< March 29th 2019 >
8:15am
It had been an explosive week for the Hargreeves family, after all, they had reunited believing that they were attending the funeral of their father and now several other things had happened. Five had returned from the future, there were two murdering assassins on the loose and there was a possibility that their father's death hadn't been from a heart attack. Kate wasn't sure how she had become so involved in the family affairs but now that she was fully cemented in the problems, she was ready to help them whatever happened. She had always had Diego's back, there was no question and seeing how passionate he was about finding her sister's killer made her want to help him with his own family issues. Somehow, she had also grown closer to his family, sure she didn't know much about Luther or Vanya and barely knew anything about Five, except that he was a fifty-eight-year-old man in a teenager's body. But she had a good feeling about Allison, liking how honest she was when they first met and had grown attached to Klaus, after spending the entire day with him; he seemed to have a lot of layers to him and was slowly revealing them.
She hadn't been expecting to be involved in their family meeting but she told Diego that she wasn't leaving him, especially not after he had just been shot and would need consistent care to ensure that his wound healed properly. After years of watching him come home in the middle of the night with random wounds, she was properly introduced to medical care and knew what she was doing. It felt uncomfortable at first to be surrounded by his family as they discussed what Five told Luther as it seemed very private but she was now a part of this incident and wanted to do whatever she could to help them. Maybe she didn't have the superpowers that the others had but she had proved to them that she could take care of herself and wasn't a liability, plus, Dora had always said that she was smart enough to be a detective, so maybe she could help them work out what was really happening.
Diego sat on the couch, allowing his girlfriend to change the bandage on his arm as he listened to his siblings talking about the looming apocalypse which was only a few days away. He was grateful that among the chaos that was breaking out around them, he could count on Kate to keep him grounded because it was nice to have someone to rely on. He was also enjoying the fact that his siblings had opened up to her so quickly, telling her everything about the apocalypse and treating her like part of the family. It made him feel better, especially since she didn't have any one from her own family left; if his own siblings could take care of her and treat her like a Hargreeves then it would make her feel better and made him happy at the same time. It wasn't hard for the siblings to like Kate, she was smart, she baked them treats and she wasn't an asshole; each of them wondered how the couple had started dating because they were an unusual coupling but hadn't seen the sarcastic badass side that only Diego and Klaus had seen.
Allison was handing out coffee to everyone as Luther sat at the bar and Klaus took refuge on the floor, not looking too well at the constant talking about the end of the world. "Three days?" She questioned, wanting to make sure that everyone had the same information before they made a plan of action.
"That's what Five said." Luther nodded.
"The old bastard did mention the apocalypse, come to think of it." Klaus sighed, not feeling like himself after he had accidently been transported to the 1960's where he fought in the Vietnam War. "He just left out the part about how soon."
"But can we trust him? I don't know if you've noticed but Five's a little..." Allison trails off, gesturing with her hands and whistling.
Klaus chuckles at her insinuation. "Our little psycho."
"He was pretty convincing. If he wasn't trying to stop an apocalypse, those lunatics wouldn't be chasing him."
Diego looks towards the larger brother and realises that that was the reason that the assassins were trying to hunt him down. "That's why they were after him?"
"Yeah." Luther muttered, focusing on the ground as he tried to think of what their next plan should be but was stopped when Allison wanted to know exactly what the future looked like.
"What did Five even see?"
"Uh, apparently, we all fought together against whoever was responsible." He stuttered, not wanting to share the rest of the story with his siblings because he knew that it didn't end well and wouldn't help them in the long run. Quickly, Luther stood up and began pacing, stuttering as he spoke and hoping that they wouldn't ask him anymore questions about the future. "Okay, so here's the plan. Uh, we go through dad's research-"
"Wait, what? Hold on, hold on." Allison interrupted and the other siblings all stood up, wanting to know exactly what happened.
"Wait a tick, wait a tick. What actually happened the first time around?"
"Yeah, what are you not telling us?" Diego agreed with Klaus, knowing that Luther was hiding something from them. "Come on, big boy, spit it out."
"We died." Luther whispered but no one heard what he said.
Kate frowned, standing up like the rest of the siblings. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I said, uh, we died." He repeated, saying it louder and causing hell to break loose in the Parlour as the siblings reacted to the news, moving towards the bar. Kate sat back down on the couch, spacing out with the news and trying to figure out what that meant for her now.
"Just now, you're telling us? No, we need to figure this out."
"Is it just us?" Allison ignored Diego's forwardness and asked something that would help them learn more about the upcoming apocalypse.
Luther shook his head. "It's everybody."
"In the house?" Diego added, hoping that only a few people would be affected and it wasn't as bad as it seemed, concerning the whole country or the whole world.
"No, the whole planet. Everyone died." There was silence among the siblings as they all took in what Luther told them, suddenly the looming apocalypse seemed scarier than they had believed and now they were worried that if they didn't do something soon then it would cause the end of the world.
"Hey!" Vanya broke the silence in the room, obviously not understanding what she had just interrupted as she seemed happy and even brought along her new boyfriend to meet her family for the first time. She had no idea that the end of the world was happening and had no idea how serious this situation was. "What's going on?"
No one really knew how to answer her when there was a random guy stood by her side, they didn't really want to tell this untrustworthy man about the apocalypse and how it was their responsibility to stop the end of the world. Allison handled her sister better than anyone, knowing what the right thing to say was and tried to approach her softly so that things wouldn't get out of hand. "It's a family matter."
"A family matter? So, you couldn't bother to include me?"
"No, it's not like that." Luther promised, not wanting to upset his sister with the meeting that they were having as they weren't expecting her to show up out of the blue but now had to explain what was happening with a random guy in the room. "We were-"
"Don't let me interrupt." She snapped, turning around to leave the Parlour and drag whoever her boyfriend was, with her.
"Vanya, wait." Allison stopped her from leaving, pleading with her eyes. "I'll fill you in later when we're alone."
"Please, please, don't bother. And I won't either."
She frowned at her sister's harsh words, not liking the tone that Vanya was using because she had never talked like this before. "That's not fair."
"Fair?" Vanya repeated bitterly. "There's nothing fair about being your sister, I have been left out of everything for as long as I can remember. And I used to think it was dad's fault, but he's dead. So, it turns out you're the assholes."
"This is something bigger than our family, Vanya. If you'd just listen then we could talk about this-"
"If this really is a family matter then why is she here?" She pointed to where Kate was sitting, who had been in her own head as they all talked about the apocalypse but was now suddenly involved in the conversation when she saw everyone turning to look in her direction. She didn't know Vanya very well, they had only met several times and didn't have much in common but that didn't mean that she was expecting to be hated by her, asking why she was involved in the family business.
"Excuse me?"
Diego was quick to defend his girlfriend and wasn't happy with the tone that Vanya was using, acting as if she was better than her, it was something that he had never heard her sound like before. "You don't have to answer to her, you have a right to be here."
"Does she?" Vanya questioned, looking between her brother and his girlfriend, her eyes narrowing. "Because, last time I checked, she wasn't part of the Umbrella Academy either, so how did she make the cut?"
Kate couldn't believe what she was hearing, she knew that she wasn't a part of the family but she could help them and they trusted her, which was more than what could be said about Vanya. The way she was acting proved that she was unstable and couldn't be trusted with the information that they had just been given. Besides, Kate had a right to be there as it was Dora who had gotten involved with this mission, and gave her life so that Klaus got home safely. "My sister died, saving your brother."
"She shouldn't have been so careless to walk into a situation without backup."
That comment was enough to shatter Kate's heart because it sounded as though Vanya didn't even care that someone had died for them, she didn't even care that Klaus had been kidnapped and Dora was the one person who tracked him down to save him. The way that she spat across the room, made it sound like Dora had given her life for nothing and she saw red when looking at the usually quiet shy woman in front of her; she snarled through her teeth to stop herself from attacking her. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"No, you don't know what you're talking about! You think that because you've dated Diego for a few years, it means that you know everything about us but you don't. You don't know anything!"
Allison could see that things were getting out of hand and couldn't understand what had happened to their usually sweet, kind sister; she was saying things that you wouldn't even say to your worst enemy and this was Kate, someone that they all liked and trusted. "Vanya-"
"No, I know my family! My guess is that Diego probably isn't even that interested in you, he likes to string people along and throw them away when he gets tired. He's been with you for three years; he'll get bored of you soon."
"Shut the hell up Vanya, you don't know what you're talking about." Diego warned, gritting his teeth and closing the gap between his sister and his girlfriend because he didn't appreciate what she was insinuating and hated that no one else was standing up for Kate.
"Don't I? Really? How good of a boyfriend is he? Does he surprise you with spontaneous dates, does he wake you up with coffee in bed, has he even told you he loves you yet? Didn't think so."
"My relationship is none of your business." He said sternly, waving a finger in Vanya's face and over-exaggerating his words so that she would listen closely. "Katy is family, she's my family."
Vanya knew that she would have the last say and closed the argument with her brother, hating that this random girl had been part of the family meeting and she hadn't. "If she's family then I'm not."
"What's your problem with me?" Kate asked, her voice softer and quieter as she had taken the time to clear her thoughts and take in what was being shouted at her; she was close to tears over the situation but wouldn't cry in front of Vanya. "I haven't done anything to you."
"I don't trust you. And I don't know why my own family trusts a stranger more than they trust me." She snapped, grabbing her boyfriend's arm and dragging him out of the Parlour before any of the siblings could offer anything else.
Even though Kate was glad that Diego had stood up for her, saying nice things about how she was his family and deserved to be there. She also couldn't help but listen to what Vanya had said about her relationship; their relationship wasn't perfect and they argued a lot but they had been together for three years and had been happy until the last week when problems seemed to arise from nowhere. She knew that he cared about her and would do anything to protect her but Vanya was right, he didn't surprise her with special dates or express his love for her. Kate knew that she was part of the family and was right to be in the family meeting, helped by the sacrifice that Dora had made to save Klaus but she had more questions about her relationship than she had ever had before. And she was second guessing everything that they had been through, wondering how much of it was real.
Allison looked awkwardly around the room before grabbing her purse and rushing across the room. "I'm going to go find Vanya-"
"No, wait, there isn't time. We need to figure out what causes the apocalypse." Luther stopped her, knowing what was more important at that moment and began listing different possibilities for the cause of the apocalypse. "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. 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 stopped him rambling because it wasn't helping the situation. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around, remember?"
Diego agreed with his brother, understanding that something different must happen for them to beat the end of the world. "Klaus, shockingly has a point. What gives us a win this time?"
"Five." Luther answered straight away, knowing that without their brother then none of them would have known about the apocalypse coming. "Last time we didn't have him. We weren't all together. This time we'll have the full force of the Umbrella Academy, plus a friendly face. That's what we need."
"So, where's Five now?" Allison questioned.
"Well, he had a plan to change the time line. He'll be back soon."
Instead of waiting around for Five to return home, Diego grabbed his knives and prepared to leave the academy for his own mission. "I'm going after Hazel and Cha-Cha."
"What, right now?"
"Hell, yeah. Three days and I'm losing light by the minute."
Luther stopped him in the middle of the room, knowing how important avenging Dora was to the couple but also knowing that if they didn't stick around then the end of the world was inevitable. "Wait, Diego, I know you want to avenge your friend but we have a bigger problem here."
"She wasn't just some friend. Luther, she was family when I didn't have anyone else."
"She was Kate's sister but you don't see her running around trying to murder people."
Kate shrugged, not wanting to be dragged into another argument because she hadn't been expecting to fight with Vanya and was definitely not interested in fighting either Luther or Diego. "Different outlooks I suppose."
"Listen, if I'm going to die, I need to know I killed those bastards first. It's not about Dad. It's not about me." Diego paused and gestured for his girlfriend to follow him. "The longer I wait, anything could happen. Come on Katy."
She moved towards him but Luther grabbed her arm and pleaded with her, knowing that they needed more firepower. "Kate, we need all the help we can get-"
"I'm sorry, I need to stop him from doing something stupid." She sighed, moving out of his grip and following Diego downstairs into his childhood bedroom. Even though she was prepared to do anything for him with the end of the world around the corner, it didn't mean that she had forgotten all of her worries and was stuck in her head as he pulled out his array of weapons.
"Hey, do you mind helping me?" Diego had sat on the bed and was struggling to tie his shoelace as his arm was bandaged but when he looked up, noticed that his girlfriend was spaced out. He knew exactly what was worrying her and waved his good hand in front of her face to wake her up. "Katy, what's going on with you? Is this seriously about Vanya? She's crazy, don't listen to a word she says."
She bit her lip before coming out with what she had been desperate to say, she couldn't beat around the bush anymore and just needed to come clean about what she was feeling. "How can I not when what she said was the truth?"
"What are you talking about?"
"We never go on spontaneous dates; we don't have coffee in bed and you've never told me how you really feel about me. I know that we're not a normal couple but it wouldn't hurt to do normal things every once in a while."
Diego seemed shocked that she had been so open with her concerns and knew that she had a right to be not completely satisfied with their relationship but he struggled with personal things and tried to soften his approach with her; shaking his head and refusing to make eye contact with her. "Look, I'm not great with my feelings."
"Neither am I, but it would nice to know that we were going somewhere with our relationship. You know, thinking about a future together or ending things if you're not interested."
"You think I'm not interested?" He interrupted, shocked that that was what she was thinking because he was sure that everyone could see just how happy he was with her.
"I don't know what you think, Diego." Kate shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself because she hated to be so serious with him but because of their lack of serious conversations, they were now in this mess and needed to sort out what they were feeling. "But I'd like to avoid getting my heartbroken before the end of the world."
"Katy, you are the most important person in my life. The most important." He repeated, forgetting his worries about commitment and just letting go of it. He grabbed her hand with his good hand and pulled her down so that they were looking directly into each other's eyes. "I'm a shitty boyfriend and I don't deserve you, sometimes I wonder whether we should just end things because you deserve someone one hundred times better than me."
"I don't want anyone else; I want you." She said quietly, using her free hand to caress his cheek gently. "And I don't want you to provide everything for me, but I want to know where we stand. Do you even think about a future with me?"
"Of course, I do. I hate saying it out loud because someone could hold it against me, but the one thing that keeps me going is imagining a future with you. And if we manage to save the world, then I swear, I'll do everything in my power to be a much better boyfriend."
"I love you." Kate grinned, rubbing her thumb up and down his cheek. "And I'm fine with the fact that you're not ready to say it back. I know that you care about me and you want a future with me, that's all that matters. So, as long as you know that I love you, then nothing else matters."
He pressed his lips to hers and pulled back with the biggest grin. "What did I do to deserve you?"
"You must have been perfect in a past life."
"Haha, now will you help me tie my shoelace now?"
< March 29th 2019 >
8:15am (again)
The siblings were in the Parlour, talking about the end of the world which had been interrupted when Vanya stormed in with her newest boyfriend and shouted at Kate for being part of the family meeting when she wasn't family. Diego had come to her defence and everyone was reminded that Dora, Kate's sister, died after saving Klaus from the evil assassins who were in the city to kill Five. Vanya stormed out and Allison wanted to follow her but was stopped by Luther, who reminded the siblings that they needed to come to a decision about what to do with the looming end of the world. They needed to find out what caused the apocalypse otherwise they would all die, like they did the first time around. This caused another disagreement because the siblings wanted to know what would stop them from dying this time around, either way it seemed that the apocalypse was happening and they wouldn't be able to stop it.
"Hold up, we all died fighting this thing the first time around, remember?"
Diego agreed with his brother, understanding that something different must happen for them to beat the end of the world. "Klaus, shockingly has a point. What gives us a win this time?"
Before anyone could answer the question there was a purple beam of light above them as electricity crackled around the room and then Five was dropped onto the bar, holding a briefcase to his chest tightly. Everyone jumped back, not expecting their brother to be dropped from another portal in the middle of the Parlour. "Jesus!" Allison yelped, pressing her hand over her heart to calm her breathing down.
"You guys, am I still high or do you see him too?" Klaus questioned but the siblings ignored him and rushed over to help Five, who was struggling to get up from the bar.
"Five, where have you been?" Luther asked.
Allison quickly, helped him to his feet. "Are you alright?"
"Who did this?" Luther asked another question but it seemed that Five was on a mission and didn't have time for stupid questions from his siblings.
"Irrelevant." Five snatched the coffee away from Allison and slurped the entire thing in a matter of seconds before turning back to his siblings. "So, the apocalypse is in three days. The only chance we have to save the world is, well, us."
Luther nodded, glancing around the room to his siblings, each worried about the information that they had been given that morning. "The Umbrella Academy."
"Yeah, but with me, obviously. So, if you don't get your sideshow acts together and get over yourselves, we're screwed. Who cares if Dad messed us up? Are we going to let that define us? No. And to give us a fighting chance to see next week, I've come back with a lead. I know who's responsible for the apocalypse." Five hands a folded piece of paper to Kate, who unfolds it and reads the name in her head, not recognising it. "This is who we have to stop."
The siblings all crowd around her to hear the name of the person that needed to be stopped, and she said it aloud but still didn't recognise it. "Harold Jenkins?"
"Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" Diego asked on behalf of all of them, but in that moment, it seemed as though not even Five knew who this person was. All they knew was that Harold Jenkins was the cause of the apocalypse and it was up to them to stop the entire world from ending, they needed to find this man before anything happened to him.
a/n: i had my booster today & i could sleep for weeks 😴 -lizzie ⭐️
date published: 05/12/21