Number Eight: Apocalypse (Umbrella Academy)

1

1989

Billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves made it his goal to adopt as many as the 43 children that were born on the twelfth hour of the first of October in 1989.  The births of these children were mysterious because 43 women, all who were not pregnant when the day began, gave birth to 43 children.  His goal, however, was not as big as a success as he had hoped for, as he only managed to adopt 8 of the 43 children.  To him, these children were a scientific mystery with the power to someday save humanity.  They were special, and he did as any good father figure would do, he prompt them to reach their fullest and purest potential.  Instead of actually names, Hargreeves decided it would be easier to number the children, because if he managed to get all 43, it would be a lot of names to remember.  He named the children with the number he adopted them by, starting with the first to be adopted, Number 1, and ending with the last to be adopted, Number 8.  Overall, Hargreeves managed to adopt 5 boys and 3 girls.  To ensure there were no favourite amounts them, all the children got uniformly black strollers with opaque covers, and nannies who looked very similar in facial features. 

1993

As the children became four years old, Hargreeves hired a housekeeper to nanny the children, as well as clean and cook for them.  Many nannies were hired throughout the process as he tried to find the right fit for the children.  The nannies, however, never lasted long, they would either quit, or not be able to continue working due to severe injury, or the fear of returning.  When Hargreeves discovered that one of his children was the problem, he quickly devised a solution.  Her name was Grace.  Grace, unlike any of the other nannies, was robotic, and could not be damaged or develop a fear for the child.  All the children loved Grace, although they referred to her as 'mom', and Grace loved the children.  Grace was not only programmed to be a care taker for the children, but also to protect them from harm, just like a real mother.

Hargreeves, along with Pogo, looked at the children he had adopted, he only referred to them by their numbers, but Grace gave them names: Number  One - Luther - a white skinned boy with blonde hair, Number Two - Diego - a Latino skinned boy with black thick hair, Number Three - Allison - a brown skinned girl with tight black curly hair, Number Four - Klaus - a white skinned boy with black hair, Number Five - Five - a white skinned boy with dark brown hair, Number Six - Ben - an asian boy with black hair, Number Seven - Vanya - a white girl with brown hair, and Number Eight - Heather - a white girl with blonde hair. 

Every child was born with their own unique ability, Number One possessed super strength, Number Two had wicked accuracy and the ability to manipulate object's when thrown, Number Three just had to say the phrase 'I heard a rumour' and then people were brainwashed to do whatever she willed, Number Four talks to dead people, Number Five jumps through space and wants to work on jumping through time, Number Six has a four tentacled demon inside of him, Number Seven controlled sound waves based on her emotions and feelings, and Number Eight was gifted with enhanced intelligence.

Pogo, the monkey who was experimented on and who is just as intelligent as humanity, looked at his master and his closest friend Hargreeves.  Pogo held the stopwatch as Hargreeves sectioned his page into eight section to write notes on each child during the exercise as he licked the whistle in his mouth.  Hargreeves and Pogo stood at the top of a square twisted staircase as the children looked up from the ground level.  The children stood alert, ready to race for first prize, all trying to impress and prove their worth to the cold-hearted man who adopted them.  Number One, also known as Luther, always managed to be at the very front of the starting line, which gave him the advantage, along with his above average height and muscular frame.  Number Eight, Heather, consequentially always seemed to start the furthest behind the starting line.  With this disadvantage, Number Eight had never come in first in her life, which Hargreeves never let her forget.  Heather stood in the back looking at her siblings, each of them were ready to try to be first, but not her, she had given up on her winning her father's approval.  She knew that Number One and Number Five were usually the winners of their father's useless tests, and she also knew they got acknowledged no more then the rest of them.  Then, the whistle blew, and, like always, Number Eight was left in the dust storm of her siblings.   Unlike the others, however, she lightly jogged the entire test, like there was no rush or care in the world, in an unconscious attempt to get his attention, but Hargreeves had more pressing matters on his mind, and her name was Number Seven. 

Number Seven, or Vanya, seemed to take up the majority of Hargreeves time, with her tantrums of destroying expensive glass cups, creating and holding high pitch tones, and her flat-out disobedience.  No matter how hard, or how little, Number Eight tried, she just could not stand out enough to be considered worthy of Sir Hargreeves attention.  Her siblings on the other hand seemed to have no problem, even Number Four - Klaus - who had what Eight considered to be the most useless power, the ability to communicate with the dead, was able to constantly receive attention from Hargreeves.  The most obvious act of insolence on Hargreeves behalf was when assigning rooms, he completely skipped over Number Eight.  That was the moment when the bitterness began towards her siblings, when Number Seven, the one who destroys expensive items, throws temper tantrums, completely ignores Hargreeves requests gets a room, and she, Number Eight, who always complies and tries her best, gets left out and ignored.  She was left to move into one of the large air vents in the attic, where she would stay warm, and it was a place where no one could find her and ridicule her. 

But one day, a miracle occurred, Number Seven got sick and was quarantined from the rest of the house.  With Seven temporarily out of the picture, Eight realized that this was her chance to finally prove to everyone that she is just as good as they are.  While Seven was gone, life did improve for Eight, she became a recognized part of the family, and Hargreeves even gave her the room under the stairs to sleep in, everything was perfect, until she saw Seven walking around.   After about a day, Eight knew that something had changed within Seven, Seven never used her ability - the ability to control sound waves - and she kept referring to herself as 'ordinary'.  The other children, however, began to believe that Seven really was just ordinary, and that she was like this their entire lives, but are they to blame, after all, they only had the comprehension of four-year-old children.