❝ Hell, yeah. Dream team, baby. ❞

―

LIENA STARED AT NUMBER FIVE WITH A MIX OF SHOCK AND CONFUSION.

She sat at the table in the kitchen, gathered with the others as Five stood in front of them. He had not aged a day since the fateful day that he had disappeared screen years ago. She didn't understand how that was possible. Perhaps it was somehow related to time travel. She remembered what Reginald had said before Five had left the house about how time travel could be rather unpredictable, and then there was something about reappearing as an acorn.

"What's the date?" Five questioned as he began to make a sandwich. "The exact date."

"The 24th," Vanya answered.

"Of what?" Five asked.

"March," Vanya told him.

"Good," Five responded.

Liena tilted her head, exchanging a glance with Diego. The man shrugged, and then they both turned their attention back toward Five.

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked.

Five remained silent, focused on his preparing his sandwich and nothing else. Liena sighed, leaning back in her chair as she folded her arms across her chest.

Luther stood up from his seat. "It's been seventeen years."

"It's been a lot longer than that," Five retorted, blinking away in a flash of blue to grab something off one of the shelves behind Luther.

Luther sighed. "I haven't missed that."

"Where'd you go?" Diego questioned.

"The future," Five replied, reappearing back in front of them with a bag of marshmallows. "It's shit, by the way."

"Called it," Klaus announced as he held his finger up in the air.

"I should've listened to the old man," Five rambled as he opened the refrigerator. "You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice."

Five looked up Klaus "Nice dress."

"Oh, well, danke!" Klaus thanked him.

"Wait, how did you get back?" Vanya asked.

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state of myself that exists across every possible instance of time," Five tried to explain.

Liena furrowed her eyebrows, not fully grasping what he was saying. She glanced around at the others, seeing that she wasn't the only one who was confused by the explanation that Five provided.

"That makes no sense," Diego vocalized what they were all thinking.

"Well, it would if you were smarter," Five shot back.

Diego rose to his feet, but Luther extended his arm out and stopped him from starting a fight. Liena tugged on Diego's arm, causing him to look down at her. She shook her head, and Diego sighed quietly as he turned back toward Five.

"How long were you there?" Luther asked.

"Forty-five years," Five told him. "Give or take."

Diego and Luther slowly sat back down, both of them staring blankly at the boy in front of him.

"So, what are you saying?" Luther questioned. "That you're fifty-eight?"

"No, my consciousness is fifty-eight," Five replied. "Apparently, my body is now thirteen again."

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked.

"Delores kept saying that the equations were off," Five said as he turned around and then shrugged. "Eh. Bet she's laughing now."

Vanya raised an eyebrow. "Delores?"

Five evaded the question as he chewed the food in his mouth and picked up the newspaper on the table that had Reginald's death as the headline. "Hmm. Guess I missed the funeral."

"How'd you know about that?" Luther asked.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Five spoke in a condescending tone. "Heart failure, huh?"

"Yeah," Diego said at the same time that Luther said, "No."

"Hmm." Five clicked his tongue as he dropped the newspaper. "Nice to see nothing's changed."

"So...I have a question." Liena leaned forward, causing everyone to turn their heads in various directions to look at her. "Is the fact that you came back as your thirteen-year-old self the acorn? Does that make you the acorn? You know, from that thing that Reginald used to say about descending blindly and then reappearing as an acorn?"

Five shrugged. "Perhaps."

Five started to walk out of the kitchen. Liena followed him with her eyes sighing when he didn't turn around.

"Uh, that's it?" Allison asked as he kept walking. "That's all you have to say?"

"What else is there to say?" Five said as he left the room. "The circle of life."

"Well..." Luther broke the silence that had washed over them. "That was interesting."

"That's one way to put it," Liena said.

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Liena stood outside in the courtyard where Ben's statue had been placed. The rain poured down on her and the other Hargreaves; they carried a black umbrella in their hands, shielding themselves from the rain.

Diego stood between Liena and Grace. He was starting to get drenched from the rain. Liena rolled her eyes and took a step closer to him and raised the umbrellas up a little higher so that he was underneath it. Diego turned and looked down at her as he took a step back.

"What, are you too cool for an umbrella?" Liena asked him. "Even wannabe vigilantes use umbrellas."

Liena stepped back, holding her umbrella up so that he was under it once more. Diego knew how stubborn she could be and accepted his fate. She wasn't going to let him stand out in the rain without an umbrella, even if that meant she was getting slightly wet in the process from having to hold it up to accommodate his height.

"Did something happen?" Grace asked in confusion, causing them all to turn toward her.

"Dad died," Allison told her. "Remember?"

"Oh," Grace replied. "Yes, of course."

"Is mom okay?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine," Diego replied. "She just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

"Whenever you're ready, my dear boy," Pogo told Luther.

Luther held Reginald's urn in his hand and stared down at it before he took a few steps forward. He opened the lid and tilted the urn so that the ashes could flow out. But instead, the ashes fell straight down into a pile of leaves. Liena stared down at the pile.

"Oh..." she uttered softly.

"Probably would have been better with some wind," Luther said as he looked up.

"Does anyone wish to speak?" Pogo asked.

He looked up to see if any of them would volunteer, but they remained silent. Liena averted her eyes at the ground, avoiding Pogo's gaze.

"Very well," Pogo nodded before beginning his own speech. "In all regards, Sir Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt."

Liena exchanged a glance with Diego. She grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze.

"He was my master..." Pogo continued. "And my friend, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy—"

"He was a monster," Diego interjected.

Klaus let out a breathy laugh. Liena turned her head to look at him, noticing that he was smoking a cigarette. She just shook her head at him before she directed her attention back to Diego. She gave his hand another light squeeze, trying to calm him down, but it was no use.

"He was a bad person and worse father," Diego continued to speak. "The world's better off without him."

"Diego," Allison urged him to stop.

But Diego only continued as he turned his head at her. "My name is Number Two. You know why? Because our father couldn't be bothered to give us actual names. He had mom do it."

"Would anyone like something to eat?" Grace asked, oblivious to the situation.

"No, it's okay, Mom," Vanya told her.

Grace smiled. "Oh, okay."

"Look, you wanna pay your respects," Diego said as he pulled his hand away from Liena's. "Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was."

"You should stop talking now," Luther warned.

Diego turned to look at him. "You know, you of all people should be on my side here, Number One."

"I am warning you," Luther said sternly.

"After everything he did to you?" Diego continued, only fueling Luther's anger even more. "He had to ship you a million miles away."

Luther gritted his teeth. "Diego, stop talking."

"That's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you!" Diego challenged him, poking his chest with his finger.

Luther pushed his arm away and attempted to throw a punch at him. Diego leaned back, dodging his fist. They started throwing more punches at each other. Liena rolled her eyes as she watched them fight and spew insults at each other.

"Stop it!" Vanya cried out.

"Hit him! Hit him!" Klaus cheered them on.

Liena shot him a glare. "You are you even rooting for?"

Klaus shrugged. "I don't know...whoever's winning?"

Liena couldn't help but laugh at the statement. She chuckled as she turned her head and looked at the two fighting men in front of her. Luther launched a punch at Diego, but he managed to step out of the way. Liena's heart skipped a beat when Luther's fist collided with Ben's statue. It fell to the floor in pieces.

"And there goes Ben's statue," Allison commented.

"Diego, no!"

Liena turned her head at the sound of Vanya's voice to see Diego throwing a knife in Luther's direction. It flew through the air, slicing Luther on the arm. Luther gasped in pain as he grabbed his arm and began to walk back inside.

"You never know when to stop, do you?" Vanya asked Diego.

"You got enough material for your sequel yet?" Diego asked.

"He was my father, too," Vanya said before following Luther inside.

Diego walked toward Liena and Grace.

"Diego..." Liena whispered.

"Don't," Diego shook his head at her. "I don't need one of your lectures right now."

"I wasn't going to lecture you," Liena replied.

Diego sighed and placed his hand on Grace's arm. "Mom. Let's go inside. Come on. Okay?"

Liena stood in place as they started to walk away. She huffed and then started walking toward the door to get out of the rain.

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Seventeen years ago...

Liena looked up from the bottom of the staircase, standing with the rest of the Umbrella Academy. Reginald stood at the very top of the stairs with Vanya by his side. At the sound of the whistle blowing, Liena started to run up the stairs behind Allison. The others started pushing past her as they all tried to get to the top of the stairs the fastest. She was still fairly new to the academy and was hellbent on proving herself. She wasn't going to go down without a fight.

A flash of blue light appeared beside Liena as Five blinked his way into first place with his spatial jumps.

"That's not fair, Five's cheating!" Diego called out.

"He adapted," Reginald replied from the top of the stairs.

Liena looked around. She was starting to fall behind. She looked down at her hands and thought for a moment. Five used his spatial jumps to get into first place. Surely she could use her powers as well.

Liena ran up the stairs and placed her hand on Ben's shoulder. He turned to look at her as a small flame appeared on his jacket. Ben let out a small gasp of surprise.

"Sorry," Liena whispered to him as she continued to run.

Liena pushed past Klaus and Allison. When she reached Luther, Liena placed her hand on his shoulder just like she had done with Ben. A heat surged through her hand as the flame manifested from her palm. Luther quickly pushed her hand away as his jacket began to smoke.

"Liena!" Luther exclaimed, glancing at his shoulder.

"Sorry, not sorry," Liena replied.

────────────

Liena sat at the kitchen table with Klaus. Liena had her feet propped up on the table as Klaus strummed on the electric guitar in his hand. He wasn't playing an actual song, just plucking any and all strings he could as Liena sang the lyrics to the song that the two of them had made up years ago. Liena couldn't believe that she still remembered all the words.

Five was searching the kitchen, ignoring them both. He had almost forgotten how chaotic the two could be, and even before he got stuck in the apocalypse, he often ignored their antics.

"Where's Vanya?" Allison asked as she entered the room.

"Oh, she's gone," Klaus answered.

"That's unfortunate," Five said.

Allison nodded. "Yeah."

"An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee," Five rambled.

"Dad hated caffeine," Allison commented.

"Well, he hated children, and he had plenty of us," Klaus joked, followed by a laugh.

"I'm taking the car," Five said after a brief moment of silence.

Klaus perked up. "Where are you going?"

Liena furrowed her brows. "You know how to drive?"

Five turned to look at Klaus. "To get a decent cup of coffee." He shifted his gaze to Liena. "And I know how to do everything."

He blinked away in a flash of blue. Liena sighed and swung her feet off the table, placing them on the floor.

"I feel like we should try and stop him," Klaus said as he stood up. "But then again, I also kind of want to see what happens."

The sound of an engine turning over could be heard from outside. Liena stood up from her seat and grabbed her leather jacket from the back of the chair. As she put it on, Diego came waltzing into the kitchen.

"All right, guess I'll see you guys in, what, ten years?" Diego asked. "When Pogo dies?"

Allison scoffed. "Not if you die first."

"Yeah, love you too, sis," Diego replied. "Good luck on your next film. Hope it turns out better than your marriage, huh?"

Liena rolled her eyes and walked up to him. "Okay, you're done. Let's go."

She placed her hands on his back and started pushing him out of the room. Diego resisted, but if there was anything that Liena was good at, it was outmatching Diego.

"Are—are we leaving?" Klaus asked as he followed them.

"No, I'm leaving, me by myself," Diego told him.

Klaus pointed at Liena. "What about her? Why does she get to go with you?"

"Because she does," Diego responded.

"We live in the same place now," Liena added.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It's not like that," Liena told him. "Don't get any ideas."

"Moi?" Klaus asked, pointing to himself. "I could never."

"What are you still doing following us?" Diego asked. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"I could always come with you," Klaus said with a smile.

Diego sighed. "You are—"

"Oh, fabulous!" Klaus clapped his hands. "I'll get my things."

Klaus ran off, leaving Liena and Diego by themselves. They were silent as they walked out to the car. Liena opened the passenger side door and sat in the front seat. She shut the door as Klaus came running up to the car and got in the backseat, causing both her and Diego to jump.

"Hey! Diego," Klaus said as he sat down. "You know, every time I close my eyes, I see a diarrhetic hippo about to shit on my face. It's terrifying."

Liena's face scrunched up in disgust as she turned her head to look at him. "What the hell?"

"Terrific," Diego said unenthusiastically.

As Diego turned on the engine, Liena buckled her seatbelt and then turned her head to the backseat.

Klaus closed his eyes and shook his head. "No! No."

Liena chuckled, shaking her head at him.

"You're so weird," Liena told him.

Klaus placed his hand on his heart. "Why, thank you, Liena Beana."

"Lean back," Diego told Klaus.

The engine revved, and Diego sped away, leaving the academy behind.

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Liena sat in the car with Klaus as Diego stood in front of the lake, staring off into the distance. Liena squinted her eyes, trying to get a glimpse of what Diego was doing. He refused to tell her anything about why they were going to the lake and had gotten defensive when she kept pressing. He made her promise to stay in the car, but she didn't agree.

The only reason she was still in the car and not stabbing next to Diego, demanding to know what he was doing was because she wanted to stay with Klaus. She wanted to keep an eye on him. But she wasn't really paying attention to him at all; her eyes were fixated on Diego.

Liena furrowed her eyebrows when she saw him holding a reflective object in his hand. She was too far away to see what it was.

Klaus opened the car door and stuck his head out. "Yoo-hoo, Diego! I hate to rush you through any kind of brooding moment you might be having, but come on, man, we're starving!"

As Klaus shut the door, aliens turned her head to look at him on the back seat.

Klaus sighed. "I'm craving...eggs." Klaus clicked his tongue. "No! Wait, it's too late for eggs. Waffles. Huh?"

Klaus turned his head to look at the seat next to him as he continued talking. "You like waffles, right? Ah. Of course you do. Everyone likes waffles."

Liena didn't see anyone in the backseat, but she figured that he was talking to a ghost—specifically Ben's ghost. Klaus had told her years ago that Ben was still hanging around, appearing from time to time.

Liena smiled at the seat behind her. "Hey, Ben."

"He says hi back," Klaus told her.

Liena turned around as the driver's side door opened. Diego got into the car and slammed his door closed.

"Diego, thank you for joining us; we have decided on, drum roll," Klaus said as he tapped on the back of Diego's seat, "waffles."

"I'm gonna drop you off at the bus stop," Diego told him. "I gotta get back to work."

"What, breaking bones and cracking skulls?" Klaus asked.

"Saving lives, baby," Diego replied.

Klaus sighed. "Well, I guess it's frozen waffles again."

Diego adjusted the review mirror to look in the backseat as Klaus continued talking, but he saw no one. He turned on the engine and drove away, leaving the lake behind.

Diego did, in fact, drop Klaus off at the bus stop. When Klaus got out of the car, Liena looked at Diego.

"What is it this time?" Liena asked. "Another robbery?"

Diego shook his head. "Gunshots were reported at Griddy's Doughnuts."

"Well, what are we still doing sitting here?" Liena questioned. "It's time for some real tough vigilante shit."

Diego's eyebrows scrunched together. "You wanna join me? I thought you said it was stupid."

Liena shrugged. "It is stupid; don't get me wrong. But I have nothing else to do, so why not? Maybe it'll be fun."

Diego chuckled. "Hell, yeah. Dream team, baby."

Liena shook her head. "Don't ever say that again, or I will burn you."

Diego just laughed as he started to drive in the direction of Griddy's Doughnuts.

— EMILIA'S NOTES

i love chaotic besties liena & klaus.

also i'm going to try and include as many of the flashback scenes as possible and i might add some of my own to show liena's story.

okay well, thank you for reading. hope you're enjoying this fic so far!