Golden Leaves

I Defied Death For This

The Handler never changed. I swore, in all the years that I'd known her, she didn't even age a second. She always looked like the plastic made porcelain doll with the most outrageous outfits known to man. Her smile was just as fake as the rest of her, the only genuine part of her was the wickedness lurking behind her eyes. She was the wicked witch in disguise, something which I wished I had known a whole lot sooner.

Lila, on the other hand, was never the same person twice. She changed outfits more than the rest of us, even more than Klaus which was hard to beat. Beyond that, her very demeanor seemed to change each time I saw her. Perhaps it was because I hadn't seen her since she was pretending to be Diego's girlfriend from the loony bin, but she seemed different. She seemed harder, more calloused. I could tell there was blood on her hands, and she was proud of it.

"It's the golden trio," The Handler laughed as we approached, "Lovely to see you all again."

"Enough with the pleasantries, what do you want?" Five demanded.

Five, Diego, and I all stood as a united force. For the first time, it felt like we were a real team. Five and I had always been a team, we had been a team so long I forgot what it was like not to be a team. This was the first time I felt like the entire Umbrella Academy was a real and true united team- and that I was a part of it. I couldn't help but smile as we faced what was possibly our two worst enemies.

"To see you both," Lila cut her eyes between Five and me, "Suffer."

"What about me?" Diego asked.

"You? You aren't even worth my wrath."

"Oh, so you want to make us suffer, but not your ex-boyfriend," I rolled my eyes, "What the hell did we do to you?"

Lila curled her fists, "You-"

"Easy," The Handler interrupted Lila at exactly the right moment, "We're here on official business."

All eyes turned to the Handler. She smiled at us, that wicked smile that dripped with poison. It was enough to kill, if the poison didn't get you, she surely would.

"And what business is that?" Five asked.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, doing his best to hide his nerves. I could feel my fingers dig into my palm as I felt it too. There was no doubt in my mind he was thinking the exact same thing I was; this was a set up. The alarm bells in my head were ringing as the Handler chuckled.

"As the Head of the Commission," The Handler smirked, "I have decided to eliminate the criminals responsible for the assassination of the former board of directors."

There is was, the exact phrase Five and I were dreading. We exchanged glances and I could see all of the color drain from his face. I'm sure mine wasn't much better. All I could think was how stupid we were for falling right into her little trap.

From the very beginning, it was all a set-up. She knew we wouldn't make it back to 2019 in ninety minutes. She knew, from the moment she offered us a deal, that she had already won. We were the scapegoat, and what's worse. We couldn't talk our way out of this one because she was right.

"Yeah, right, we didn't assassinate the board of directors," Diego snorted.

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly as Five raised a finger, "Uh, Diego, that isn't entirely true."

"You didn't tell them?" The Handler cooed.

I frowned, "Do you usually tell your family you murdered ten people?"

"Ten pe-" Diego hesitated, "Five, Clove, what the hell?!"

Five frowned, "In our defense, Diego, we did what we had to do to get our family home. It isn't our fault you all couldn't make a simple deadline!"