"𝐼𝑓 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑."
—𝑀𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝐿𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑦

𝒟.

𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, Diego would've liked to imagine that his hands would be wrapped around Harold Jenkins' neck while he watched the life leave his eyes. Instead, he was pacing inside a cage-like cell—one which had nothing except a stone bench which he never bothered to try out.

It was long past morning. Who knows what could've happened by now? Did Natalia and Allison manage to find Jenkins' grandmother's house? Were Jenkins and Vanya even there?

Diego clenched his fists. He hated not knowing what was going on.

And out of all the times he had been arrested, this was the time he really didn't deserve it. Yes, his prints were all over Patch and the crime scene, but it was all a misunderstanding—and he was absolutely sure the police would not give two shits about his excuses.

He scanned the room for about the thousandth time. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to look at—all that the room had to show off were dusty windows and fly-filled spider webs.

The door opened, a sound new to Diego's tired ears. Beaman walked in, and the grim expression on his face didn't change in the slightest as he walked to the cell.

Diego knew that pleading would make him look like an even bigger idiot. Still, he wanted to take the chance, so he gripped the metal bars. "You gotta get me out of here, bro."

"I can't. They're transferring you upstate this afternoon."

"I didn't kill Patch," Diego implored.

"I know." Beaman sighed, and he rolled his eyes as he jerked his thumb towards the door. "Your girlfriend's out there, arguing with every single officer she can."

Pride filled Diego's chest, and, with his chest a little puffed out, he smugly corrected, "Fiancée."

"Sorry." Beaman rolled his eyes again. "Your fiancée is raising hell in the bullpen and making my morning difficult."

"Seeing that you've got the wrong guy, hell deserves to be raised."

"I'm not the guy you gotta convince."

Pride was immediately replaced by anger. He grabbed Beaman's jacket collar as he hissed, "That's bullshit, you know that."

Beaman raised his eyebrows as he looked down at his collar, which Diego was gripping. Taking the hint, Diego released his jacket and took a breath to collect himself.

"You were there, Diego. At the motel." Beaman sighed. "And there's the . . . contentious history you two had."

Diego's eyebrows furrowed. He had considered their arguments witty, maybe even a little feisty, but never contentious. "Did he say that?"

"What?"

"Did he use that word?" Diego asked, a little more insistently. "'Contentious'?"

"What the hell does it matter?"

"It matters to me." Diego took Beaman's pause to his advantage, and he raised his eyebrows. "Answer the question."

Beaman sighed, his eyes rolling to the ceiling. Diego could see him breaking—Beaman always broke in the end—and finally, he looked back at Diego.

"It's my word." He scoffed. "He put up with a lot of your shit. I never understood it."

"Maybe it had something to do with our . . . contentious relationship."

Beaman chuckled. "Or maybe he knew you cared about helping people as much as he did."

𝒩.

"No, you don't understand!" Natalia pleaded for the millionth time, slamming her hands down on the desk. "Diego was with me that night, he couldn't have possibly done anything to Patch!"

Rodriguez sighed, and she could sense him resisting an eye roll. "Ma'am, I understand you're upset, but we have procedures—"

"Why don't you follow those procedures by finding the guy who actually killed him?!"

He lifted a hand. "We are considering all of our options, so if you could just calm down—"

"Calm down?!" Natalia repeated with a scoff, and she knew the other officers were watching—she had been their main source of entertainment all morning. "I am calm. This is me calm. You don't want to see me mad."

"Ma'am—"

"It's okay, Rodriguez," interrupted Beaman, hurrying over to her, "I'll take it from here."

Natalia rolled her shoulders back; she wasn't sure if there would be a brand new argument, but she sure as hell was prepared for it. "Hello, Beaman."

"Ms. Kim—"

"Dr. Kim."

"Sorry." He gave her a tight smile. "Dr. Kim, you'll be happy to know that I've released Diego. He'll be out after signing some forms."

Natalia was shocked. As much as she had hoped and prayed that he would get out, all the pushback from the officers made it seem like an impossible dream. "Oh. Okay. Thank you."

She sat in one of the chairs as she waited. As the minutes passed, the relief in her stomach settled in nicely. He was let go. They were safe—for now.

Now that this craziness was over, they could move on to the next—saving the goddamn world.

Finally, a couple of officers—quite hastily—brought Diego out.

Diego stretched his arms and sent a grin to Beaman, who only rolled his eyes. "Freedom feels good."

"Don't think this changes any of our opinions," Rodriguez muttered. "We know you did it, Hargreeves. You're lucky your girlfriend was here to annoy the shit out of us."

Diego's grin was gone in an instant. "I suggest you shut the hell up, Rodriguez, before I give you a real reason to arrest me."

"Okay, Diego," Natalia said quickly, getting up and slinging her purse over her shoulder. "I think it's time we go."

She was sure that the officers were happy to see them go. She sure as hell was happy to leave.

"Heard you caused a little commotion?" Diego teased as they headed for her car.

"Oh, I was fighting tooth and nail," she confirmed with a sigh, digging her car key out of her purse. "I've been here since five in the morning."

"That's why I love you."

She raised her eyebrows. "Because I bail you out of jail?"

He cleared his throat, though his wink gave her the answer. "Where's Allison?"

"She went after Jenkins. I know," she added when Diego stopped in his place and looked at her with widened eyes, "I tried to tell her to wait, but you know her."

"But what if Jenkins—"

"She's smart." Natalia wasn't sure if she was reassuring Diego or herself. "Nothing will happen to her."

"Still, we gotta try and catch up," he insisted. "Let's go get the others and hit the road."

"So," Natalia sighed once the two were settled in the car, "how'd you convince Beaman to let you out?"

"How do you know it wasn't all your arguing that got me out?"

"I didn't say anything revolutionary enough to get you out." She glanced at him as she put the gearstick into reverse. "Like Rodriguez said, I was just annoying them."

Diego was silent for a moment before he slowly shrugged. "I guess Beaman just came to his senses."

Natalia could tell there was a little more to it, but she decided against pressing. Their morning had been stressful enough, and she was sure it was going to get a whole lot worse.

Luckily, the two of three people they needed—Five and Klaus—were walking towards Diego's room when Natalia and Diego rushed in.

"Where have you been?" Five called.

As Diego hurried into his room, tearing his jacket off, he answered, "Jail."

"Long story." Natalia sighed, stopping just beside the door and waiting for Diego to finish putting his gear on. "Where's Luther?"

Five shrugged. "Haven't seen him since breakfast."

"Yeah," Klaus sighed. "Two days until the world ends, he picks a great time to drop off the grid."

"Shit," Diego breathed out as he came to the door, still clicking his gear on. "Allison is in danger."

Considering that Natalia knew not someone who followed rules so strictly as Luther, she was surprised to see that he was day drinking in a pub not too far away. The bar was pretty empty, though there were a couple of people sitting. The pool tables were not being put into play, and the dim lights barely did anything for the room.

Luther's large frame was visible through the glass of the door. He was sitting at a small, round table—unsurprisingly, by himself.

Klaus, unhelpfully, pointed at him as they walked in.

"Trying a little hair of the dog, are we? Hm?" Klaus teased as they approached Luther.

Luther didn't even bother to meet their gaze. Instead, he pouted and pulled his mug closer to him. "Leave me alone."

Diego sat beside Luther and used his gloves to wave them away. "Give us a minute."

"Okay. Come on." Klaus sighed. "Maybe they'll brood each other to death."

Natalia decided to just sit on Luther's other side. She wasn't sure she trusted Diego to be alone with Luther and not provoke him.

"Look, Dad was wrong to lie to you," Diego began softly. "To all of us—"

"Look, I did my time. All right?" Luther lifted his mug up, though he didn't drink from it quite yet. "Four years up there, watching and waiting because he said the world needed me. Four years of nothing but soy paste and processed air because I was naive enough to believe that dads don't lie to their kids. But guess what? The joke's on me." He took a large swig before putting the mug down. "I'm done—with all of it. With him. With you. With this family. You wanna save the world, you go right ahead. I'm fine to sit here and finish my beer and" —he licked his lips, clearly not used to any lingo— "get my . . . buzz on."

Natalia's shoulders tensed as she recognized the incredulous look on Diego's face. She was surprised when he kept his calm.

"You want to turn your back on me, the guys, that's fine. But Allison deserves better than that."

"Allison? What are you talkin' about?"

"Well, we got ahold of Harold Jenkins' police file. Turns out Vanya's boyfriend is a convicted murderer. Who would've saw that one coming?" Diego paused. "A little hard to trust anyone who wears corduroy."

Luther's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, so . . . where's Allison now?"

"She decided to go after Harold Jenkins," Diego said lightly, though his eyes were intense. "Alone."

It seemed that Luther had sobered up. "You should have led with that!" He pushed his chair back and leapt out of his chair, muttering, "Jesus Christ!" while he hurried his way to the door.

Casually and totally not drawing other people's attention, Luther broke the door off its hinge and stumbled out.

Five, for some reason the designated driver for the day, beckoned them into the Academy car. Klaus took the front passenger seat, and Natalia managed to squish in between Diego and Luther.

The beginning of the ride was completely silent. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, including Natalia.

She had spent her whole morning worried about the wrong person. Diego would've been just fine without her, but would Allison be?

She didn't like the uneasiness that was snaking its way from her stomach to her throat. It was a feeling she got a lot during her Umbrella Academy days, and she wasn't eager for it to be back.

She should've tried harder to convince Allison to stay. Or at least, to wait until the morning to go. She didn't even have a car.

Her fingers drummed against her leg. Allison was completely by herself, facing who knows what. This Harold Jenkins—despite his Leonard Peabody persona seeming totally innocent—could be dangerous. There must be a reason why the Commission was so set on protecting him, after all.

If Allison got hurt, Natalia wasn't sure if she would be able to forgive herself. All these years and she still hadn't learnt her lesson—don't leave the people you care for.

First with Ben. Now with Allison.

Warm fingers interlacing with hers drew her mind away from its frightened state. Diego was giving her a soft smile, though while she usually found it to be comforting, this time told her that he was hoping for the best, too.

Her heart was beating too fast. She knew it would be a couple of hours until they were there—even with Five going nearly twenty miles over the speed limit—and it would do her no good to stay in this anxious body.

The anxiety was clearly not limited to her. Luther's pestering was reaching a point where Natalia feared Five would lead them to a fatal crash just to get him to shut up. He had already threatened him with a cigarette lighter, Diego's knives, and his own fist (to be shoved somewhere not-so-nice).

Her hand never left Diego's. It didn't matter how hot and sweaty their palms became, nor did it seem that Diego cared whenever she squeezed a little too tightly.

It was growing dark, and the wind was getting stronger. She no longer had the trees or passing birds to distract herself with.

Luther had begun muttering to himself on hour three, and that wasn't helping anyone's sanity. No matter how many times Five told him to keep quiet, or the number of times Diego glared at him, Luther continued quietly with his "She's fine" and "Everything will be okay."

There was already a car parked outside of the home, which they parked next to. Luther was the first to jump out of the car, and the others were only a step behind. They headed up the porch steps, and Luther pushed the door open.

"Allison! No!"

Luther's cry made Natalia work even faster toward the entrance. She gasped when she saw the sight.

Allison was laying on her back. Deep red blood was pooling beneath her, dripping down from the large slice in her neck. Her entire chest and white shirt were nearly blackened with blood.

"Holy shit," Natalia breathed out, leaning onto the doorframe for support.

She watched as Luther, weeping her name, lifted Allison up and brushed her hair out of her face.

Natalia had done it again. Abandoned one of her best friends and left their life on the line. Another dead, because of her.

She felt sickened, watching Allison's eyelids flutter and more blood add to the pool. Her own blood rushed to her head, looking at the shocked faces around her and hearing Luther sob Allison's name.

Staying behind on that fateful mission was the thing Natalia had regretted most. Until now.