Word count: 3562

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐘, Elizabeth woke up feeling rather empty. And, also, extremely confused.

Where had Five gone? Had he been kidnapped? Was he okay? Was this part of the plan? Why didn't he tell her? Was he going to come back?

However, she didn't have much time to think of an answer to these questions as a knock came on her door.

"Come in," she called out, yawning as she shrugged her blazer on.

The door creaked open to reveal Luther, who looked rather tired. "Hey."

"Hi," she greeted. "What's up?"

"I've been thinking." He came in, sitting down on her bed. "With Five being gone, and us not knowing where he is . . . We should tell the others."

"About the apocalypse?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows as she sat down next to him. She got a nod of confirmation, and continued, "I don't know, Luther . . . Five didn't want us to tell anyone. He was really adamant about it."

"Yeah. But here we are, with no Five, no idea who causes the apocalypse, and no plan as to stop it." Luther frowned as he gave a small shrug. "I think there's only one option left."

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment, her eyes flickering from object to object in her room as the thoughts mulled over in her head. 

After a few moments, she nodded. "All right. You go get Alli and Klaus, and I'll get Diego. Tell them to meet in the living room."

Luther nodded, getting up from his spot and immediately going to carry out his mission.

Elizabeth quickly grabbed her hairbrush from her dresser, brushed her hair until it was tangle-free and straight, and made her way down to the second floor.

Diego's room door was already open, so she didn't even bother knocking before walking in to see Diego lazily playing with one of his knives as he sat on the bed. He had been shot in the arm the day before, and now had the injured arm in a sling in order to help him heal.

He seemed to hear the approaching footsteps and looked up to watch as she entered his room. His eyebrows raised. "Come to say good morning for once?"

"No," Elizabeth sighed as she sat down next to him, "there's an emergency family meeting."

"Now?"

"No, next Thursday, at five past two," she deadpanned as she rolled her eyes. "Yes, now."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No. Well, yes. Well, no. Well . . . Just . . . Let's go." She beckoned for him to follow her as she made her way down to the living room.

The others were already in the living room by the time they had gotten there, and Allison handed both of them a to-go cup of coffee from a nearby cafe.

𝑊𝑒𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦. 8:15 𝑎𝑚.

"So?" Allison questioned as she handed Klaus, who was sitting on the floor, his cup. "What's going on?"

Elizabeth exchanged a sigh with Luther as she sat down on one of the couches, sitting next to Diego. Seeing all eyes on her as they waited for an answer, she told them, "The world's ending in three days."

"Three days?" Allison repeated incredulously as she gave Luther his coffee.

"That's what Five said." Luther nodded.

"The old bastard did mention the apocalypse, come to think of it." Klaus realized as he adjusted his legs so that he was in a criss-cross position. "He just left out the part about how soon."

"But can we trust him?" Allison questioned as she stood next to Luther. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Five's a little . . ." She made a whistling noise as she used her free hand to gesture a cuckoo sign.

Klaus chuckled, "Our little psycho."

"He was pretty convincing," Luther insisted as he looked to Elizabeth, who nodded in agreement. "Besides, if he wasn't trying to stop an apocalypse, those lunatics wouldn't be chasing him."

"That's why they were after him?" Diego questioned, his full attention now on Luther.

"Yeah." Luther nodded.

"What did Five even see?" Allison asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Uh . . ." Luther's gaze shifted over to Elizabeth as he tried to come up with an answer. "Apparently, we all fought together against whoever was responsible." He hesitated before clicking his tongue and standing up, beginning to walk towards the back of the room. "Okay. So, here's the plan. Uh, we go through Dad's research . . ."

Everyone immediately seemed taken aback, obviously being able to tell that Luther wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Wait, what? Hold on, hold on."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa."

"Wait a tick, wait a tick, wait a tick." Klaus raised his hand, an intrigued expression on his face as he inquired, "What actually happened the first time around?"

"Yeah. What are you not tellin' us?" Diego narrowed his eyes at Luther, who seemed to have become apprehensive. "Come on, big boy, spit it out."

Luther raised his coffee cup, staring straight at the plastic lid as he debated in his head. "We died," he said rather quickly and quietly before immediately burying his face in the lid as he drank from the cup.

"What was that?" Allison raised her eyebrows, her free hand shoved into her back pocket.

Luther coughed as he lowered his cup. "Uh . . ." He blinked. "Elizabeth, take it away."

"Wha—" Elizabeth's eyes widened as everyone turned to look at her. Luther nodded, insisting that she repeat what he had said, but louder. "Okay, uh . . . So . . . here's the thing, right. When Five got to the apocalypse, you know, by time-travelling, he used his eyes. And with those eyes—interesting fact about eyes: light-eyed people are more tolerant of alcohol but less tolerant of the sun. Oh, and Five has light eyes. That makes so much sense now. Anyway, so Five used his eyes, and boy, did he use them well, because with those light eyes that make him more tolerant of alcohol but less tolerant of the sun, he—"

Diego kicked her foot. "Cut to the chase."

"Right, so . . ." She shut her eyes as she exhaled. "We . . . Uh, we died."

Flabbergasted, everyone stared at Elizabeth with wide eyes. Then, they all got up from their spots, following Luther towards the bar counter to follow up.

"Just now, you're telling me . . ." Diego shook his head. "No, we need to figure this out."

"Is it just us?" Allison questioned, her forehead creased with worry.

Luther shook his head. "It's everybody."

"In the house?" Diego used his finger to gesture downwards to the floor before biting his thumbnail.

"The whole planet?" Allison added.

"No, outside the house," Elizabeth corrected with a sigh. "Everyone died."

"Hey."

They all turned to see Vanya standing a few feet away from them, wearing a deep blue jacket and a striped scarf. A man whose eyes were far too bright for this conversation and was wearing a plaid button-up that was tucked into his jeans was standing next to her.

"What's going on?" Vanya questioned, her eyes shifting from person to person.

Allison exchanged an uneasy look with Luther. "It's a family matter."

"'A family matter,'" Vanya echoed, a mocking smile approaching her face. "So you couldn't bother to include me."

"No, it's not like that," Elizabeth cut in, trying to salvage whatever she could. "We were—"

"Don't let me interrupt." Vanya shook her head as she turned to leave through the archway.

"Wait." Allison strode over to her, her voice low. "I'll fill you in later when we're alone."

"Please, please, don't bother." Vanya turned to her, shaking her head. "And I won't either."

Allison furrowed her eyebrows as she shifted her weight from one foot to another, clutching her coffee cup with both hands now. "Vanya, that's not fair."

"Fair?" Vanya repeated with a bitter chuckle. "There's nothing fair about being your sister. You guys treated me like dirt. And I used to think it was Dad's fault" —she turned her gaze onto the rest of them, her eyes now watering— "but he's dead. So it turns out you're the assholes."

The man who had come with Vanya stared at them with a disapproving look before following Vanya out the door.

"Ouch." Klaus placed a hand on his heart, his nose scrunched up as they watched the two leave.

"I'm gonna go find Vanya and explain," Elizabeth sighed, beginning to walk around the bar counter before Luther grabbed onto her arm.

"No, wait, there isn't time. We need to figure out what causes the apocalypse," he insisted, just as the door slammed shut. "Now, there are loads of possibilities. Nuclear war, asteroids. But I'm thinking this is about the Moon. Right? Dad must have sent me up there for a reason. And I was giving him daily updates on the conditions, I sent field samples. The first thing we need to do is find his research."

"Hold on. Hold the phone," Klaus interrupted in a breathy voice. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around. Remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point." Diego looked at Luther as he used his good hand to play with his knife. "What gives us a win this time?"

"Five," Elizabeth answered simply. "Last time we didn't have him. We weren't all together. This time, we'll have the full force of the Umbrella Academy. That's what we need."

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

"Well, he had a plan to change the timeline." Luther nodded. "He'll be back soon."

Diego walked around the bar counter, announcing, "I'm going after Hazel and Cha-Cha."

"What, right now?" Elizabeth asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Hell, yeah." He nodded as he slowly walked to the archway opening. "Three days. I'm losing light by the minute."

"Wait, Diego." Luther reasoned, "Look, I know you wanna avenge your friend, but we got a bigger problem here."

"She wasn't just some friend." Diego turned to Luther as his voice grew louder. "If I'm gonna die, I need to know I killed those bastards first. It's not about Dad. It's not about me." Diego shook his head before turning around. "Don't try to stop me."

Elizabeth sighed as he speedily walked out. "I'm going to go try and stop him."

While Luther called for Klaus, Elizabeth followed Diego as he swiftly headed to his room. He left the door ajar after entering, allowing her to enter without having to knock once again.

"Hey. Idiot." She folded her arms as she leaned against his doorframe.

Diego looked up at her before sighing, "What?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she questioned as he crossed his room and sorted through his collection of knives that lay on the dresser.

"The right thing."

"No, the right thing would be to stay here and help us," Elizabeth corrected as he lifted his left foot onto the wooden chair in front of him.

Diego bent down, attempting to tie his shoelaces. "That's nice and all, but I'd rather just stick a knife in Hazel and Cha-Cha."

"Diego, you—" She sighed, seeing that he was unable to tie his laces because of his injury. She stepped towards him and crouched down. "Here." She took the laces from his hands and began to gently tie them.

"Thanks." Diego gave her a small smile of appreciation as he watched her loop the laces.

"Anytime." She stood up after finishing. "Now, you gonna help us or not?"

He shook his head. "Not."

Suddenly, Elizabeth felt a presence come to her side. Klaus appeared, sweating profusely, with a thick, blue rope wrapped around his shoulder.

"Hey, Die—oh, you're here too, Queen Elizabeth." Klaus took notice of her, his voice quivering slightly. "Good . . .Good. I need your guys' help."

"With what?" Diego furrowed his brows as he took his foot off of the chair.

"I need you guys" —he took the rope off of his shoulder and tossed it to Diego— "to tie me up."

Diego's eyes glanced down to the tangled rope he had caught in his free hands before he looked up at Klaus, his eyebrows furrowed. "Come again?"

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

"Wow." An incredulous smile had made its way onto Diego's face. "You are one twisted bonehead."

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

Diego raised an eyebrow. "There's better ways to get clean, bro."

"Not for me, no." Klaus swallowed. "I need someone to take away my options."

Diego sighed, "Fine."

"Okay." Klaus nodded, a relieved look on his face. "Thank you."

The three of them went into the attic, which was dimly lit by a couple of dying lamps and the strong light that burst through the window. Klaus plopped down onto a chair in front of the window, ready to be tied up.

"Here, I'll tie him." Elizabeth put her hand in front of her, asking Diego for the rope.

He shook his head. "What, you don't think I can tie a rope around someone?"

"I think that your arm has a bullet hole in it, so you shouldn't tie a rope around someone," Elizabeth answered in a fake cheery voice, stretching her hand even further towards Diego. "Especially if you can't even tie your shoelaces."

He sighed and handed her the rope, the rough material scratching against her palm.

"I hate this room," Diego grumbled, looking around the dusty place as Elizabeth circled Klaus, tightening the rope around him.

"Oh, it got me high enough. I picked it clean of anything of value after Daddy kicked the bucket," Klaus giggled. He leaned his head back towards where Elizabeth was, a euphoric grin on his face. "That's it, tighter and higher." He gasped as she pulled tightly on the rope. "Ooh. Ouf! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

"If I see a boner, I'm leaving," Elizabeth threatened as she rounded the rope onto his shoulders.

"End of the world and you wanna get sober all of a sudden," Diego noted, shaking his head. "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 as Elizabeth got down to her knees, pulling the rope underneath the chair, "there's something I need to do, and the whole pesky thing doesn't seem to work unless I'm sober."

"Is this is about conjuring the one you lost?" Diego questioned. "What was her name?"

Klaus was silent for a few moments as Elizabeth knotted the ends of the rope. "His name was Dave. We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley . . . in the Mountain of the Crouching Beast."

"Well, Dave must have been a very special person" —Elizabeth gave Klaus a small smile as she tucked the end of the rope underneath the chair— "to put up with your weird-ass shit."

"Yeah. Yeah, he was . . ." Klaus giggled, smiling to himself as he thought about Dave. "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."

"You fought in the shit?" Diego raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh yeah, baby."

Diego tilted his head. "How'd they let you do that?"

"Let me?" Klaus echoed, scoffing. "War couldn't take enough bodies. Please. Including his." Klaus's expression grew sombre as Elizabeth got to her feet. His voice instantly brightened. "Hey, look at us. Loggin' in some quality sis and bro time before the end of the world."

"Yeah, might as well," Diego sighed as he took his knife out from his pocket and beginning to twirl it through his fingers, glancing at Elizabeth. "Most people I like are already dead."

"Ah, yes." Klaus nodded. "The lady cop. Mom, too."

"I let them both down." Diego's jaw clenched as he looked towards the ground. "So here I am."

"You're good to go, Klaus." Elizabeth patted the top of Klaus's (rather sweaty) head. She wrinkled her nose at her words. "Or I guess, to stay?"

She and Diego began to walk towards the door when they heard Klaus groan behind them.

"Ah, shit!"

They instantly turned to him, their eyebrows knit tightly together as Diego inquired, "What?"

Klaus's face scrunched up. "I need to pee."

After going through the irritating process of untying Klaus and him going to the bathroom, Elizabeth picked up the rope from the chair and gestured for him to sit back down. He heeded but soon got up, his face flushed.

"You know, no, I . . . I think . . . I think this was . . ."

"Whoa." Diego's eyes narrowed as Klaus blundered forward. "Wait."

"I think this was a bad idea. No. I just . . ." Klaus rambled as he tried to go towards the door. "I should have had just one last hit to ease me into it. That's all I need. I'll be right back."

Elizabeth slung the rope over Diego's shoulder before she speed-walked towards him. She folded her arms as she stepped in front of the door, blocking it. "I don't think so."

"No . . ." Klaus began to whine.

"That's not how it works."

"Queen—"

"Nope. Sit down."

"Elizabeth, listen. Just listen."

"Sit," she ordered, pointing her finger at the empty chair.

He pleaded, "Just listen."

"Sit your ass down." Elizabeth clutched onto Klaus's shoulders and pushed him into the chair. She quickly took the rope off of Diego's shoulder and began to wrap it tightly around Klaus as he tried to wiggle out. "Sit down. Sit down."

"Dammit, Elizabeth! Dammit!" Klaus moaned as he tried to free himself. "Stop it!"

"Nope."

"Stop it!"

"Nope!"

"Get off! Get . . . Get off! Get off!" He tried a new tactic as he whipped his head towards Diego, who was amusedly watching a few feet away. "Listen, listen. Listen to me. Listen to me. I can conjure her for you."

"Stop." Diego immediately shook his head as Elizabeth continued tying the other man. "Stop."

Klaus ignored his request and continued, "Patch! I can—"

"Don't use her name like that, okay?" Diego demanded, his brows furrowed.

"Let me . . ." Klaus breathed out. "Just let me go."

"You can't conjure shit until you're clean." Diego shoved his knife back into his pocket, stepping towards Klaus.

"Please . . ."

"I don't wanna see her until I can tell her that I buried the bastards that killed her."

"Please. Please, Diego," Klaus begged. He looked to Elizabeth, who was now tying the end of the rope at the bottom of the chair. "Please. Please, Elizabeth."

Diego found a plastic, blue bucket in the corner of the room and shoved it in front of Klaus as Elizabeth stood up. "This is for next time. Puke, pee, whatever you need. Multipurpose. See?"

The two began to walk out, ignoring Klaus's cries that somehow grew louder the further they were from him.

"Diego! Elizabeth! Please come back! You pricks!"

Rolling their eyes, they went down to the main floor. The chandelier had never been cleaned up, the metal decor being a large barrier in the middle of the foyer. They went to the left of it, passing the archway of the living room before they both paused and retreated backward.

Another figure had passed the archway at the same they had, except from inside the room. One that they recognized.

Exchanging furrowed eyebrows of disbelief, Elizabeth and Diego quickly stepped into the living room. There, feather-dusting the head of a boar that protruded from the wall was a humming Grace, alive as ever.

"Mom?" Elizabeth breathed out.

Grace turned to them, a large smile growing on her face as she registered the two of them. "Oh! Hello, Diego and Elizabeth!"

"How are you" —Diego swallowed as Grace walked towards them— "walking around?" 

His fingers slowly wrapped around her forearm and lifted it for them to see. There, where Diego had opened the control panel, were stitches, closing the skin.

"One foot in front of the other," Grace laughed lightly. "Why? How do you do it?"

"Mom, I . . ." Elizabeth folded her arms, confused. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Oh, let's see . . ." Grace thought for a moment before answering, "March 21st. Sunset was 7:33 pm. Moon was waxing crescent. Dinner was Cornish hen, rice, carrots."

Diego tilted his head. "Mom, that happened over a week ago. Do you remember anything else?"

"No. I suppose that's odd." Grace frowned before looking towards the window to her right. "I wonder what the weather is like today. It would be nice to go to the park."

"Dad never let you off the grounds." Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows, watching their mother carefully.

"Your father isn't here anymore." Grace smiled at the two, instantly reassuring them.

Diego was quiet for a moment before he returned the smile. "You can do whatever you want, Mom."