Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode Seven. Part I.

"The Day that Was"

Wednesday. 8 AM. (Again...)

Early Wednesday morning, five of the seven living Hargreeves siblings engaged in an intense conversation pertaining to Five's warning about the end of the world. Unbeknownst to them, the day had already happened.

Luther was on the bar stool with Allison standing beside him. Diego was leaning against the back of the bar with one arm in a sling and the opposite hand flipping a knife around. Elle was swinging her legs from where she sat on a bar stool next to Klaus. She was clutching a styrofoam cup of hot chocolate while the others had coffee from Griddy's Doughnuts.

"Hold on. Hold the phone." Klaus waved his hand around as he spoke. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around, remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point," Diego pointed out. "What gives us a win this time?"

Electricity crackled as a ball of blue light appeared above the bar.

"J-Jesus!" Allison exclaimed as they all jumped away from the static. Klaus stumbled back against the nearest couch with a groan.

Five dropped out of the blue cloud portal like he did when he returned from the future days ago. He and a briefcase landed on the counter with a harsh thud.

Klaus squinted at the body. "You guys, am I still high, or do you see him, too?"

"Five, where have you been?" Luther questioned sternly.

Five rolled weakly off the counter, and Allison gasped: "Are you alright?" She caught his arm before he could completely tumble face-first onto the floor.

"Who did this?"

Five shook Allison off, then snatched the to-go coffee mug from Griddy's out of her hand before he answered Luther with a typical vague explanation. "Irrelevant." He slurped down the rest of the drink as he limped a few paces away from where the siblings were watching him in disbelief.

"Irrelevant?" Eloise repeated. "No, what's irrelevant is the spider crawling on Klaus' pants." Klaus screamed and fell off the couch in a panic to brush off the tiny eight-legged creature. "Your lack of insight about what you're up to and what the hell we're supposed to do about the situation we're in is kind of relevant, Five."

Five pursed his lips at Elle, but she didn't spare him a glance as she helped Klaus off the floor. Five turned to the rest of the group. "So, the apocalypse is in three days. The only chance we have to save our world is, well, us."

"The Umbrella Academy," Luther determined.

"Yeah, but with me, obviously," Five said with such attitude. He looked around at each face of his siblings. "So if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together, and get over yourselves, we're screwed."