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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙ. ʙ. ᴇꜰꜰᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴇxᴘᴇᴄᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴠs ʀᴇᴀʟɪᴛʏ ꒱　


❝ I CAN'T BE A GUARDIAN
ANGEL IF I'M TEARING
MY FAMILY APART ❞

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A seventeen-year-old Alexa threw herself onto her bed without bothering to change out of her blood stained uniform. Her eyes were clouded with tears that refused to fall and her throat was tight with held-in sobs. It had been a mission gone wrong, one that shouldn't have happened. As the Umbrella Academy got older, rifts began to separate the members thanks to Reginald's A-plus parenting and it had reached a climax during the mission which resulted in another casualty. 

Ben, I'm sorry. It's my fault. All mine Alexa thought brokenly.

And she truly did see it as her fault; since Five's disappearance, she'd gotten closer to her brother who had eventually confided in her how he felt about the darkness of his powers— and today she'd let Luther push him past the breaking point. Alexa was supposed to protect her family. She should've stood up for him but she'd remained silent as their leader practically bullied Ben into using his powers. When the blonde closed her eyes, she could still see the monsters tearing her brother from within, his pained scream and the dull thump of his body as it fell ringing in her ears. Finally, she let out a loud sob and as if a dam had been broken, they wouldn't stop.

Klaus had recently— in his moments when he wasn't so high— chalked Ben's seemingly growing darkness up to the teenage boy's hormones but Alexa didn't think that alternate-dimension beings cared about human bodily functions. Her brother had been having trouble controlling his powers since he'd been a teen though, so maybe Klaus was actually on to something. They'd promised him that the three of them would figure it out together. 

That can't happen now, Alex thought as her mind grew fuzzy from her meltdown.

Her door creaked open and for a moment, she thought maybe it was Klaus but by now he'd probably be passed out as Ben had always been worried about. Besides, she'd killed his best friend. Why would he want to come see her? Instead, the figure of an older woman with blonde hair appeared in the doorway before she moved closer to the girl she viewed as her daughter.

Glancing up for a moment to see her mother, Alexa felt another wash of guilt overcome her. 

I just killed her son, she thought miserably. But, the woman had a gentle smile on her face; there wasn't an ounce of hatred like the teen thought there would be.

Looking towards the robotic woman again, Alexa sniffled and choked out, "why are you here?"

Frowning slightly, Grace replied, "you're upset, dear." Then, she tilted her head slightly and asked, "do you want me to leave?"

The younger blonde shook her head even though she knew it was selfish to want care from a person who'd just lost one of their children due to another one. As her mother gently sat on her bed and lifted her daughter's head into her lap, Alexa turned to face her. "You're supposed to hate me, Mom." A sob escaped after the last word.

The older woman gave her a soft look and Alexa could've sworn she was real. Her mother paused a moment before she spoke: "one of my children is upset and needs comfort. How could I hate you?"

A part of her wanted to answer snarkily that their father had programmed her that way but that was Five's response, not hers. Instead, she sniffed again and answered, "I killed your son, Mom."

Grace frowned again and began to slowly run her fingers through the girl's hair. "You didn't kill him, Alexa. The mission did."

"But I'm supposed to protect everyone, Mom. You know that. The name that you gave me even means protector. I can't be a Guardian Angel if I'm tearing my family apart." 'Guardian Angel' was the public's favorite nickname for her.

The older woman continued to stroke her daughter's golden hair. "Why do you think you're tearing your family apart?"

Alexa wiped her blurry eyes and explained flatly, "I tried to convince Five to wait on time travel and he disappears. Ben told me about his powers and I did nothing, now he's dead. Who's next?" she asked bitterly. "Maybe it would just be better if I left."

Grace sighed (or she would've if she breathed.) "Do what you think is best, dear. I'm not going to stop you. But what if you talked to your siblings? They're just as miserable as you right now."

"No, because I caused them to feel that way. They probably hate me now." Just the thought of it made her want to curl up in a ball and join her brother in whatever afterlife there was. 

"They don't hate you, Alexa," came her mother's reply, but the girl wasn't listening anymore— she was making a new plan.

There was no fairytale future for her and Five now, she knew. Of course, Alexa believed he was still alive but she had to keep moving— life was never stagnant, after all. He would probably hate her too, anyway, if he was here. Instead, the blonde decided that she'd survive the last few months until she turned eighteen and then hightail it out of the Academy to leave this life behind. She vowed to herself that she would not be the cause of anymore deaths of her family.

☂☂☂

The taxi let them off at an empty parking lot of a department store. Casting a curious glance at the boy next to her, Alexa then looked up irritably at the rainy sky. Despite having just gotten out of the taxi she was soaked to the bone already thanks to the persistent drizzle. Would you look at that, she thought, slightly amused, the Umbrella Academy without umbrellas.

"Can we go inside?" she asked aloud in a slightly whiny sort of voice.

If she'd been anyone else, Five would've answered with something like it's just rain, suck it up, but instead he rolled his eyes, grabbed her hand and jumped them inside the store. Quickly separating herself from him, the blonde looked around interestedly. After all, she'd never been in a store after hours. The racks were lumps of uneven shadows and it was nearly impossible to tell what anything really was. Glancing up, she saw the turned-off TV monitor and gave it a goofy wave before she felt silly about the action as she knew that no one would see it.

Following Five's lead, they both took flashlights from a nearby shelf before talking the left aisle and headed through the women's section as the lights guided their way. Frowning slightly, Alexa was tempted to break the still silence to ask why they were there but knew better than to do that with Five. Instead, she ran her hands over the materials as she passed them in order to occupy her mind.

Stopping at a group of mannequins in the center of the section, the blonde finally gave into her curiosity and opened her mouth to ask why they were there but the look on the boy's face stopped her. It was how he used to look at me, she thought as her stomach twisted in knots. Glancing from him to what he was looking at though didn't do anything to clear up her confusion.

That was, until he spoke: "Dolores. It's good to see you. I've missed you, obviously. Well, it's been a rough couple of days. I've brought someone for you to meet. You remember Lexa, right? I've told you about her." He glanced at the older woman to watch her reaction.

Alexa's first thought was holy crap, and then she went on the familiar roller coaster of emotions that came with the boy next to her. She was a mannequin! Was Five really insane? the woman thought worriedly, remembering how isolation could mess with the mind. But, when she looked down at the teen, she couldn't feel mad, scared, or angry because he was looking at her hopefully. For a moment, she forgot that he was really a time-hardened fifty-eight year old man and instead saw his physical age— she couldn't hurt his feelings like that.

So, Alexa gave the mannequin a forced smile and greeted her. "Hi, Dolores."

Glancing down at Five, she saw amusement flit across his face for a moment. "She's the next one over, Lexa."

Giving an embarrassed laugh, the blonde turned to the right one but before she could say anything, gunshots blasted over them. They both watched as the mannequins were shot to pieces and Five's distraught cry could be heard over the sound of the guns. Roughly pushing the boy to the floor of the nearby aisle, Alexa lunged forward and grasped the remaining upper body of Dolores— she still hadn't processed this development completely— before she scrambled backwards to join the boy.

He gave her an irritated look. "Are you stupid?"

She grunted and shoved the mannequin towards him. "You're welcome. Who are these guys?"

"It doesn't matter. Stay here," was his short response as he jumped away, leaving Delores behind.

Letting out an irritated snort, Alexa stood up. She popped her head above the aisle and called, "hey, assholes!"

She didn't really have a plan except to get the two gunmen separated so it was less for Five to deal with. Sure enough, a woman's voice sounded over the noise. "Shit, there's two of them!"

Grinning slightly, Alexa turned and fled down the aisle as adrenaline pumped through her veins for the first time in far too long. She glanced back once to make sure she was being tailed, which she was. Purposefully choosing a winding path through the racks, she could hear the woman grunt in annoyance as none of her bullets hit her mark— or at least, that's what she thought. If Alexa hadn't been invincible, she definitely would've been dead by now.

Fixing her end destination in mind, the blonde weaved around the racks towards the front of the store where the checkout lanes were and made sure to keep her follower from getting too close. When she got to her destination, Alexa quickly scanned the area and her eyes lit up when she saw what she was looking for. Running towards the brightly-lit mini fridge, she grabbed three bottles of Coke out of it before she turned to look at the other items.

Smiling almost maniacally when she saw what she needed, the woman lunged toward it and the action caused some of the rolls to spill onto the floor. Not bothering to pick them up, Alexa quickly unscrewed the Coke— which luckily hadn't been too shaken up— and then unwrapped the Mentos. Dumping them into two of the bottles, she put the extra one in her pocket and screwed the caps back on.

As the shooter approached, the woman shook up the mixture vigorously as she waited for the right moment. Not being able to see her attacker's expression due to the mask covering her face, Alexa only reacted when the other woman slowed her bullets as she realized there was no way in hell her target could still be standing at such a close range. Twisting the caps off, the blonde's homemade bullet sprayed foam viciously over the woman's clothes which distracted her so she couldn't connect the dots that Alexa was invulnerable to her attack. While the gun woman was otherwise occupied, the blonde leapt over the barrier and crouched down.

A flash of blue caught her attention as Five appeared on her side of the checkout lanes. Alexa's heart was in her throat as she saw both guns trained on the boy since the woman had joined her comrade again. In the confusion of sudden police sirens, Five was able to duck down and act like he'd made a jump, causing the blonde to frown in concern until she realized he had a bag thrown over his shoulders— he got tired more quickly when he had extra passengers on his jumps.

Meeting his eyes, they heard the man say, "the bastard jumped again."

As the two assassins turned away— for that was all they could be, Alexa realized now— Five joined her on the inside of the checkout counter, still breathing heavily. Despite the threat of being caught by police, both of them leaned their heads back against the cool metal of the cash register, slightly sweaty. Remembering her prize, the blonde opened her stolen Coke which fizzed a bit and took a sip. The boy took the offered drink gratefully as he cradled his mannequin with his free hand as he did so.