"𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑡, 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒."
—𝐽.𝑅. 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑑, 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙

𝒟.

𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀 small groan as he got out of the small bed that he and Natalia had managed to squeeze into.

He gazed down at his old bed for a moment, unsure whether he should smile or frown. Funny to think that he and Natalia were able to cuddle so easily all those years ago (though, to be fair, they were considerably smaller). Though, it wasn't all that fun back then; they would flinch at every noise outside the door, and the entire night, they would be anxious about getting caught. 

Natalia was still asleep, and that was a sight he never could frown at. He could see the outline of her tucked knees underneath the blanket, and her hand was now gripping the edge of the blanket as a replacement for Diego's shirt.

A pain in his arm drew his attention to the reason he had left the bed in the first place—the painkiller from the night before had worn off, so he desperately needed another.

Making sure to keep quiet so that he wouldn't interrupt Natalia's sleep, Diego crept out of the room and then hurried his pace once he was out of the door. His groans were muffled to the best of his ability as he went up the stairs and headed towards the infirmary.

He used his uninjured hand to flick the light on, and that same hand had to do all the work in opening the cabinet and grabbing a bottle of painkillers. Carefully, he used his injured hand to hold the bottle as the other one twisted the cap open, and he winced as a small sting hit his arm.

Hurriedly, he shook out two pills and swallowed them dry. He put the cap back on and placed it inside the cabinet.

Natalia was awake by the time he had returned to his old bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed and stretching.

"Hey, honey," she greeted, yawning as he kissed the top of her head. "Where'd you run off to?"

He shrugged as he sat down next to her. "Just needed some medicine."

She frowned. "You should've woken me up; I would've gotten it for you."

"My arm's hurt, not my legs," he pointed out with an amused smile. "Besides, I don't need you doin' everything for me."

A knock drew their attention to the door, and Luther's head peeked in when Natalia had called for him to enter.

"Hey, uh," Luther glanced at Diego, but he still continued, "listen, Natalia, I've been thinking and with Five gone—"

"Yeah, about that," Natalia interrupted, her eyebrows furrowed. "Where's Five?"

Luther shrugged. "It's all part of a plan. Which he didn't tell me the full extent of."

"Wonderful," she muttered.

"Anyway, um" —he cleared his throat— "I thought we should tell the rest of the family."

She bit her lower lip and nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay. Living room in fifteen minutes."

"Tell us what?" Diego questioned, turning to her once the door had shut. "That you and Luther have been fu—"

"Shut up, Diego," she sighed with a roll of the eyes, causing him to grin, "you know that's not it."

"Then what, baby?"

"Well" —she folded her arms— "since you decided to say that disgusting accusation, I'm not telling you."

"It was a joke," he pleaded with a laugh. "There's no way you'd choose that giant ape over me."

"Diego."

He pressed his lips together to suppress another laugh, and he nodded. "Tell me."

"You have to wait fifteen minutes," she said sternly, wagging a finger at him. "That's your punishment."

"You know," he said slowly, his upper lip curling, "there are . . . other ways you can punish me."

She scoffed. "You're disgusting."

"You think so?" He shifted closer to her and placed his good hand on her inner thigh before squeezing it, grinning as she bit her lip. "Because, if you give me those fifteen minutes, I think I can change your mind."

She swatted his hand away. "You got shot yesterday."

He kissed the side of her neck. "I don't need my arm for that."

She rolled her eyes in amusement before standing up and telling him, "I'm going to change."

"Into your birthday suit?"

"Into normal clothes, you pervert."

"Boring," he called as she grabbed her clothes from yesterday that were on top of the dresser. "I think you look much better without all that."

Diego watched as she pulled off the pyjamas that Allison had lent her, but before he could make a sly comment about her body, she raised a finger and shook her head. He shrugged.

Once she had changed into her clothes, she disappeared into the bathroom. As he waited, Diego smoothened his shirt and jeans that he had slept in (there was no way he was asking Luther for clothes—if Allison's pyjamas were loose on Natalia, Diego could hardly imagine the size difference for him and Luther). He grabbed his gear, which he had left on his desk, and began to click it on.

Nearly fifteen minutes had passed by the time that Natalia had returned. It seemed as though she had borrowed some of Allison's makeup as well, though today, her makeup was lighter than usual.

"Let's go," she sighed.

Diego got off the bed, grabbed one of his gloves, and followed her towards the living room while slipping it on.

Everyone was already in the room by the time they entered; Klaus was sitting on the floor in front of the couch opposite the entrance, Luther was sitting on a stool at the bar, and Allison was handing out coffees that she seemed to have gotten from a nearby cafe.

Diego sat on the nearest couch, with Natalia taking a seat beside him, and he muttered a 'Thanks' when Allison handed him his coffee, Natalia's next.

𝑊𝑒𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦. 8:15 𝐴.𝑀.

"Everyone's here," Luther sighed once they were settled. "So I guess . . . Well, there's no other way to put it: The world's ending in three days."

Diego stared at him for a moment. There was no way he was telling the truth, right?

He glanced over to Natalia, who was staring down at the coffee in her hands with a frown.

So, he was telling the truth.

"Three days?" Allison repeated incredulously as she offered Luther a coffee.

"That's what Five said," confirmed Luther as he accepted it.

Klaus straightened up, letting out a small sigh. "The old bastard did mention the apocalypse, come to think of it. He just left out the part about how soon."

"But can we trust him?" queried Allison, placing her free hand on the bar to support herself. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Five's a little . . ." She whistled as she made a cuckoo gesture.

Klaus chuckled. "Our little psycho."

"He was pretty convincing," said Luther firmly. "If he wasn't trying to stop an apocalypse from happening, those lunatics wouldn't be chasing him."

"That's why they were after him?" questioned Diego in surprise with raised eyebrows.

Luther nodded. "Yeah."

Allison's eyebrows furrowed. "What did Five even see? "

Luther stared at her with wide eyes for a moment before stammering, "Uh . . . Apparently, we all fought together against whoever was responsible." He stared off for a moment before clicking his tongue and getting to his feet. "Okay. So, here's the plan. Uh, we go through Dad's research—"

"Wait, what?" questioned Allison, as baffled as the others in the room. "Hold on, hold on."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," murmured Diego.

"Wait a tick, wait a tick, wait a tick." Klaus raised a hand, bringing all mutters of confusion to a stop. "What actually happened the first time around?"

"Yeah, what are you not tellin' us?" agreed Diego with an intent stare at Luther. "Come on, big boy, spit it out."

Luther's nervous gaze flickered over all three of them before lowering to his coffee cup. He took a short breath before muttering a quick "We died" and raising the coffee to his mouth.

Diego's eyebrows furrowed. Had he heard that right?

Allison seemed to be thinking the same thing as she leaned forward and raised her eyebrows. "What was that?"

Luther turned to Natalia with a pleading look. "Natalia, why don't you—"

"I'm good."

Luther gave a small nod. He cleared his throat as he lowered his cup. "I said, uh, we died."

Almost immediately, everyone got up to surround the bar counter and overwhelm Luther with questions.

"No, we need to figure this out," Diego insisted loudly when Luther tried to brush it off.

"Is it just us?" questioned Allison with a creased forehead.

Natalia sighed. "It's everybody."

"In the house?" Diego interjected as he pointed downwards.

"Like, the whole planet?" added Allison.

"No, outside the house," Luther corrected. "Everyone died."

"Hey."

Everyone turned to the middle of the living room to see Vanya, along with a bright-eyed man who stood next to her.

Diego rolled his eyes, though that only earned him a step on the foot from Natalia.

Vanya's eyes flickered over the group. "What's going on?"

Allison exchanged a nervous glance with Luther before answering, "It's a family matter."

"'A family matter,'" Vanya repeated with a light scoff. A humourless smile played upon her lips as she shrugged. "So you couldn't bother to include me."

"No, it's not like that," Luther corrected hurriedly. "We were—"

"Please, don't let me interrupt," Vanya murmured before turning and heading towards the entrance, the man trailing close behind.

"Vanya, wait," Allison called as she stepped towards her. "I'll fill you in later when we're alone."

Vanya stopped and turned to face her, her expression pleading. "Please, please, don't bother. And I won't either."

Allison shifted her weight from one foot to the other as her eyebrows furrowed. "Vanya, that's not fair."

"'Fair'?" Vanya scoffed. "There's nothing fair about being your sister. I have been left out of everything for as long as I can remember. And I used to think it was Dad's fault, but he's dead. So it turns out you're the assholes."

The man stayed behind as Vanya left, and he gave them a disapproving stare for a few moments before turning to follow her.

Klaus crinkled his nose. "Ouch."

Natalia sighed, and she began to step towards the entrance. "I'm gonna go find Vanya and explain."

"No, wait, there isn't time," Luther quickly said, causing Natalia to stop in her tracks. "We need to figure out what causes the apocalypse."

She slowly turned to face Luther, and she frowned as the sound of the door shutting was heard.

"Now," continued Luther, "there are loads of possibilities. Nuclear war, asteroids. But I'm thinking, this is about the Moon. Right?"

Diego rolled his eyes as he used his teeth to take off his glove from his good hand. Of course Luther was about to make this about himself.

"Dad must have sent me up there for a reason," Luther pointed out as he leaned against the counter. "And I was giving him daily updates on the conditions, I sent field samples. So, the first thing we need to do is find his research."

"Hold on. Hold the phone," Klaus interjected as he dropped a hand onto the counter. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around. Remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point," agreed Diego, unsheathing a knife and beginning to toss it. "What gives us a win this time?"

"Five," Luther answered. "Last time we didn't have him. We weren't all together."

Diego's attention soon turned to Klaus as he began to gag, and he gave him a weird look as he watched him stumble over to the couch.

"This time we'll have the full force of the Umbrella Academy," continued Luther, not paying any mind to Klaus. "That's what we need."

"So, where's Five now?" Allison questioned.

"Well, he had a plan to change the timeline," answered Luther with a small shrug. "He'll be back soon."

Diego, however, did not care about Five's plan. And he sure as hell didn't care about Luther's.

Diego grabbed the jacket that he had left on the counter the other day and made his way to the entrance. "I'm going after Hazel and Cha-Cha."

Natalia's eyebrows furrowed. "What, right now?"

"Hell yeah," Diego answered. "Three days. I'm losing light by the minute.

"Wait, Diego," Luther scoffed. "Look, I know you wanna avenge your friend, but we—"

"He wasn't just some friend, Luther," Diego interrupted angrily. "If I'm gonna die, I need to know that I killed those bastards first. It's not about Dad. It's not about me. The longer I wait, Hazel . . ." He sighed before looking up at Luther. "Don't try stopping me."

He didn't bother to gauge the reactions of anyone as he turned back around and headed out the room. He made his way up the stairs and back towards his room; he was going to need some stuff.

He could hear footsteps following him—no doubt, Natalia—but he didn't say anything until he was in his room.

"You gonna try and stop me now?"

"No," she answered as he turned around to face her. "I told you; I'm not your mom. I'm not gonna stop you—though I'd like you to know I don't approve."

He scoffed as he leaned back against his desk. "If you're not stopping me, then why'd you follow me?"

"To try and calm you down a little," she answered, stepping inside. "If you're this angry when you go, you won't be able to think straight."

He shook his head. "I'm calm."

"Oh, yeah, I could tell by the way you yelled at Luther and stormed out."

"Yeah." He nodded, keeping his expression as nonchalant as he could. "Calm."

She sighed and folded her arms. "You sure it's the best idea that you go after them now?"

He groaned. "You just said you weren't—"

"I'm not gonna stop you, I promise," she interrupted, rolling her eyes. "I'm just saying" —she gestured to his sling— "you're not exactly a hundred percent ready right now."

"I'm always a hundred percent ready," he reassured her, though that only received another eye-roll.

She placed her hands on her hips, and the frown she gave him didn't make him feel any better. She glanced down, and her eyebrows furrowed. "Your shoe's untied."

He squinted his eyes at her. "Is this a trick?"

She scoffed. "What kind of trick would that be?"

"I lean down to tie my shoelace that's not actually untied. Then, you hit me over the head and carry—"

"I wouldn't need to do all that; I'd just use my powers," she pointed out amusedly, causing him to shrug. "Your shoe's untied."

He looked down and frowned. His shoelace, indeed, was untied, and he knew it'd be a bitch to tie with the state of his arm. "Could you tie my shoe?"

"Oh," she said lightly, putting on a look of mock confusion, "but I thought you were a hundred percent ready?"

"I'm ninety-nine. I'll be a hundred with a tied shoe." He gave her a pleading look. "Will you?"

"Should I?"

"I'm pretty sure that's in the wedding vows, you know," he told her with a small grin. "'Till death do us part, yada, yada, I'll always tie your shoelaces.'"

"Well, good thing we haven't exchanged vows yet."

He scrunched his nose. "Stop being difficult."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm being difficult," she scoffed. "You can't tie your shoes, but you can go out there—"

"Oh, I see. You won't stop me." Diego rolled his eyes, and a loud sigh followed. "You'll just berate me endlessly—"

"Yes! I will! Because the love of my life is trying to get himself killed!"

He leaned back against the table and shrugged. "If I'm the love of your life, as you claim, you would tie my shoe."

Natalia sighed—very dramatically—and finally conceded. Though she muttered curses (all of which Diego tuned out), she tied his shoe.

"You know," Diego began as she continued, "I've always imagined you tying me up—"

"Shut up."

Once she had gotten up and glared at him, Diego cooed, "Aw, I really am the love of your life, huh?"

"No," she scoffed, rolling her eyes for about the hundredth time in the last ten minutes, "I'm marrying you because I hate you."

Before Diego could reply, a new presence arrived at the door.

"Hey," Klaus, who had a loop of blue rope in hand, greeted. "Could you, uh" —he tossed the rope to Diego, who caught it with a baffled expression— "you tie me up?"

Diego glanced down at the rope in his hands with furrowed eyebrows. "Come again?"

"You know," Klaus said, "the last time I was sober was that roaring good time when those freaks had me tied up in the motel room."

A humourless smile had reached Diego's lips. "Wow. You are one twisted bonehead."

"Why?" Klaus exclaimed. "You're the one who's always like, 'Klaus, you need to get sober, bro.'"

Diego raised his eyebrows. "There's better ways to get clean, bro."

"Not for me, no." Klaus swallowed, and it was then that Diego noticed all the sweat dripping from his skin. "I need someone to take away my options."

Diego scrunched his nose and looked to Natalia, who shrugged. He sighed. "Fine."

"Okay," Klaus breathed out, "thank you."

"Why the sudden urge to get clean?" muttered Natalia to Diego as they followed Klaus towards the stairs. "He was begging for drug money the other day."

"No clue," Diego replied quietly. "He's been acting weird lately, though."

"He always acts weird."

"More than usual, I mean," Diego insisted as they climbed the stairs, and he frowned when Natalia slowed her pace and winced. "Like the veteran bar?"

"Right."

Once they had reached the third floor, Diego and Natalia followed Klaus into the attic.

While Klaus dragged a chair to the centre of the dusty room, the rope was suddenly yanked out of Diego's hands.

He looked to see that Natalia had taken it from him, and before he could question her, she shook her head. "Like hell I'm gonna let you do that with that arm."

Diego pressed his lips together and nodded. Truthfully, he was a little relieved—he was expecting terrible pain to come from this.

He stood to the side while Klaus settled in the chair, and Natalia began to wrap the rope around him.

Diego looked around the room, which was nearly empty. A bitter feeling seeped into him—and don't get him wrong, that feeling usually came to him in most of the Academy's rooms, but this one especially.

"I hate this room," he muttered.

"Oh, it got me high enough," Klaus said. "I picked it clean of anything of value after Daddy kicked the bucket. That's it—tighter and higher!"

Natalia paused for a moment to stare at Klaus before she sighed and tugged on the rope.

"Ooh. Ouf!" Klaus groaned in pleasure, causing the other two to crinkle their noses in disgust. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

"Fine," Natalia muttered with a shake of the head. She clutched the rope tightly before beginning to wrap it around again.

"If I see a boner," Diego warned, though he kept his eyes away from that area, "I'm out."

He sighed, tucking his good hand in his jean pocket. What Natalia had questioned before was bothering him—Klaus had been drinking vodka straight from the bottle the day before, after all, so why did he suddenly want to be sober?  

"End of the world and you wanna get sober all of a sudden," Diego murmured. "Don't get me wrong, man. Good by you. But I'd think you'd wanna pop every pill on the planet."

"Oh, the thought did cross my mind, believe me, but . . . ," Klaus sighed, "there's something I need to do, and the whole pesky thing doesn't seem to work unless I'm sober."

Natalia got to her knees and began to tie the rope around Klaus' legs. "Is this about conjuring the one you lost?"

When Klaus only sighed, Diego took that as a yes and questioned, "What was her name?"

"His name was Dave. We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley," Klaus said wistfully, "in the Mountain of the Crouching Beast."

"Well, Dave must have been a very special person," Diego pointed out with raised eyebrows, "to put up with your weird-ass shit."

Klaus snorted, a grin coming onto his face. "Yeah," he chuckled. "Yeah, he was . . . He was kind, and strong, and vulnerable, and . . . beautiful. Beautiful. And I was foolish enough to follow him all the way to the front line."

Diego looked at him in surprise. "You fought in the shit?"

"Oh, yeah, baby," Klaus confirmed.

"How'd they let you do that?"

"Let me?" Klaus scoffed. "War couldn't take enough bodies. Please. Including his." Klaus cleared his throat and suddenly brightened his tone. "Hey, look at us. Loggin' in some quality bro and sis-in-law time before the end of the world."

"Yeah, might as well," Diego scoffed, watching as Natalia fixed the rope on the back of the chair. "Almost everyone I like is already dead."

"Ah, yes," Klaus muttered. "The cop. Mom, too."

"I let them both down," Diego said roughly, shaking his head as his eyes lowered to the hardwood floor. "So here I am."

"There." Natalia sighed, letting go of the tied rope and getting to her feet. "Done."

She nodded towards Diego, and he took that as his cue to go. He turned around, hearing her catch up to him, and began to head towards the door.

"Ah, shit!"

Diego stopped in his place and turned to look at Klaus, who was pouting. "What?"

"I need to pee."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," muttered Natalia, though she raised a hand to stop Diego when he tried to walk towards Klaus.

Diego stayed in his spot, watching as Natalia, while muttering a string of curses (which she was doing a lot today) undid all of her hard work, and the kiss on the cheek Klaus gave her after didn't seem to brighten her mood.

Once Klaus had finished his business, he sat back down on the chair and Natalia grabbed the rope.

Before she could begin to tie him again, however, Klaus suddenly got to his feet. "You know, no, I . . . I think . . . I think this was . . ."

"Whoa, wait," Diego called as Klaus began to stumble forwards, and he walked toward him.

"I think this was a bad idea. No. I just . . . I should have had just one last hit to ease me into it. That's all I need."

"Mm-mm." Diego shook his head. "No, no, no."

Klaus made his way towards the door, a plastered smile on his face that didn't convince either of them. "I'll be right back."

Natalia hurried in front of him, shaking her head profusely. "I don't think so."

"No . . ."

"That's not how it works."

"Nutella, please."

"Nope. Sit down."

"Natalia, listen. Just listen."

"Sit."

"Just listen."

Natalia rolled her eyes before grabbing onto Klaus' shoulders and pushing him down onto the chair, fighting against his thrashing.

"Dammit, Natalia!" Klaus groaned as Diego grabbed the rope and handed it to her. As she began to quickly tie it around him, he continued, "Dammit! Stop it! Get off! Get . . . Get off!"

Diego looked around the room as Natalia continued tying him, and he quickly spotted a plastic blue bucket in the corner of the room. He walked over, ignoring Klaus' cries, and grabbed it with his good hand.

Once Natalia was finished, Diego thrust the bucket towards him. "This is for next time. Puke, pee, whatever you need. Multipurpose. See?"

Though Klaus begged for them to set him free, Diego and Natalia left the attic and shut the door to muffle his yells.

They headed down the staircase, down into the main foyer. The crashed chandelier hadn't moved from its spot in the foyer, so they moved to the left to avoid stepping in it.

Just as they passed the entrance to the living room, Diego caught a figure passing at the other side from the corner of his eye.

He stopped, and judging by the fact that Natalia had stopped, too, she had seen it as well.

He looked towards her, almost worried that he was too hopeful as he whispered, "Do you think that's . . . ?"

Natalia gave a short nod, her gaze still on the entrance past him.

Now a little nervous, Diego led the two of them inside the living room. He looked to the right, and his hopes were confirmed:

Grace, alive and well, was humming as she feather-dusted a boar's head.

"Mom?" Diego breathed out in shock. He had no clue as to how she was alive. Who could've turned her back on? Who even knew how to turn her back on?

"Oh! Hello, Diego and Natalia!" Grace smiled as she greeted them, and she walked over to them.

"How are you walking around?" questioned Natalia with furrowed eyebrows.

Diego gently lifted Grace's forearm, and his eyebrows knit together as he saw the stitched skin that hid the control panel.

"One foot in front of the other," she quipped with a chuckle. "Why? How do you do it?"

"Mom, I . . ." Diego's slowly moved his gaze back towards her face, and he could hardly believe what was in front of him. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Oh, let's see . . ." Grace tilted her chin up, squinting her eyes. "March 21st. Sunset was 7:33 P.M. Moon was waxing crescent. Dinner was Cornish hen, rice, carrots."

"Mom," Diego said, glancing at Natalia, "that happened over a week ago."

"Do you remember anything else?" Natalia tried.

Grace paused for a moment, though she only shook her head. "No. I suppose that's odd." Her gaze drifted towards the glittering window, where sunlight was streaming through, and her smile returned. "I wonder what the weather is like today. It would be nice to go to the park."

"Dad never let you off the grounds," Diego pointed out quietly.

Grace smiled. "Your father isn't here anymore."

Diego decided that he didn't care how she came back. All he cared about was that she was.

He smiled and nodded. "You can do whatever you want, Mom."