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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙ. ʙ. ᴇꜰꜰᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛs, sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛs
ᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏ ғᴜɴ ꒱　


❝ OH, IS THAT ALL? GREAT ❞

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The pair made their way into the kitchen as Klaus was pouring coffee for himself and Luther. Five, of course, took Luther's cup from him and then sat down in an empty chair. Klaus glanced up from his own mug, looking unusually happy. "Good morning, troublemakers." Alexa wondered how high he was.

"Jesus, who do I gotta kill to get a decent cup of coffee?" Five asked after he'd taken a sip.

"Hey!" Alexa protested as she remembered the coffee she'd served him what felt like ages ago.

The boy rolled his eyes. "You know you're exempt from that."

The blonde smiled in a self-satisfied sort of way as she took the remaining empty chair on their side. Luther— who looked completely horrible— groaned. "Can we get started, please?"

"Anyone seen any of the others?" Klaus asked. "Diego, Allison? No?" When he didn't get a response, the man sighed. "Alright, then, this is the closest thing to a quorum that we're gonna get." He tapped a spoon noisily on the table, causing Alexa to roll her eyes at his drama. "Now, listen up. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna spit it out."

There was a pause where Alexa sighed. As much as she cared about her brother, there were more important things to do. For once, Luther seemed to be on the same page as she was and started to interrupt him, "Klaus—"

Their brother cut him off. "I conjured Dad last night."

The statement was met with disbelieving looks which wasn't a surprise. The last time Klaus' powers had been of any use was way before The Umbrella Academy broke up and it seemed almost impossible that they would work now.

"I thought you said you hadn't been able to conjure anyone in years," Luther pointed out.

"Yes, I know, but I'm sober," he exclaimed happily and held his arms out in a show of triumph. Alexa wearily placed her elbows on the table and pressed her hands to her temples, not wanting to deal with the oncoming discussion as Klaus continued: "I wanted to talk to someone special but then ended up having this conversation with dear old Daddy himself."

"Does anyone have some aspirin?" Luther asked, choosing to ignore their brother's rambling.

Alexa glanced at him. "You look terrible, moon-man. What happened to you?"

"Thanks," came his sarcastic response before he sighed. "I don't wanna talk about it. Aspirin?" he asked again.

Five gestured with his coffee cup. "Top shelf next to the crackers."

Klaus made a noise of protest. "Hey, hey, hey, guys, this is serious. This really happened. I swear it."

Alexa sighed as she felt the uncomfortable night's sleep creeping in and stealing her attention. The blonde lowered her arms to the table and buried her head in them, welcoming the warm darkness as a distraction from her dysfunctional family as Five said, "okay, I'll play. What did the old man have to say?"

"Well," Klaus started, "he gave me the usual lecture about my appearance, my failures in life, yada, yada, yada, no surprise there. Even the afterlife couldn't stop someone like Dad, right? But, he did mention something about his murder or lack thereof. Because. . . he killed himself."

Alexa raised her head from her arms. "Really, Klaus?" she asked, giving him a look that echoed her statement.

Luther shared her disbelief. "I don't have time for your games, Klaus," he said as he stood.

Their brother protested at their skepticism. "No— no, I'm telling you the truth, guys— I'm—"

"Why'd he do it then?" Five asked.

"He said it was the only way to get us all home again," Klaus said, sounding like he didn't believe the reasoning either.

"Dad wouldn't just kill himself," Luther argued.

Alexa thought back to the night she'd heard about her father's death and remembered that it had seemed too quiet for the man that he was. It definitely didn't seem like something he'd do even after being alone in a big house for so long. Five didn't share their side, though. "You said it yourself. He was depressed, holed up in his office and room all day and night."

"There weren't any signs. Suicidal people exhibit certain tendencies, strange behaviors."

"Like sending someone to the moon for no reason?" Klaus pointed out.

Luther's expression hardened. "I swear to god, Klaus, if you're lying—"

"I'm not," the man exclaimed. "I'm not—"

A voice spoke from behind them, causing Alexa to jump. "Master Klaus is correct," Pogo said as the three of them turned to face their caretaker. "Regretfully, I helped Master Hargreeves enact his plan."

"What?" Luther breathed.

"So did Grace. It was a difficult choice for both of us," Pogo replied heavily, "more difficult than you could ever know. Prior to your father's death, Grace's programming was adjusted so that she was incapable of administering first aid on that fateful night."

Alexa slumped in her chair, surprised that Klaus was right, for once. No wonder she'd thought it'd been too quiet— that had been the point of the whole thing.

"So the security tapes—"

"It was meant to further the murder mystery. Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together, would reignite your desire to be a team again," Pogo explained.

"To what end?" Five asked.

"To save the world, of course."

Klaus gave a disbelieving laugh. "Alright."

"First the moon mission and now this." Luther paused as he turned to look at the chimpanzee. "You watched me search for answers and you said nothing. Anything else you wanna share, Pogo? Any other damn secrets?" His voice raised as he grew angrier.

Klaus jumped in. "Hey, hey— calm down—"

That turned out to be a bad move as their brother turned on them. "No, I won't calm down," he snapped. "We've been lied to by the one person in this family we all trusted."

"It was your father's dying wish, Master Luther," Pogo said. "I-I had no choice."

Luther stepped closer to him. "There's always a choice," he growled before he left the room.

Pogo left after that, leaving the three remaining Hargreeves to digest the new information. Alexa was torn since she was close to Pogo and he'd gone up to bat for her; she didn't want to blame him. She'd also never had Luther's connection with their father so his way of death wasn't nearly as blindsiding for her. But still, when Reginald had finally passed and her siblings had gathered at the house, it seemed like Pogo should've said something to them especially since he of all people would know how dysfunctional the Hargreeves siblings could be.

"I gotta think," Five said as he disappeared in a flash of blue.

Alexa didn't blame him and stood up from the table herself as she made the decision to pay a visit to her old room, wanting to be alone.

☂☂☂

Sometime later found her lying face-up on her bed, staring at the ceiling and forcing herself to think of nothing. The break was welcome from the constant stress that came with having to save the world and even though it felt like she was wasting time, she knew it was necessary in order to get her thoughts together. Alexa was pulled from said thoughts at the familiar wooshing sound that meant Five had appeared.

"Ready to go?" he asked without bothering to announce himself.

The blonde let out a sigh and sat up, running her fingers through her probably very messy hair. "I guess."

The boy's eyes lingered on her for a second before he turned towards the door. "Come on, then. We've got to find the others."

They made their way to Klaus' room where they found the man in a position similar to Alexa's. "Hey, get up," Five said as he walked briskly into the room. "We're going."

"Where?"

"To save the world."

"Oh, is that all?" Klaus asked. "Great."

"So, Pogo said Dad killed himself to get us all back together, right?" the boy started as Klaus slowly got himself sorted out.

"Yeah, so?"

"So it got me thinking. I had to jump to the future to figure out when it happened but Dad— he can't time travel so how'd the crazy bastard know how to kill himself a week before the end of the world?"

That is a pretty good point, Alexa thought as she leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms as she watch Five pace.

"Well, y'know—" Klaus started.

"Don't answer— that was purely rhetorical." Five interrupted him. "The truth is, our whole lives he's been telling us we'd save the world from an impending apocalypse."

"Yeah, but I always thought he said that to scare us into doing the dishes," Klaus said as he pulled on his shoes.

"Me too," Five agreed. "But what if the old man really knew what was going to happen?"

"Knew how?"

"No idea, but the fact remains that the plan worked. We all came home and since we're here, we might as well save the world."

"Hell yeah," Alexa agreed from the doorway.

Five spared her a look before Klaus caught his attention. "Like the three of us?"

"Ideally no," the boy answered. "But I've gotta work with what I've got— not you," he added before Alexa could protest.

She gave him a pleased, amused look as the three of them left Klaus' room. Diego came running through the hall as they were leaving. "Where have you been?" she asked, wondering why Allison wasn't with him.

"Jail," came his simple answer as he ducked into his room. "Long story. Where's Luther?"

"Haven't seen him since breakfast," Five said. He exchanged a confused look with Alexa.

"Yeah, two days before the world ends and he picks a great time to go off the grid," Klaus commented.

"Where's Allison?" the blonde woman asked as Diego got whatever he'd needed and joined them.

"She's in danger," Diego answered.

☂☂☂

They found Luther sitting alone at a local bar. Alexa wrinkled her nose at the dusty atmosphere although she couldn't help but admit that it was the perfect place for someone who was being a jerk.

"Look," Klaus said. He pointed unnecessarily to the largest man in the room.

"Leave me alone," Luther grumbled as they approached him.

Diego sat down waving a hand at his siblings. "Give us a minute."

"Okay," Klaus said. "Maybe they'll brood each other to death."

Alexa gave him an amused look and decided that that was something those two particular brothers would do. She, Klaus and Five backed off to an empty nearby table to give them some space.

"—you should've led with that!" came Luther's loud exclamation.

"I guess we got him," Alexa commented as their brother shoved his chair back and headed for the door leaving his siblings to follow.