "One of us is dead."

Interrupting and confusing them, Klaus turned around, waving a hand in the air as he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Enough of that now."

Reginald stared at Klaus for a moment before shaking his head and continuing, "Regardless, what would possess me to adopt seven ill-mannered malcontents?"

Elizabeth answered, "We all have special abilities."

"Special?" Reginald echoed with an air of doubt, his eyebrows lifting. "In what sense?"

"In the superpower sense."

"Called me old-fashioned," Reginald scoffed, "but I'm a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence. Show me."

Allison's upper lip curled as she stirred the bright blue straw in her cup and humorously remarked, "Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden."

"We're not circus animals, okay?" Luther refused. "We're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement."

Ignoring what Luther had said, Diego kept his gaze on the empty plate in front of him as he got one of his knives and threw it. The knife zipped around Reginald's head and thrust itself into a wooden pole behind him.

Reginald was still for a moment before he opened his journal and began to write into it, one of his eyebrows quirking slightly.

Now concerned, the group leaned forward in their seats, their tentative eyes set on the tip of the pen that was scratching words into the paper.

Voicing their thoughts, Diego apprehensively questioned, "What are you writing?"

Reginald paused and looked up at Diego before raising his eyebrows. "You are zero for two, young man."

Diego's expression twisted into one of rage as he stood up from his spot, and he began to march around the table toward their father.

Alarmed, Elizabeth raised a hand and sent a light blast of golden energy toward Diego, causing him to stop and yelp.

Five had the same idea as her, simultaneously teleporting in front of Diego and pressing a hand against his chest as he angrily whispered, "Stop!"

Reginald ogled at Elizabeth's raised hand before his gaze turned to Five. "Now that is interesting."

"All right, uh, quick rundown," Five exhaled, pointing to each person as he went over the power, "Luther, super strength. Klaus can commune with the dead. Elizabeth has enhanced intelligence and energy manipulation. Allison can rumour anyone to do anything."

"Except she never uses it," Diego muttered, sending Elizabeth a quick glare as he sat down.

Allison shot him an irritated look before she clasped her hands together and leaned forward. "I heard a rumour . . . you punched yourself in the face."

Diego's eyes became glassy as he unconsciously followed her command and punched himself. "Aah!" he grunted as he returned to reality, his fingers uncurling from its fist and clutching at his nose. "Dammit!"

Allison gave a satisfied grin as she shrugged and took a sip from her cup.

Reginald didn't address any of this as he turned to Vanya and raised his eyebrows. "And you?"

"Uh, maybe we don't take Vanya for a test run," Luther suggested hesitantly as he petted Vanya's arm and shook his head.

"Oh, yeah, that's probably not a good idea," Klaus agreed, quickly nodding as he brought his martini up to his lips.

"It's fine," Vanya reassured them with a shrug as she grabbed her fork. "I can handle it."

"Handle it?" Allison scoffed. "Last time you handled it, you definitely blew up the moon."

"No," Five exclaimed as she leaned down and squinted her eyes, "Vanya, don't!"

Vanya ignored everyone's pleas for her to stop as she tapped the side of her fork against her wooden cup. Immediately, soundwaves released off of it, hitting the fruit platter and causing it to explode.

The group covered their faces to protect themselves as the bits of fruit and juice darted toward them, but it wasn't much help as their clothes and hair dirtied.

"This is my favourite shirt," Klaus complained as he looked down at his shirt which was now stained in fruit juice and covered in fruit chunks. "Wow."

Vanya giggled as she looked around at the mess she had made, "Oops."

Luther mumbled, "That was actually impressive."

Brushing off a little pineapple that had gotten onto his chest, Diego stood up before leaning his hands on the table and threatening, "Look, we know that you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president."

"Diego," Elizabeth said quietly, but he dismissed her with a wave of a hand.

"You were recently hospitalized, isn't that correct?" Reginald questioned as he lifted an eyebrow. "You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute paranoia."

"Am I?" Diego jeered before he reached into his back pocket. He pulled out the photo of Reginald that had been from the Frankel Footage and tossed it in front of their father for him to see. "Explain this. That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's gonna get shot."

His eyebrows raised, Reginald picked the photo up and examined it for a moment as everyone nervously watched. The corner of his lip tugged upwards as he gave the photo back to Diego and sighed, "Well . . . I suppose you've solved it. You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot." He halted for a moment, watching as a victorious grin came onto Diego's face before scoffing, "Is that what you want to hear? You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy? This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head."

Diego slowly sat back into his chair, his eyelids fluttering as he shook his head and stuttered, "You're wr . . . wrong."

"Hey, it's okay," Elizabeth whispered to him, keeping her eyes on Reginald as she interlaced her fingers with Diego's in an attempt to reassure him. "Don't listen to him."

Diego clenched his jaw, not saying anything in return as his eyes moistened, but his grip on her hand tightened.

"Look, forget about the president." Five sighed before leaning forward and telling their father, "We have a catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it."

"War?" Reginald scoffed. "Men will always be at war with each other."

"No, this isn't just some war," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "We're talking about an apocalypse. The end of the world."

"Well . . ." Reginald mused, a humourless smile growing onto his face as he leaned back in his chair and gestured towards them, "you're the special ones, aren't you? Why don't you band together and do something about it?"

Drawing their attention away from their father, Klaus began to gasp and groan as his arms lifted into the air. He began to shake, his gasps growing louder as he writhed in his chair.

"Is he having a seizure?" Allison questioned in alarm.

Diego rolled his eyes. "Overdosing probably."

Vanya furrowed her eyebrows as she looked around at them. "Should we do something?"

"Klaus!" Elizabeth leaned forward, her grip on Diego's hand unconsciously growing tighter as she angrily whispered, "Now is not the time. What are you doing?"

Klaus, whose face was slowly turning into a deep shade of red, turned towards Reginald and breathed out, "I'm . . ."

A look of disgust came across Reginald's face as he exclaimed, "Out with it, boy!"

". . . Ben!"

Klaus then fell to the floor, his eyes closed but his body still twitching slightly.

"Well . . ." Reginald heaved a heavy sigh, "thank you for coming. I've seen about enough."

He got up from his spot, quickly grabbing his journal and pen before beginning to head towards the door. The others stared at him in shock but didn't say anything before Luther got up. The large man slammed his fists onto the table, causing Reginald to turn in alarm.

"Look at what you did to me!" Luther yelled, then ripping his shirt open to expose his torso. "Look at it!"

"Oh, shit," Five breathed out as he leaned back against his chair, shoving a hand through his hair as a distressed look came over his face. "Why?"

Reginald stared at Luther for a moment with utter disgust before he shook his head and turned to Elizabeth and Five. "You two, in the uniforms. A word, in private?"

Elizabeth let go of Diego's hand, placing a quick kiss on the top of his head before following Five and Reginald toward the room across from the Tiki Lounge.

Reginald sat at the bar, where a bartender was cleaning the counter with a dirty rag. The other two took seats next to him, exchanging glances before looking toward Reginald.

Reginald let out a long exhale before he looked towards the two, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he reasoned, "You two seem to be the sensible ones of the bunch."

"That's because I'm the oldest," Five answered before gesturing towards Elizabeth, "and she's the smartest."

The bartender finished wiping the counter before setting a crystal bottle that held a dark alcohol on Reginald's side.

Reginald raised his eyebrows at the two as he nodded toward the glass.

Five's upper lip curled. "Just a smidge."

As the bartender poured the two men their drinks, Reginald lifted his eyebrows towards Five and questioned, "The other night you quoted Homer at me. Why?"

"You forced us all to learn it as kids," he explained as he got his glass. "In the original Greek, no less."

The two men sipped their drink before Elizabeth sighed and redirected the conversation, "This world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline."

"Worlds end," Reginald said with a small shrug. "Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on."

Five's eyebrows furrowed as his head tilted. "We can do something about this one."

Reginald gave a shake of the head as he said, "Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control."

"We need your help. All right? You're our last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make." Five paused for a moment, his eyebrows knitting together tightly before he asked, "What do you know about time travel?"

Reginald quirked an eyebrow. "In theory?"

"In practice," Five answered.

Reginald sighed, pondering for a moment before starting, "I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing—"

"As an acorn," both Elizabeth and Five finished in unison.

Reginald gazed at them for a moment before raising his eyebrows and inquiring, "What transpired when you tried travelling before?"

A bitter smile came onto Five's face as he answered, "Botched it."

Reginald leaned forward. "How?"

"I jumped too far forward, got stuck in the future for twenty-one years in an apocalypse," Five sighed. "Then I jumped too far backwards . . . except this time I brought my entire family with me. She tried too—to find me," Five said as he gestured back at Elizabeth, "but she got stuck in her portal."

Reginald stared at the two for a couple of moments as he thought before suggesting, "Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities. Start small. Seconds, not decades."

"Seconds?" Five echoed in disbelief, his eyebrows furrowing.

Reginald nodded. "Mmm."

"Look, no offence," Five scoffed, "but I need a bit more time for what I'm trying to accomplish."

"So much can change in a matter of seconds," Reginald pointed out with a small lift of his shoulders. "One could overthrow an empire. One could fall in love. An acorn doesn't become an oak overnight."

Five pressed his lips together as he shook his head. "I was really hoping you had more than that."

Reginald's gaze turned downwards as he shrugged. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help."

"I'm sorry, too," Five sighed. "I gave you such a hard time as a kid. I didn't know any better."

"Hmm." Reginald gave them a humoured smile as he reassured him, "No skin off my teeth, old man."

Unsatisfied with the night's events, the two bid Reginald goodnight before heading out of the building.

They entered the chilly night, their breaths releasing in short mists as they walked down towards the sidewalk in silence.

After a few more moments, Five finally spoke, "I guess . . . I have to go to the Handler now."

"What?" Elizabeth's eyebrows furrowed as she turned her head to face him. "Not 'I'. We. You already said I could go with you."

Five stopped walking, his eyes peering into hers as he placed a warm hand on her cold cheek. "Elle, I don't—"

"And I don't care." She leaned forward and planted a short kiss on his lips. "I'm not letting you go alone."

Five nodded slowly. "Then let's go."

—✩—

Elizabeth and Five approached the lime-green doors of the hotel room that the Handler was staying in, and waited for a few moments.

The doors opened to show a tall woman, who wore a sparkling black dress and a wide grin. "Five!" Her gaze turned towards Elizabeth, and an eyebrow quirked as she looked back at Five. "Ah, who's this?"

Five slipped his hands into the pockets of his shorts as he replied, "None of your concern."

The Handler pursed her lips together, a humoured smile playing on her lips as she insisted, "But isn't it?"

"No," Five cut in. "We're here for—"

"I know what you're here for," she giggled. "And I'd like to be aware of who is a part of this deal." She bent her knees slightly as she leaned forward towards Elizabeth, chucking the girl's chin as she asked, "What's your name, gorgeous?"

Elizabeth looked over to Five, who rolled his eyes and gave her a reluctant nod.

She looked back towards the woman and muttered, "Elizabeth."

"Oh, Elizabeth!" The Handler clapped her hands together as she straightened up and looked over towards Five, her eyebrows raised. "The one you always talked about?" She looked back towards Elizabeth, placing her index finger under the girl's chin and lifting her face slightly to examine it. "Hm, that smart brain of yours would be quite useful, now, wouldn't it?"

"Enough." Five pushed her hand away before stepping inside the room. He sighed, looking around for a moment as the woman strode across the room and grabbed a cigar before lighting it. "To be clear, we take out the board . . . You get me and my family home. No more doomsday, no more apocalypse. Is that correct?"

The Handler gave them an amused smile as she went over to her nightstand and picked up a small, folded piece of paper. 

She laid across the bed and nodded before telling them, her voice slightly muffled from the cigar in her mouth, "That's the deal."

Five nodded. "Then we're in."

With a smirk on her face, the Handler leaned forward and handed Five the paper. He unfolded it to reveal cursive writing on it that revealed the information they needed.

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝐿𝑜𝒹𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝐼𝓃𝓃.
𝒪𝓈𝒽𝓀𝑜𝓈𝒽, 𝒲𝒾𝓃𝓈𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓃, 𝟣𝟫𝟪𝟤