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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ǫᴜᴇ sᴇʀᴀ́ , sᴇʀᴀ́ ꒱


❝ HOLD ON! IT'S
GONNA GET MESSY! ❞

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The motel had clearly not been updated since it was first built, with wooden paneling on the walls meeting dark green (rather ugly) paint that matched each room's doors. The lights were dim and gave the hallway an eerie feeling, especially as she and Five approached room twelve.

"Five?" a voice that was unmistakably The Handler's called out. "Wasn't that cannister addressed solely to you?"

The pair exchanged an apprehensive look before the boy pushed open the door to an equally-ugly room. Dolores could immediately tell why it was called Quail. In the middle of the room was a heart-shaped bathtub filled with bubbly water and a food-laden table sat next to it lit with a single candle. On top of the bath, a white-haired woman sat strapped to a chair with a piece of duct tape over her mouth and Dolores was certain it had been Cha-Cha's work at one point. It took her a few seconds but she recognized the captive as Agnes from Griddy's, who had served them when they'd first reappeared in 2019.

"He must really like donuts," Five muttered as he eyed the woman. Dolores elbowed him lightly in the side in quiet rebuke.

At their arrival, her eyes widened pleadingly as she mumbled out, "help me!"

"It's been a while," The Handler said, poised on the bed that sat at the top of a short set of stairs.

"Three days," Five corrected her.

"For you, maybe. But for me, it's been a lot longer since I've seen those adorable little shorts," she all but purred.

Next to him, Dolores stiffened as her eyes narrowed at the white-haired woman. He squeezed her hand, warning her to keep her temper in check (and she was worried about him!) Before the brunette could speak, he replied, "well, you've had time to heal."

She inhaled and stood, her cigarette holder kept aloft as she stepped down the stairs towards them. "Luckily, for both of us, time. . . is the one thing my organization has an abundance of."

"Got your message, by the way," he added. "Nice packaging, but so much for Commission protocol."

She let out a hum of interest as she picked up a carrot from the display of food. "There have been. . . a lot of changes since you left The Commission. You really did some damage," she remarked with an amused sort of smile. Dolores took a step back from her advances, trying to pull Five with her. If she wasn't allowed to say anything, this was the least she could do. Instead, he remained in place as she continued: "the briefcases were all but destroyed, to say nothing of the highly trained personnel you killed."

"They couldn't have been highly trained if they were killed so easily," the brunette interrupted her snarkily.

The Handler barley glanced at her. "After all, what is an institution if not for—"

"What do you want?" Five asked, cutting across her.

"To be happy," she answered simply. "To have a simple, unfettered life, to. . . do the work my superiors require." Dolores let out a sigh of relief as she stepped back and towards the couch. "But. . . your being here, well, it complicates all that," she finished as she took a seat.

"Billions of people are about to die tonight," the boy insisted. "You can change that."

"Tonight, tomorrow. So little difference in the scheme of things," she replied casually. Her arms opened wide. "Don't you remember The Commission's raison d'etre? What's meant to be is meant to be— or, as I like to say, que será, será."

"It's bullshit in any language. Why did you call us here?"

"Well, if you recall, I only called you here, Number Five. I didn't ask for you to bring dear Dolores along. As it is, I want to offer you a choice. Everyone's going to die tonight but, unlike the rest of the world, you have a way out. You can abandon your family and your wife, skip ahead to the apocalypse, take a walkabout for a few decades, gamble with fate to see if your wife survives and wonder if I'll come back and offer you a job again. Or, you can stay here, with your family, and die a horrible death." She gave an amused laugh as she twisted the wrapper of the champagne bottle she'd picked up. The cork popped as she finished, "while you weigh your options, just know your siblings are fighting for their lives without you."

"You brought me here to pull me away," he realized.

"It's been nice knowing you, Five."

✧✧✧

They reappeared in the middle of Icarus Theater and found Five's siblings huddled down near the stage and nearby seats. "What's with all the lollygagging?"

"Get down!" Luther shouted as the gunfire reached Dolores' ears.

She yanked the boy down with her into the closest aisle seat. Her hands tightened on his sweater to keep him from doing anything reckless as his brother continued: "Five, what the. . . I thought you bailed on us!"

"We had an errand to run," he answered as he looked around the shield of the seat to observe Vanya playing her violin on stage and the armed on the floor and balcony levels. "This is not good."

"You know these guys?" Diego asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"And?"

"Well," Five answered, "we're screwed."

"Guys, it's Cha-Cha!" Klaus' voice called above the noise. "It's Cha-Cha, she—"

"Klaus, get down!" Luther barked at him.

His brother ducked just in time. In front of her, Five twisted around to face her, his expression pleading. Dolores swallowed, knowing he wanted to risk himself to protect his family. Reluctantly, she nodded and released the fabric. Her hands formed into fists instead. As soon as she let go, Five blinked away and jumped on a gunman's back. As the assassin spun around under surprise weight, his gun swayed to two other similarly-dressed people, causing all three to collapse on the floor.

"Get down!" Luther shouted.

Instead of listening, Klaus rose as his hands glowed blue. His face turned into an expression of concentration as— at first— a faint outline of a boy appeared, growing stronger every second. Ben, Dolores knew— the dead brother. Phantom tentacles appeared from the boy's chest and shot out to grab the armed men, sweeping them up and throwing them haphazardly around. She watched in awe at both powers at work, feeling strangely proud of Klaus' success.

"Oh my god," Luther exclaimed. "It's him. Ben."

When the gunfire ceased, their brother's tentacles receded and he disappeared. Klaus panted from exertion and his face was red. "Now who's the lookout?"

The worst was still yet to come, though. Vanya continued to play onstage as her black suit turned white. The power resulting from her music caused the infrastructure of the theater to crack and weaken, and even the strongest marble pillars were unable to withstand her attack.

"Oh, welcome back," Luther told his brother. "Where were you?"

"Honoring a memory," Diego answered simply. "So, how do you want to end this thing?"

"We surround her, alright?" Luther decided as his siblings— plus Dolores— huddled around him. "We come at her from all angles."

"So it's a suicide mission," Klaus murmured.

"Yeah, but one of us could get through," Five pointed out.

Dolores slid her hand into his as trepidation prickled up her spine and across her skin. Out of everything they'd done together, she could easily say this was the scariest. Powerless, with little knowledge of defensive combat, about to take on what was arguably the strongest force on Earth. Controlled by a human, the brunette reminded herself. That didn't help, though. Vanya didn't appear to be in control.

"Are we all in?" Luther asked. He looked at each of his siblings as they nodded. "Allison?" She shook her head frantically and he turned his gaze on his brother's wife. "Dolores?" Her expression was uncertain, but she glanced to her right where Five stood and then back to him before she nodded. "Alright. Stage left." He pointed to Diego. "Stage right." He pointed to himself. "You guys take the front." He nodded to the remaining three.

As the brothers dispersed, Five made to leave with them, only to be stopped when his arm went taut. He turned. "Dol—" The sentence faded as he saw the fear clearly on her face. "You don't have to do this," he told her quietly. "It's not expected of you."

But everyone else was doing it. For once, words escaped her. Dolores could feel the time shortening between now and their deadline as it slipped through her fingers like sand. She wanted it to slow down, to stop the cataclysmic end of the world somehow, to never have to let go of her husband's hand. It felt like there were too many words she hadn't said, that she hadn't expressed her love for the boy in front of her enough and now she was going to miss out on words that she no longer had the time to say.

Instead of speaking, though, she squeezed his hand three times, causing his expression to soften as he returned the gesture. Then, his fingers slipped from hers as they took different aisles, crouching behind seats close to the stage.

Vanya's white light was blinding as the theater shook around them. The cracking sounds were loud and made the entire building buckle under the weight of power surging against the supports. Still, the sound of a violin could be heard above all the noise as she played determinedly through the piece.

"Now!" Luther commanded, and all of them jumped from their positions to sprint towards the woman on the stage.

Before they could get too close, though, Vanya lashed out with her bow and white energy sailed around her as she sent them hurtling backwards. Glowing tentacles stopped them from falling off the stage and instead lifted them up into the air. Her world went black.

✧✧✧

The next thing Dolores knew, she was lying on the ground feeling residual tingles racing over her skin from her contact with Vanya's power. While she didn't remember what had just happened, her entire body felt sore, as if she'd run a marathon without stretching or training (or, at least, what she thought that would feel like.) Her side throbbed dully from the shrapnel wound that was slowly recovering.

Allison was kneeling onstage with Vanya in her arms as she held her sister to her. Luther knelt next to her. "Is she alive?"

Allison nodded after checking her pulse and Klaus breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God."

There was a flash of blue and Five appeared next to her, giving her a concerned look as she bent slightly to favor her left side. "Are you alright?"

She gave him a weak smile and reached for his hand to grasp it tightly. "I am now."

"We did it," Luther said from his spot on the ground. "We saved the world."

"Uh, guys?" Klaus asked tentatively as he looked up. "You see that big moon rock heading towards us?"

Everyone followed his gaze and Dolores' eyes widened as she saw a chunk of moon hurtled towards the Earth. "Jesus Christ," she mumbled. Her hand tightened around Five's.

"That's not good," Luther remarked as he stood.

"So this is it, huh?" Klaus wondered. His hand grasped at the dog tags he wore. "So much for saving the world."

"If only Sir Reginald could see us now, huh?" Diego added as he joined his brothers. "The Umbrella Academy, a total failure."

"At least we're all together in the end," his brother said, "as a family."

"I think I have a way outta here but you gotta trust me on this," Five spoke up. Despite immediate denial, he continued: "well, then, we might as well accept our fate because in less than a minute, we're gonna be vaporized."

"What's your idea, then?" Diego asked.

"We use my ability to time travel, but this time I'll take you with me."

"You can do that?"

Five gave him an unimpressed look. "That's how Dolly's here, isn't it? Although," he added, "I've never taken so many people before."

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"You're lookin' at it," Dolores said, gesturing to the two of them. "Fifty-eight-year-olds inside teenage bodies, so there's that."

"Oh, what the hell? I'm in," Diego agreed.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm in," Klaus said.

"Me too," Luther chimed in. He looked at the woman next to him. "Allison?" She nodded and he turned to his brother. "What about Ben?"

Klaus looked over his shoulder. "Great, yeah. He's in."

"Okay, great," Five said. "You're in, right Dol?"

The brunette nodded. "It's not like we can de-age more and turn into babies, right?"

"Not that I know of," he answered. "Luther, grab Vanya."

Luther lifted his sister into his arms and stood. "Wait, should we be taking her? I mean, if she's the cause of the apocalypse, isn't that taking the bomb with us?"

"The apocalypse will always happen and Vanya will always be the cause, unless we taker her with us and fix her," Five explained.

They formed a circle with Five on one side of her and Diego on the other. The boy's body tensed as electricity crackled around them. A blue portal opened above them and the wind picked up, the air surging with power. Despite having time travelled before, Dolores never tired of seeing the beauty of her husband's power as the brilliant blue light shone brightly above them.

Five yelled about the howling wind as the portal grew and Luther shouted back: "it's working!"

"Hold on! It's gonna get messy!" the boy called.

The brunette kept her gaze focused on her husband, wanting to be able to look at him for as long as possible before his power swept them away. The future (or the past) was uncertain and she didn't know what awaited them on the other side, but she knew one thing. No matter the odds or difficulty of the situation, nothing was gonna stop them now.

As the distant rumbling got louder with the oncoming wave of heat from the space rock, Dolores' hand tightened around Five's once, twice, and three times before the group disappeared in a gust of blue power.