Chaotic Good | the umbrella academy

NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN
' FIFTH TIME'S THE CHARM. '

Eddie walked through the grounds of her mind's house, gentle hums falling from her lips as she caressed the flowers of a bush. Her eyes flickered to the sky, plagued with the orange of destruction - the mimic of the kugelblitz.

"Why is the Kugelblitz kugelblitzing my world?" she asked aloud. She turned around but then stopped on the spot, staring down at her younger self. "What the fuck?"

"Why won't you wake up?" she questioned with a tilted head, her voice void of emotion.

"Huh?"

"Come on, Eddie. We need you."

"What?"

"Eddie!" Her younger self's voice rose, and the world shook around her. The older one turned in a circle, her eyebrows pulled into a furrow. "Eddie!" the child repeated but laid with another voice, a male voice.

"Come on, Eddie."

She turned, and a gasp escaped her.

Hermes stood before her, dressed in his signature suit and hands behind his back. "This is now you want to die?"

Eddie furrowed her eyebrows and shifted on her feet. "Not particularly, but we don't get to choose our time."

"Really?"

"Isn't that how it works?"

"Eddie, you were supposed to die four times before the timelines were changed."

"Four?" she repeated. "Are you counting the time God revived me?" Hermes didn't react to her joke, and she shifted on her feet. "Look, I've been fighting this for so long now. Why can't I just pull myself out of the game, let the other players have the ball?"

"Who says you won't be able to pull out? But now you are needed."

"By who?"

"It's the stars!"

Eddie whipped around, the voice coming from all around her.

"Children, find a star on the sigil. Stand on it! Ben, now's your time, boy! Quickly!"

"What is going on?"

"Your family needs you. They are dying," Hermes responded.

Eddie blinked slowly, everything colliding with her like a freight train. She found herself on the floor, and her eyes flickered to the side where everyone, bar Allison and Hargreeves, hung, suspended in the air and screaming. She couldn't move for a moment, her body still before everything clicked into place.

Eddie let her eyes shut, and energy formed in her hands. Her body screamed in protest, but slowly and surely, she rose upwards. Her limbs shot outwards, tense and stiff, the energy erupting from her.

The siblings fell to the ground, clutching their stomachs and coughing heavily.

Eddie's mouth parted as the energy was ripped out of her body by the beams which once held her siblings. Although her abilities replenished her energies by converting those around her, it felt like her body was tearing apart.

She screamed.

It was raw, and an explosion of energy erupted from her body.

Everything suddenly stopped, and the area fell silent. Eddie remained suspended in the air before her body plummeted to the ground. Lifeless. She hit it hard, rolling onto her front with unseeing eyes. A dribble of blood fell from her mouth and splashed onto the marble ground.

Silence remained as the Hargreeves stared at the body of their dead sister.

Eddie Hargreeves was dead.

Really and truly dead.

And you know what they say? The fifth time's the charm.