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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀɴ ʜᴏɴᴇsᴛ
ᴄᴏɴᴠᴇʀsᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴘᴛ. 𝟸 ꒱
❝ BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN
[ IS AN EVEN GREATER WOMAN ] ❞
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They sat quietly together for some time after the question was spoken, pondering the implication of the words. For Five, it was something he didn't want to think about. For Dolores, it was something she'd already come to terms with. When she received no response to her query, she asked another one. Her tone was much calmer than it had been minutes ago. "Where did you go?"
"After Lila," he explained, going instantly for honesty. "I tracked her to an abandoned warehouse and fought her. Turns out, she's The Handler's daughter. She— The Handler, that is— tried to make a deal with me that I'd take out The Commission's board members and in exchange, she'd help us get back to 2019 without the apocalypse. I didn't agree, of course."
"Of course," the brunette conceded. A part of her wished that she'd gone with him. She hated the thought of her husband facing that vile woman alone. Then, she spoke again: "I haven't been completely honest with you, you know."
"I'd guessed as much," the boy admitted. "When you know someone as well as I know you it's hard to hide that sort of thing but I knew you'd tell me eventually."
She gave him a faint smile. "Of course," she repeated before she finally told him her last secret. "I've met your father."
The boy's head jerked up as he stared at her with wide eyes. "What?"
"Er, yeah. I was trying to figure out the math to find your siblings so I'd be prepared when you finally showed up but I got stuck, so since I figured your father knew about time travel—after all, you had to learn it from somewhere— I went to go see him. He helped me find your siblings."
It took another few minutes for him to understand her explanation. "You-you've met my father," Five echoed incredulously. "And you didn't think to tell me this sooner?"
"I wanted to," Dolores retorted, "but we were a bit busy between crashing a party and fighting the Three Stooges. He really is a terrible person, by the way."
"Yeah, no shit," the boy agreed. "Jesus, Dolly. If I had known—" He sighed. "We could have just gone straight to him."
"Maybe he'll come to us," the brunette suggested. "He saw me, that night at the party. He knows that you're the siblings I told him about."
"How much did you tell him?" Five asked, giving her a slightly suspicious look.
"Only what was necessary," she reassured him, "but even then it's probably enough to mess up the timeline. It was what I had to do—"
"I know," he allowed. "No wonder Allison wasn't surprised when she heard the news. I'm guessing you couldn't find Klaus, then?"
"He moved around too much but I kept tabs on where stories about him popped up in newspapers," she said.
"And I'm guessing you didn't go see Luther?"
"No." The brunette sounded only a little guilty.
"Oh," the boy suddenly remembered. He handed her an envelope. "This came for you."
Dolores accepted the mail and opened it. She removed a thick piece of paper with black lettering and the words read:
To my Pursuers:
I, Reginald Hargreeves, request the pleasure of your company for a light supper on the 20th of November 1963 at half-past seven o'clock.
1624 Magnolia Street, Dallas, Texas.
She gave the boy a smug look. "What did I tell you?"
✧✧✧
The pair made their way to Southland Life later that evening at the allotted time. The boy was understandably nervous as they approached the meeting hour, though he did well not to show it. Still, Dolores could sense his. . . anxiety and gave her husband's hand a gentle squeeze as they entered the building. "Hey," she said gently, causing him to look at her. She met his eyes. "I love you. You know that, right?"
Five's expression softened. "I know. I love you too." He paused and added, "I'm glad you're here."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," the brunette promised as they came to stand in front of the elevator. The boy pushed the button to call it to their floor.
Dolores had cleaned up after her painting exercise and her skin now lacked any evidence of her previous frustration. She'd also changed from her blue work dress to a pair of high-waisted, pleated blue pants and blue floral collared shirt.
The doors finally opened and the couple stepped inside, turning to face the front as they begin to close. Before they could fully shut, though, a hand stopped them in their tracks. Diego appeared and he stepped into the elevator. "Wait up."
"Hold it," Allison called out as she caught the ride as well. She looked mildly surprised to see her siblings.
"Hello everyone," Klaus entered with Vanya. The man leaned casually against the back wall with a flask in hand.
"Excuse me," Luther added as he squeezed himself in.
Dolores saw the brief smile that crossed the boy's face before it disappeared and his hand tightened around hers briefly. "Good. We're all here."
The ride was silent as the elevator gained height but the slightly tense atmosphere was interrupted by a disgusting smell. Noises of complaint sounded from the siblings and Dolores, all of whom made an effort to cover their noses.
"Luther!" Klaus complained.
"Oh my god," Vanya gasped.
Dolores clamped her free hand over her mouth and nose, grimacing at the horrible scent. Glancing up, she groaned slightly when the floor counter indicated they had three levels left. Luther only looked mildly abashed. "Sorry, I'm nervous."
As soon as they arrived, everyone burst out of the enclosed space to breathe cleaner air. The brunette was slightly surprised by the Tikki-bar set up; she hadn't expected Reginald Hargreeves to have such. . . tacky taste.
"Alright. When dad gets here, Dolores and I will do the talking, okay?" Five announced as they made their way to the round table in the center of the room.
"I've got a few questions for him myself," Diego disagreed.
"Hey, we don't wanna scare him off, alright? He might be able to help us stop doomsday, get us home."
Dolores counted the seats at the table and her total came to eight, so she moved to sit at one of the separate tables. The action caused the boy to look over at her with a frown. "What are you doing?"
"There's not enough seats," she explained, gesturing to the setup. "I'll sit over here, it's fine. This is a family thing, after all."
"Hey, no," the boy countered. He reached over to grasp his wife's wrist to tug her closer. "We can just get another chair."
"Can we please get back to the important issue?" Diego demanded. "We need to figure out why he's planning to kill the president."
"This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile," Five snapped as he moved to get another seat.
"Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking," Vanya suggested. "Here." She grabbed a decorative shell. "Whoever has this conch shell gets to talk."
"Vanya, we don't have time for debate, okay?" The boy made an attempt to curb his temper.
"Maybe I should lead," Allison put in, taking the shell from her sister. "We all know I'm a better public speaker than the rest of you."
"Okay, daddy's girl," Diego mumbled.
"Oh, jealous, Number Two?"
"Hey, no more numbers," her brother responded. "No more bullshit. We're Team Zero." He walked around the table to face the woman. "We're all Team Zero."
"Uh, Diego," Luther spoke up. "You don't have the conch."
The man gave him a pleasant smile and held up a finger before he took the shell from Allison's hand only to launch it across the room. A loud shattering noise followed its descent. Dolores jumped at the sound and shook her head at Five's proffered chair.
"Classic," Allison remarked dryly.
The door to the room swung open, cutting off further discussion. The very much not dead Reginald Hargreeves stalked in with a journal tucked under his arm. The siblings stared at him as he made his way to the table.
As he sat down, the siblings scrambled to follow suit. Dolores decided to stand behind her husband and placed her hands on his shoulders in a show of support. Reginald glanced briefly over at the brunette before he spoke: "not only have you burglarized my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican Consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occasions, called me. . ."
He paused as Klaus took the remaining seat with a drink in hand. "Hey, pop. How's it hangin'?"
"Dad," the man finished. "Now, I am somewhat aware of the situation in part due to the woman who is— apparently— my daughter-in-law, but I would like to hear the story from the source."
As the siblings turned to look at the brunette, Dolores shrank slightly at their gazes which ranged from accusing to betrayed. Taking the attention off her, Five answered the man's request. "We're your children, from the future. In 1989, you adopted all of us— Doll— er, Dolores not included, of course— and trained us to fight against the end of the world."
"The Umbrella Academy," the brunette reminded him, having already explained all of this. At least it went to prove her story.
"The tale does seem to match up," Reginald admitted sternly. "But I still don't understand why on earth I would adopt six—"
"Seven," Allison interrupted him. "One of us isn't here."
"Dead," Diego corrected her. "One of us is dead."
"Yeah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, enough of that now," Klaus said to seemingly empty air. He turned to see everyone's gazes on him and gave an airy wave for them to continue.
"Regardless, what would possess me to adopt seven ill-mannered malcontents?"
"Because they have special abilities," Dolores answered. "As I've already explained, it's how we got here in the first place."
"Yes, you did mention that," he acknowledged, "but call me old fashioned, I'm a stickler for a pesky thing called evidence which you were unable to provide."
"Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden," Allison scoffed as she took a sip of her drink.
"We're not circus animals, okay? I don't know what Dolores led you to believe but we're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement," Luther said shortly, demonstrating the last action.
Impatiently, Diego took out one of his knives. He sent it sailing through the air before it turned as it approached the middle of the table. It curved towards Reginald and stuck itself in the wooden pole behind him. The man gave him an unimpressed look before he started writing in his journal. The siblings leaned forward as he did so.
"What are you writing?" the dark-haired man asked.
"You are zero for two, young man," Reginald told him, causing Allison to splutter into her drink.
Diego rose angrily, easily agitated by the man's words, but Five shook his wife's hands off his shoulders and swiftly blinked over to jump in front of his brother. "Stop!"
He made his way back to around the table. "Not every power is demonstrable," he said as he retook his seat. "For example—"
"Allison never uses hers," Diego interrupted, giving his sister a smug look.
The woman gave him an irritated one in return. "I heard a rumor that you punched yourself in the face."
Her brother followed the command as his eyes turned white momentarily. His fist came up to do exactly as she'd told him to, causing him to exclaim in pain after the spell had worn off. "Aah! Dammit."
Allison sipped her drink, feigning innocence. Five returned to his previous sentence. "What I was going to say was, for example, Vanya's powers can be. . . unpredictable."
"Maybe we don't take her for a test run," Luther agreed.
"Oh, yeah, that's probably not a good idea," Klaus added, taking a sip from his own drink.
"It's fine," Vanya countered. "I can handle it." She picked up her spoon.
"Handle it?" Allison demanded. "The last time you 'handled it' you definitely blew up the moon."
The woman's utensil made contact with her cup as Five shouted: "no, Vanya, don't!"
A high-pitched sound resonated in the air around them as the woman directed the force of the noise towards the fruit at the center of the table. They began to vibrate before they suddenly exploded, hitting everyone in the process. Dolores took refuge behind Five and crouched down behind his chair until it was safe to stand again.
"Oops," Vanya said shyly. She leaned back with a small smile on her face.
"Impressive," Reginald allowed as he wrote quickly in his journal.
"Look," Diego rose from his seat. "We know that you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president."
"You were recently hospitalized, is that correct?" Reginald asked. "You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute paranoia."
"Am I?" Diego demanded. "Explain this," he said, and pulled out the picture to hand it across the table. "That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's going to get shot."
"Well," Reginald said slowly, "I suppose you've solved it. You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot. Is that what you want to hear?"
Diego's pleased expression turned confused.
"You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy? This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head."
Diego sat with a terrible, upset expression on his face. "Y-you're wr-wrong."
The siblings gave their brother a look of sympathy and pity, all of them feeling as helpless as when they'd been children. Dolores spoke up, the only one unaffected by past history. "Look, forget about the president. I've told you that the world ends due to nuclear war. We need to figure out how to stop it."
"War?" Reginald repeated. His gaze turned to the brunette. "Men will always be at war with each other."
"This isn't just some war," Five explained further. "Like Doll-Dolores said, it's doomsday, the end of the world."
"Well, you're the special ones, aren't you? Why don't you band together and do something about it?"
Silence met his words until sudden movement from Klaus caught their attention. His arms suddenly shot above his head as he began to convulse, earning mixed looks of either concern or irritation.
"Is he having a seizure?" Allison asked.
"Overdosing, probably," Diego commented quietly.
"Should we do something?" Luther questioned.
Five sent the man a stern look and whispered, "Klaus, now is not the time!"
Their brother continued to make strange noises as his body turned stiffly to face Reginald with his arms still raised. "I'm. . ."
"Out with it, boy!" Reginald demanded.
". . .Ben!" he finished with a gasp before he collapsed on the ground, shuddering.
"Well. . ." their father announced loudly as he stacked his items together. "Thank you for coming. I've seen about enough." He stood and walked away from the table, stepping right over the man on the floor.
"No, I. . ." Luther trailed off before he gathered his courage. He slammed his hands on the table to get the man's attention before he straightened and ripped his shirt open. "Look at what you did to me! Look at it!"
Allison choked on her drink as Five slumped back in his chair, accepting defeat. "Oh, shit. Why?"
Reginald only gave him a second's look before he turned his gaze to the teens. "You two, Mrs. Hargreeves and the one in the culottes. A word in private?"
✧✧✧
The odd trio sat at the bar: Reginald was on the far left with Five in the middle and Dolores was on the end. The man sat completely upright without an ounce of imperfection in his posture as his grey eyes watched the two teens analytically. He first turned his attention to Five. "You seem to be the sensible one of the bunch."
"That's because I'm the oldest," the boy answered. "You know, I'm technically older than you right now."
"Yes, your wife did mention some time travel mishaps," he agreed. His gaze moved to the girl. "However, she failed to mention exactly how dysfunctional this. . . this group you call family was."
Dolores gave him an innocent smile. "Did I?" The man wasn't the least bit fooled.
Reginald signaled for the man behind the bar. He turned to the couple. "Cognac?"
"Just a smidge," Five allowed while the brunette shook her head.
The man poured their indicated drinks as the boy's future-father continued: "the other night you quoted Homer at me. Why?"
"You forced us all to learn it as kids," the boy replied. "Practically drilled it in our heads in the original Greek no less."
Dolores glanced at the man as she murmured, "and the father of the year award goes to. . ."
The bartender placed the two men's glasses down in front of them. Reginald held his up to give the boy a small toast and Five copied his motion before they had some of their drink.
"The world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline," Five finally picked up the main topic.
"Worlds end," Reginald said dismissively with a shrug. "Paleozoic, Jurassic, so on."
"We can do something about this one," the boy insisted.
"Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control."
"I need your help, alright?" Five asked. "You're my last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make."
"That's not an exaggeration," Dolores added. "You've helped me with the time travel equations. I know you know more than just that. What do you know about time travel in practice?"
"I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing—"
"As an acorn," Five finished. "Yeah."
"Dolores explained that the first time you failed, you were stuck in the apocalypse for forty-five years," Reginald told him. "The second time, you stranded your family across the timeline in Dallas. At least, that was her theory at the time. It seems to be proven correct. Might I offer some advice?"
"Please," the boy nodded.
"Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities. Start small. Seconds, not decades."
Dolores suddenly jumped from her seat with a loud: "ha! I told you! I was right! I so told you!"
The two men turned to look at her as her husband gave her a 'stop that' look. "No you didn't," he said. "You're being ridiculous."
"No, no, no," the brunette argued. "I'm not letting this go. Remember I told you I was good at figuring out riddles and you told me the acorn one? That's the exact conclusion that I came up with!"
The boy paused as the long-distant memory suddenly came back. She'd been right. He shook his head, not wanting to admit his slip-up. "Look. No offense, but I need a bit more time for what I'm trying to accomplish."
"So much can change in a matter of seconds," Reginald explained. "One could overthrow an empire, one could fall in love." He paused as the boy's eyes met the girl's excited ones before he continued: "one could save a life. An acorn doesn't become an oak overnight."
Dolores' eyes rose to meet the man's. "My uncle used to say that."
He tipped his drink in her direction. "Then he must have been a very wise man."
"I was really hoping you had more than that," Five said with a sigh.
"I'm sorry I can't be of more help," the man apologized.
The boy sighed too and gave his head a slight shake. "I'm sorry too. I gave you such a hard time as a kid. I didn't know any better."
Reginald made a sound of acknowledgement and lifted his glass. "No skin off my teeth, old man."
After Five and his future-father finished their drinks, the boy slid down from his seat to take his wife's hand and turned to lead her out of the restaurant. As they stepped away from the door, Reginald spoke for the last time, recalling the name of the boy which Dolores had told him: "Five?" The teen turned to look at him and he nodded to the brunette. "Behind every great man. . ."
✧✧✧
The couple left the building hand-in-hand, quiet after their lack of success with Reginald Hargreeves. Dolores spoke first: "you know she's going to double-cross us, right?"
Five glanced over at her and took in her thoughtful, worried expression. "I know. We'll just have to be prepared for whatever she throws at us. Are you sure you want to come?"
The brunette sent him a sharp look. "Yes. You're not leaving me behind again. We're a team, remember? Us against the world."
He gave her hand a squeeze. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
✧✧✧
Five and Dolores stood in front of the double green doors of the Hotel where The Handler was staying. The boy knocked on the paneled wood and not even a second later, the woman opened the door. She gave the boy a cat-like smile before she caught sight of the brunette. Her expression become one of thinly-veiled distaste. "You have company."
"It's me or nothing," Dolores countered immediately in a defensive tone.
The now-brunette raised her hands in self-defense. "I was merely making an observation. You two made it just in time for a nightcap."
She left the entrance and made her way over to where a service cart stood in the room to pour the drinks while the pair entered her living quarters. Five shut the doors behind them as Dolores kept her eyes trained on The Handler; she didn't trust her for a second. She shifted slightly to stand in front of her husband, just in case.
"To be clear," the boy said as The Handler started a new cigarette. She handed to teens their drinks as she did so. "We take out the board, you get us and our family home."
The girl turned her beverage over and allowed the dark liquid to pour out onto the carpet. She set her empty glass down on the floor and added to the boy's clarification: "no more doomsday, no more apocalypse. Is that correct?"
The woman laid down on her bed and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Her legs crossed almost suggestively in a way that made Dolores tense. "That's the deal."
"Then we're in," Five stated.
The Handler gave the pair a pleased smirk. She held her drink in one hand as she held the paper out to them. Dolores stepped forward quickly before the boy could approach her and took the note from the woman, returning to stand next to her husband. Quickly, she opened it to see the words written on the page:
The Lonely Lodger Inn
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1982