Word count: 2849

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐅 them sat in the car that was parked just next to the police station, their nerves a little more heightened than usual and their minds on high alert.

It was just after ten in the morning, and the warm streets were filled with bustling people as they headed to work. The sun glared at them through the windows, causing them to squint their eyes as they peered out.

Diego and Five sat in the front of the car, with Diego in the driver's seat, while the two girls sat in the back, where they were constantly exchanging eye-rolls as the two in the front bickered.

"I know this Jenkins dude has to have a record," Diego said roughly as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He inspected the side-view mirror, checking out the pair of police officers that were conversing on the sidewalk behind them. "We gotta get our hands on this file."

"And your plan is to what?" Elizabeth questioned as she exchanged yet another incredulous look with Allison. "Waltz in there and just ask for it?"

"I know the station like the back of my hand, Goldie," Diego reassured her with a small smirk. "I've spent a lot of time inside."

"Handcuffed," Allison pointed out with a scoff.

"Whatever." Diego rolled his eyes before sighing and starting, "Here's the plan."

"Plan?" Five echoed as he furrowed his eyebrows and faced Diego. He shook his head as he corrected, "I'm just gonna blink in and get the file."

"No, that's not . . ." Diego shook his head. "You don't know the ins and outs of this place, okay?"

"I literally just did this yesterday," Five rebutted.

Diego's eyebrows furrowed as he questioned, "What?"

Five froze, his eyes darting off to the side before he corrected, "My yesterday, not your yesterday. It'll take me two seconds. Why don't I just go?"

"Listen to me." Diego peeked out at the side-view mirror once more as he firmly ordered, "You are not going in there."

"Agreed." Elizabeth leaned forward. "Five's an idiot."

Diego nodded. "Thank you."

She raised her eyebrow as she ignored Five's small scoff and continued, "Unfortunately, Diego, you are also an idiot. I'll go."

"What?" Diego turned around in his seat to face her as Five did the same, both of their eyebrows knit together tightly.

Five scoffed. "What's your plan, then?"

"Well, I turn invisible, go in, use my big brain, find it, boom, come back." She shrugged simply, Allison nodding encouragingly beside her.

"No, you're too young for this," Diego immediately refused as he shook his head.

Elizabeth slapped his shoulder lightly as she groaned, "I am two years younger. That's barely anything!"

"I made a call," Diego said firmly, shaking his head once more. "That's what a leader does. He leads."

Elizabeth muttered out a string of curse words as Diego left the car and headed towards the side of the police building.

The three of them soon followed him out, waiting at the front of the building while hoping that whatever shit plan Diego had would work.

In the meantime, Allison decided to use the payphone a few feet away from them to call Vanya.

"Vanya . . ." Elizabeth sighed as she and Five leaned on the wall of the building, a frown forming on her face as she watched Allison dial a number. "I miss her. I should go find her and talk to her."

Five scoffed as he shook his head, his arms folding. "Vanya didn't believe us."

"So what?" She wrinkled her nose as she shook her head and pointed out, "That doesn't mean I can't miss her. Besides, your theory did sound a little . . . far-fetched."

"It's not a theory," he corrected indignantly, "it's the truth!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant." She rolled her eyes, waving a dismissive hand through the air. "Anyway, tell me what happened."

His eyebrows furrowed. "With what?"

"The fuck do you think?"

Five sighed, running a hand through his hair as he shook his head and insisted, "I already told you, I got the paper and left."

"Yeah, that's why you had soot all over your face, and why you have a limp, and why you are obviously getting some kind of pain in your stomach, and why—"

"Elle, that's all just" —he waved a hand— "stuff. Don't worry about it."

She furrowed her eyebrows, stepping closer to him. "Five, you can't just—"

"I said don't worry about it!" he exclaimed, the loud volume of his voice causing her to flinch.

Allison looked back at them for a second as she furrowed her eyebrows, though she continued to speak into the receiver.

"Okay, sorry," Elizabeth mumbled, folding her arms as she looked straight ahead.

His voice softened. "Elle, it's not like . . ."

Elizabeth turned her head to look at him, her eyes roaming his face as she murmured, "I'm just worried about you, Five."

Before he could respond, however, Diego emerged from the alleyway he had gone into, victorious with a blue folder in his hand.

"So?" Five glanced at Elizabeth before looking towards Diego and raising his eyebrows.

"You're welcome." Diego smirked as Allison grabbed the folder out of his hand.

Allison opened the folder, flipping through the many pages before landing right in the middle. Her eyes drifted over the contents of the page and then widened. "Holy shit!"

"What?" Elizabeth asked worriedly, stepping towards her.

She turned the folder so that they could see the black-and-white mugshot photo of the man who had visited with Vanya earlier that day—her boyfriend. "Harold Jenkins is Leonard Peabody."

Elizabeth put her hands on her hips. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go smack a bitch."

They immediately headed back into the car, and Diego started the engine, deciding to use the address in the folder.

Elizabeth sighed as she leaned her head on Allison's shoulder. Why was everything going to shit?

"You good, Ellie?" Allison whispered softly, peering worriedly at her distressed expression.

Five's attention shifted towards Elizabeth upon hearing what Allison had questioned, his eyebrows furrowing as he watched her murmur back that everything was fine. She could feel him gazing at her, but decided to ignore it as Allison intertwined her fingers with her.

They soon arrived in a nice, suburban neighbourhood whose street was lined with sleek cars. They stopped in front of a brick, two-story house, whose driveway was empty of cars. That was good for them.

They got out of the car and began to cross the well-cared-for lawn.

"Be careful, okay?" Allison warned as she brought her hand up to keep the glaring sun out of her eyes. "We don't know what Peabody's capable of."

"Yeah, he didn't seem dangerous when I first saw him," Diego scoffed. "Looked kinda scrawny."

"Yeah, well, so are most serial killers and mass murderers. I mean, look at him." Allison gestured towards Five, who rolled his eyes.

"Thanks."

"Good point." Elizabeth went up the stone stairs and onto the porch as the other two boys followed her, Allison detouring and going around the house. "So what does this guy want with Vanya?"

"I don't know. How about we ask him after we kill him?" Five said viciously as he hobbled up the stairs, grabbing onto the railway for support.

And she was supposed to believe that he was completely fine?

"Whoa, whoa. Hey, look, I'm gonna burst through . . ." Diego paused, noticing Allison's absence. He groaned, "You know what? It would be nice for people just to stick to—"

Five teleported away.

"—the plan. Great."

"So, what exactly is your plan?" Elizabeth questioned as she turned to look at the door.

"Simple. I'm gonna kick it down." Diego shrugged, taking a step back and sizing the door up as he bent his knees.

Elizabeth laughed. What a stupid man her best friend was.

"You think that's funny?" Diego scoffed. "Let's see who's laughing in a minute."

He lifted his leg, but before he could shove it through the door, Elizabeth created a portal right in front of it, and instead, Diego fell through.

She stepped through after him, ending up in the foyer of the house, right in front of the door that had been in danger of Diego's all-powerful foot.

Diego, not having expected the sudden portal, was now face-down on the ground, groaning. Elizabeth folded her arms as she watched him slowly get to his feet, the other two joining her.

"I hate you," Diego moaned as he got to his feet, glaring at Elizabeth who gave him a sweet smile.

"I'm still laughing."

"Oh, shut up." Diego rolled his eyes, pushing her slightly. He began to limp his way through the living room and gave them a dismissive wave as he instructed, "Yell if you, uh . . . you know, you're in trouble."

"Ah, inspiring leadership," Five remarked mockingly as they all watched Diego stagger away into another door that led to the kitchen.

Allison nodded. "One of the greats."

She then headed up the wooden staircase that was just behind them as Elizabeth and Five made their way to the living room.

Elizabeth sighed as she did a full analysis of the living room, taking it in as Five tottered around.

There were a couple of couches, whose throw pillows were messily placed; a coffee table that was littered in newspapers and books, along with a couple of mugs that had the smallest amount of old coffee in them; and an array of photos that showed a variety of trips and events that Leonard/Harold had taken part in.

She walked over to a desk that was shoved into the right corner of the room and began to search through the drawers, only finding crumpled papers and pens. 

She heard Five let out a groan of pain, and immediately turned around to see him crouching next to the nearest couch, a hand over his stomach.

"Ugh . . ." Five slowly got up, his eyebrows knit tightly together as he stared at the wall in front of him. His eyes then flickered over to Elizabeth, seeing her staring at him with folded arms, and he offered her a smile. "Uh, I mean . . . I'm having a great time. How are you? Having fun?"

"Oh, drop the act." She rolled her eyes as she walked up to him, her hand outstretched.

He took a step back before she could touch his shirt, and then turned around, stiffly walking over to the coffee table. He winced as he bent over and began to rifle through the newspapers and books, pretending to search for something as his eyes glanced towards Elizabeth every so often.

She shook her head and went to the desk, moving on to a drawer she hadn't seen before.

Just then, Allison's voice called out from upstairs, "Guys, you need to see this!"

Elizabeth and Five looked towards each other, their eyes wide. Immediately, they rushed up the stairs, although going a little slowly due to his hobble.

They went up to the attic to be faced with horror; there was an abundance of Umbrella Academy merchandise, although, all of it had been ruined and wrecked in some way or another.

The many posters of the students that hung on the sides of the bookshelf and on the walls had their eyes all scratched out, the black of their masks barely prominent. A few figurines sat along the bookshelves, all of their faces seeming to have been melted off with a lighter. 

Taped against the inside walls of the bookshelves were drawings created by a child, all done in colour pencil, of the Umbrella Academy getting viciously murdered in various ways.

It was not a pleasant sight.

"All our faces are burnt off," Allison breathed out as they all grouped around the terrifying bookshelves.

"Well, that's not creepy," Diego scoffed. "This guy's got some serious issues."

"This was never about Vanya." Elizabeth shook her head, her eyes lingering on a figurine of herself that was missing her whole head. "This was about us."

Five let out a small sigh from behind her before falling backward onto the ground. His right hand clutched at the sweater vest, at the spot it had been at before.

"Five!" Elizabeth crouched down at his right side as Allison dropped to her knees beside her, Diego crouching on the other side. She grabbed Five's left hand, her eyes widening when she saw that the normally fair skin was now covered in red. "Wha—blood."

Allison stared at him in shock. "What happened?"

Finally able to do this without Five intervening, Elizabeth moved his right hand to the side and lifted his shirt, letting out a small gasp when she saw the injury he had been hiding.

The whole right side of his stomach was covered in blood, with a piece of shrapnel deep in his skin, right in the spot he had been clutching at. A stream of blood gushed out of the wound, reminding them that it was nowhere near healed.

"Jesus, Five," Diego sighed as he got a good look at the wound. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You have to keep going," the boy breathed out, his voice soft. "So . . . close." His eyes closed and his body slacked as he fell unconscious.

"Five." Elizabeth stared worriedly as Diego slapped his cheek with the back of his hand. "Five!"

"We've gotta get him home," Diego said immediately, looking up at the two girls.

Elizabeth nodded and jumped to her feet. She pushed her hands out, her eyes glowing gold as the portal was created.

Diego grabbed a hold of Five's legs as Allison picked him up under the arms, and the two lifted him up together and then stepped through the portal.

Elizabeth gave one last glance back towards the strange collection that Leonard/Harold had gathered before walking through the portal herself.

She arrived in the main foyer of the house, the portal closing behind her as her eyes found the other two, who were carrying Five into the living room.

"We should have taken him to the hospital," Allison murmured as they rushed Five over to the couch.

"A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some questions," Five mumbled as they gently laid him down.

"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic," Allison pointed out as she took her blue jacket off and tossed it onto the ground. "He's still losing blood. What do we do?"

"We gotta get the shrapnel out," Elizabeth said, watching Five's pained face with concern. "I'll do it."

"Do you know how to?" Allison questioned with an air of doubt, her eyebrows furrowed.

Elizabeth looked up at her with raised eyebrows. "I know how to do everything."

After she instructed them to bring Five to his room, Elizabeth dashed over to the medical room and grabbed a first aid kit before going to his room.

Five was laying on his bed, now fast asleep, and his nose would scrunch up as he twitched in pain.

Diego and Allison nervously watched from the doorframe as Elizabeth sat down next to him and pulled his shirt up, beginning to work on removing the shrapnel.

After the shrapnel had been removed, she cleaned his stomach of all blood, sterilized the injury area and stitched it up, wincing slightly whenever Five would make the slightest movement.

By the time she was taping gauze onto the wound, both Diego and Allison had disappeared, not having warned Elizabeth of their departure or where they were heading off to, but she figured they'd be back soon.

She sighed as she watched a bit of blood leak onto the white gauze. What an idiot he was, pretending that this dangerous wound was nothing. She wondered how he managed to survive on his own for so long after time-travelling; if he acted as he was acting now, he should've died three seconds in.

Elizabeth shook her head as she closed the first aid kit, the bright red cross staring at her as she put it onto the nightstand.

She walked over to his dresser, opening the doors and quickly scanning it. She found his pyjamas at the bottom and grabbed them.

She walked back over to him and began to take his uniform top off, one piece by one piece. She took his blazer off, which was followed by the sweater vest, and then unbuttoned the white button-up shirt that was now mostly red, and gently slipped it off of him. She then carefully put his arms through each armhole and buttoned up the blue pyjama top. She took his shoes and socks off, resting them at the side of the bed.

She gazed at Five as she adjusted his head onto the pillow, whose face had since then relaxed, now sleeping peacefully.

She was going to kill this boy someday soon.