CHAPTER EIGHT
third time's a charm
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
THE NEWS OF THE WORLD ending was, at this point, nothing new. Nadine had been told this twice before—once, in Diego's shoddy old rented room at the gym he worked at, and again in the janitor's closet at the Dallas Aquarium, nestled in between soapy mop buckets and bottles of bleach. Both times, she'd gone through the whirlwind of emotions that accompanied such a premonition: an unorthodox smoothie of shock, pain, anger, and fear.
Maybe, because of this, one might have expected that she would have been more prepared to hear it for the third time. Maybe she'd learn to reign in her horror. Maybe she would've launched right into the planning stage.
That wasn't what happened.
News of the world's upcoming destruction wasn't exactly something Nadine could brush off, no matter how many times she'd heard it before. It was simply on too large of a scale for her brain to process so nonchalantly, even if it had been something she'd gone through over and over again. Which meant that, for the third time, Nadine was freaking the fuck out.
She sat on the floor with her head between her knees, trying to take deep, even breaths. It wasn't working. Her heart was pounding like a constant burst of thunder, her mouth was dry as sandpaper, and her head pulsed with a steady, agonizing pain. Behind her closed eyelids, she could see nothing but burnt red. She wound her charm bracelet around her wrist again and again.
Again. It was happening for a third time.
Once upon a time, Nadine Vidal had been prophesized to save the world. She'd learned later that this was due to the connection she'd formed with Viktor, and the fact that, as a stranger, she had more of a chance of getting through to him than his dysfunctional family did. That had been the reason the Commission had sent Hazel and Cha-Cha out to kill her. That had been the reason The Handler hadn't killed her parents and kidnapped her to be her own child.
Then the world had ended, anyway. Nadine had been close—infuriatingly close—to talking Viktor down from his apocalyptic concert, but Allison, seeing nothing but her siblings in danger, had intervened. The Moon had blown up. The Earth had been consumed in a haze of fire. And the Umbrella Academy had only narrowly escaped.
Being dropped in 1961 hadn't been fun, but it was almost a fair price to pay to avoid the world's decimation. But, two years later, Five had appeared—and not just to retrieve Nadine, but to also let her know that it was all happening again. And Nadine had gone through it all again, though without that label as the Chosen One (goddamn it, Klaus, it really did stick) to help her along.
But, somehow, she'd done it. With the help of the Umbrella Academy—who, somewhere along the way, had become her family—she'd prevented Viktor from blowing up the FBI building and narrowly avoided nuclear war. And that was supposed to be it. That was supposed to be the end.
Apparently, though, it was just the beginning.
Three apocalypses. No matter where Nadine went, some catastrophe followed, threatening to annihilate everything she held dear. Even here, in this wrong timeline, it would mean losing not only her own life, but the lives of the people she cared about. Everything.
Was it Nadine who so edged on apocalypse like this, or was it the Umbrella Academy as a whole? Why was it chasing them like a dog after a bone?
She didn't know. Sitting here, rocking slightly, all she could think was that there was no way she could save the world for a third time.
The Umbrella Academy—plus Stanley, who Nadine would've loved the chance to speak to under any other circumstances, and minus Luther, who was still MIA—had all gathered on the second floor of the Hotel Obsidian, which was informally designated 'The Games Room'. Given that the only game present was pool, the 's' really should have been tacked off. Not that this was something she was worried about at the moment. As usual, they'd all spread out throughout the room, finding various positions to situate themselves in. An eerily calm Allison leaned against one of the pillars, drinking. Diego, Five, and Viktor clustered around the pool table, where, for lack of a better surface, the notes had been lain out. Stanley was doing karate moves with a pool cue, and Klaus was laying on the ground beside Nadine.
It was a very typical Umbrella Academy meeting.
And far too casual.
Nadine opened her eyes, blinking rapidly at the sudden influx of light, and stretched out her legs. She was still panicking hard—she was gnawing her lip like a madman, copper beginning to well up on her tongue, and her charm bracelet continued to make an orbit around her wrist—but sitting here and freaking out was doing less for her than getting up and freaking out would. She needed to—she needed to move. She needed to do anything but sit and stew.
Stepping gingerly over Klaus, Nadine began to make rounds, circling the room in a slightly erratic pattern. Viktor shot her a worried look as she passed, but made no move to stop her. He'd seen her go through all five stages of grief when the bomb had dropped, and probably knew that this was her way of coping. If it could even be called that.
As she paced, Diego looked down at the pages Five had spread out, scratching his nose. "I'm so confused," he muttered.
"Shocking," Allison muttered.
"Well, someone killed our mothers, so we shouldn't exist," Viktor explained. Nadine passed him for the fifth time. "But clearly, we do exist, and the universe can't handle it, which is a problem."
"Big problem," Five agreed. He took a sip from a mug of coffee he'd somehow managed to procure from downstairs. Nadine stepped over Klaus again.
Stanley leaped into the air, kicking out one foot as he did so. "Yah!"
"Stanley!" Diego barked. "Now is not the time to be doing karate, okay?"
"Yeah, well, Mom said I need to practice."
"Yeah, well, she's not wrong." He flipped a knife. "You're very bad."
"Yeah, well, I saved your pathetic ass."
Before this could go any further, Allison peeled herself from the pillar. "Okay, hold on. Five, so we caused a paradox. What does that mean?"
"Didn't you hear? According to the Commission's stupid book, the grandfather paradox puts time, space, and every living thing is in peril," Nadine said dryly. She curled and uncurled her fists. There was a lump in her throat the size of a tennis ball.
"Yeah, but how?"
"It's hard to say," Five said. "It's all been theoretical until now, but things have started to disappear."
"What things?" Viktor asked.
"Right now? Uh, lobsters."
"And a shit ton of cows!" Klaus added, finally sitting up.
"But I have a feeling this is just the beginning."
"A feeling?" Allison repeated. "Aren't you retired?"
"I want nothing more."
She stepped forward, her eyes narrowing. "You know, you can't keep dragging us through hell because you have an itch only an apocalypse can scratch and then expect us to deal with the fallout. You're not the boss."
Five's expression remained neutral. "Fine, I'm the messenger, and I'm telling you something terrible is coming."
"As per usual," Nadine said. Blood began to leak from her chewed lip.
"Then let's go attack the Sparrows, get the briefcase, and go home," Allison said.
"This is our home, Allison," Five said. "Accept it."
Nadine finally stopped pacing. "No way," she said. "Even if this—this paradox thing wasn't happening, this timeline is completely fucked up. I mean, our mothers are dead, Allison's daughter doesn't exist, my girlfriend is dead, and there's some—some Other Me walking around this city, even though that makes no goddamn sense! Just because you didn't have anything you left behind, Five, doesn't mean that none of us do."
Five's jaw tightened dangerously. "Nadine—"
The clattering of something knocked to the floor interrupted him. Everyone's eyes darted over to the source of the sound. Unsurprisingly, Stan's jerking around with the pool cue had ended up knocking a painting off of the wall. Now, he stood above the broken frame with a slightly meek expression. Diego leaped to his feet.
"That's it! I'm telling your mom."
"Ooh!" Stanley drawled.
Five's eyes widened. "Wait, where's Lila?"
"Shower. I told her she could stay with us."
"What?" Nadine burst out. "Lila's—Lila's here?"
"Wait, when did she get back?" Viktor asked.
Nadine buried her face in her hands. "There's always something else. Even during an apocalypse. There's always something else."
"Five, where you going?" Diego asked. When Nadine looked up, she indeed found Five making his way toward the hallway.
"To go talk to somebody who only has half her head up her ass," he responded.
"Yeah, that'll play over well," Nadine said. "It's not like you killed her parents or anything—oh, wait!"
Though, if she was being honest, a part of her wanted to talk to Lila, too. What she'd learned from both her and The Handler was still clinging to her like particularly stubborn Gorilla Glue. Lila had been taken from her home. Her parents had been killed. The Handler had raised her, morphing her into one of the Commission's deadliest assassins. And Nadine was supposed to have been alongside her.
Despite what she'd thought of Lila before, the woman wasn't her enemy. Nadine couldn't hate someone who was so much like her, who had never been given the chance to be anything but the person she was forced into being. And... she'd almost gotten through to her, back in 1963. Between her and Diego, there had been a moment where she swore Lila would've joined them.
So, yes, Lila had attacked her. Betrayed her, really. But she wanted—well, maybe she just wanted to see that she was okay. And maybe a part of her was hoping that she'd finally realized that how The Handler had treated her was wrong.
In any other situation, she would've followed Five. But not now. Not when the universe was dying—however it was going to die. Not when animals were disappearing, and it was likely humans soon would, too.
So, she stayed.
"Don't leave, Five," Klaus pleaded. "Don't leave."
"No, Klaus," Five snapped. "I'm leaving."
Five did, indeed, leave. Klaus stuck the bottom of his lip out in a pout. Viktor shrugged and jerked a thumb to the spot his brother had recently vacated. "I mean, he has a good track record with this stuff," he pointed out. "I feel like we should listen to him."
"Sure," Klaus said. "Hey, quick question."
"Cobra Kai!" Stan shouted.
"Do none of you heartless bastards care about our murdered moms?" Klaus continued.
"Klaus, the only one that we knew plugged into a wall," Diego said.
"Oh, yeah? Well, this is my real mother." He pointed to the picture of the Amish woman Nadine had seen before. "And she's called Rachel. And I have her eyes. See?" he held out the book. When no one reacted, he turned to Nadine. "Come on! Nadine, you get it, right? You're the only one of us who actually knew their birthmother."
Nadine looked down. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe. I mean... it doesn't make sense, that my mother could be dead. But the proof is there and... well, I'm more confused than anything."
"Which is why we need to figure out who did this!" Klaus cried. "This is the thing! This is the main thing!"
"Is that all you want?" Diego snapped.
"Yeah."
"'Cause it's obviously Dad, all right? He knew where we were born. He hated us in '63. Boom. Murders."
Nadine actually considered the theory for a moment. It made sense. What if, as opposed to simply not adopting the Umbrella Academy when they were born, Reginald Hargreeves went out of his way to kill all of their mothers, ensuring that there wasn't even a chance they would exist? And he hated Nadine, too, so that was another person he wanted to ensure wouldn't be born. Even if she somehow still existed... whatever. That wasn't the point.
But, right away, some holes cropped up. Twenty-seven women had died on October 1st, 1989, not just seven. Plus, they had all died on the same day, around the same time. How would Reginald Hargreeves, rich as he was, have the means to travel to so many places in such a short time? Why would he even do that?
No, it couldn't be him. It had to be something—or someone—else.
Maybe it connected with Nadine's Other Self...
Klaus was shaking his head at Diego, too, but for different reasons. "You think Dad is capable of killing innocent people?" he asked.
Diego guffawed. Viktor's expression closed down. "Absolutely."
"Oh, it's Murder City, buddy," Diego agreed.
Klaus slumped. "Yeah, I guess so."
"It's not him," Nadine said. "It doesn't make sense. The timeline of it all..."
Diego looked like he was about to respond, but before he could, his eyes caught something across the room. "Little late for a meeting, pal," he called out. Nadine turned.
There, finally, after what Nadine was now realizing was an uncomfortable time missing, was Luther Hargreeves.
He was wearing a vaguely familiar maroon sweater over his brawny shoulders and clutching a drink with one hand. His expression was stony, and he looked moments away from rolling his eyes. Then he spread out his arms. "I was being held captive. By the Sparrows."
Allison blinked. "What?"
"Wait. Did none of you notice?"
The answer was no. A surge of guilt went through Nadine. Even though her relationship with Luther was still on the mend, she still should've paid more attention. Even if there were a million other problems she now had to deal with—apocalypses and wrong timelines and alternate selves that might not be you at all—it was quite literally the most basic, bare minimum thing to do. And this wasn't even the first time this had happened.
The only bright side was that she wasn't alone. Given her friends' dumbstruck expressions, none of them had noticed, either. They exchanged glances with each other before turning back to Luther. At once, they spoke.
"Yeah. Oh my God."
"We're happy you're home safe and sound."
"I can't believe this happened."
"We were so worried."
"Oh, yeah. Okay. Nice," Luther said dryly. He obviously saw right through them.
"Did they hurt you?" Allison asked.
"Who? The Sparrows? God, no. Not at all. Excellent hosts." He set down a Sparrow Academy-themed bag on the pool table. Nadine realized the cup in his hand had the same symbol on it. "Really quite charming, actually. Except for that Number Eight girl, but, you know. You can't have everything. Oh, and you should see their gym. Outstanding! I really think we got these guys all wrong."
Allison dug through his bag, then pulled out a Sparrow Academy record. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. She flipped it over to face him. "Says the guy they kidnapped."
Diego whistled. When Luther looked over at him, he asked, "What did they want?"
"Oh. Marcus," Luther responded. "He's missing." He turned to Viktor. "They want him back. Unharmed."
"We don't have him," Viktor said.
"Yeah," Nadine agreed. "We were—we were supposed to meet up with him. He was going to give us the briefcase."
Luther blinked. "Well, damn. I was kind of hoping we'd solve that one quickly and then move on to problem number two. Disappearing people."
Nadine's heart rate surged to a roar again. Between everything with Lila, the discussion about the death of their mothers, and Luther's return, she'd had a moment to be distracted from the looming Armageddon. Of course, it never should've happened in the first place, but it had been nice.
And now everything was crashing back down on her head.
Stan's pool cue smashed into a vase, shattering it. Although the nose startled Nadine, it was fitting, somehow. Here was proof that things were getting rapidly worse. Here was proof that whatever was happening... was happening right now.
Here was proof that they had no time to lose.
THE PROSPECT OF GETTING another drink from the bar was extraordinarily tempting, but Nadine forced herself to refrain. Dealing with the end of the world was something she needed to do sober, no matter how much she wished she could sleepwalk her way through it. Her mind needed to be clear. Her body needed to be upright, at the very least.
It was just Nadine, Viktor, Luther, and Allison, now. Diego had dragged Stanley off by the ear to punish him for the broken vase—even though there were a million other things of higher importance—Klaus was... being Klaus, and Five, was, of course, looking for Lila. This meant that Luther only had an audience of three as he explained exactly what he'd seen on the way back to the Hotel Obsidian.
A pulse of energy sweeping across the streets. Hundreds of people warping out of existence in moments.
Allison, a bottle still in her hand, seemed skeptical of it all. "So, all the people on the street just disappeared?"
"Well, no, not all of them, just... half of them," Luther responded.
"Exactly half?" Nadine asked. "Or is that just your best estimate?"
"I mean, I don't know. Why does it matter?"
Nadine sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. She wanted nothing more for it to be yesterday, for her biggest problems to be Other Nadine and whether or not they were going to escape this timeline. "I don't know. I'm just grasping at straws here. Trying to find some significance."
"Five did say animals were disappearing," Viktor said, leaning against the pool table.
"Okay, well, now it's definitely people," said Luther. "Half. Maybe. Probably a little less."
Viktor glanced at Allison and Nadine. "Marcus was supposed to meet up with us earlier, but he never showed."
"What, you think this grandfather thing ate Marcus?"
He shrugged. "It can't just be a coincidence, right?"
Allison sighed. "Great. Now those Sparrow psychopaths think we took their Number One. We're never getting the briefcase back."
Nadine twisted her hands in her lap. "This is so fucked."
Viktor straightened. "Okay, what if... what if we just told the truth? Marcus is gone, and maybe we're partially responsible."
"Yeah, that'll go over well," Allison drawled. "They'll throw us a party."
"I bet they throw fantastic parties," Luther said wistfully, sipping out of his Sparrow Academy cup. Nadine scoffed.
"Listen," Viktor urged. "Marcus was ready to give us back the briefcase. If the rest of his family are even half as open-minded, you know, maybe we can come to some kind of an agreement, get it back."
"Are you kidding?" Nadine asked. "They're not open-minded at all. These are the same people who tried to kill us. These are the same people who gave me these." She gestured to the pockmarked wounds across her face. They still stung from phantom beaks. "They'll never listen to reason."
"You don't know that. We have to—we have to at least try."
"Viktor—"
"We can't just do nothing, Nadine!" Viktor cried. "We don't know them. We have to—I have to at least try to do something. I can't just sit back and watch the world fall around me."
Nadine sighed. "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this."
"No."
"But you want me to come along with you."
"Yeah. Of course, I do."
"And you know that I'm going to, because you're a sacrificial idiot and my job now is to protect your ass. Even though you can totally take care of yourself."
He flashed a grin at her. "Pretty much."
"Fuck." Nadine's shoulders slumped. "I guess I have no choice." She cracked her knuckles. "Let's go see the Sparrows."
"Yeah, yeah. Okay," Luther agreed. Now it was his turn to stand up. "Uh, well, if you guys are heading over there, I should probably come along. You know, uh, for protection."
Allison chuckled. "Yeah. Nice try, Stockholm. Your ass is staying here."
She made her way past him to the stairwell, hitting him on the shoulder as she left. Luther gaped at her. "Wha—?"
"She's right," Viktor said.
Nadine nodded. "I don't know what the hell they did to you to make you so starry-eyed, but I don't trust it."
"What?" Luther blinked at them. "Who put you three in charge?"
"Look, Allison... she needs something to take her mind off Claire," Viktor said softly. "So, we'll handle this."
Luther's expression shifted. "Yeah. Copy. Hey, um... thanks for looking out for her."
"Of course," Nadine said. "Take care of yourself, okay? We'll be back... actually, I'm not sure when we'll be back. But, like, go take a nap or something. It sounds like you need it."
"Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. Good luck."
"Thanks," Viktor said. He patted his brother on the shoulder, took Nadine's hand, and began to lead her to follow after Allison.
Nadine didn't argue. It was nice, to hold someone's hand again.
It was almost like she was back with Molly.
WITH LUTHER HARGREEVES RELEASED back into the wild, Kadence had a fairly free schedule again. And maybe that time should've been spent out on the streets, especially with the staggering number of missing person cases that were cropping up all over the city, but none of her other siblings seemed too worried about it, so Kadence wasn't, either. Instead, she took this time to give herself a little vacation. She spent a few hours on the treadmill, running until she felt like her legs were about to fall off. She ate the candy she'd managed to salvage from the disastrous pharmacy trip while watching cheesy action movies. She took a nap without Marcus or her father yelling at her to get up.
It was a nice day. Kadence needed more of these.
By the afternoon, she was lying in the grass in the courtyard, headphones over her ears. Rock music piped through, harsh and grating, and she bobbed her head to the tune. Above her, the clouds crawled across the sky, fat and white, and the sun shone bright enough to hurt.
She didn't let herself worry about the missing people or the Umbrella Academy or her still sore nose. She didn't think about Marcus's disappearance or Ben taking reign of the Sparrows or the ways she was constantly shoved to the side. Instead, she just let the beat of the music thud right into her ribcage, pointed out the shapes the clouds contorted into, and breathed.
When she was younger, far before her siblings had gotten the idea to start drugging their father, Kadence would often slip out of bed in the early, early morning to gaze at the stars. Given how early their training was—on good days, it began at five am—this necessitated a wake-up time of at least three in the morning. But it was worth it.
Back then, her days had been a monumental slog of wake, eat, train, eat, sleep. There was no falter. No pause. No time to take a breath, let alone be the child she was meant to be. It was just a haze of exhaustion only interrupted by a dreamless sleep.
So, seeing the stars... well, it was the only time Kadence found peace. It was the only time she could ever just collect her thoughts, decide who she wanted to be. It was the only time she could reflect on her growing unhappiness with her life and wish to change it.
By the time she was twelve, she could name all of the constellations in the sky. When she was thirteen, she was certain she could make her way across the world using their patterns. The stars knew more of her secrets than her siblings did. The stars felt her pain more acutely than anyone ever would.
Now that she was an adult, and Reginald Hargreeves was drugged and thus more lenient, Kadence didn't go outside to see the stars very often. It was only on the really bad days—days where she or her siblings got hurt, or a civilian they were trying to save died, or she was shunted out of yet another piece of information she ought to have known—that she forced herself out of bed and slipped into the courtyard. It was then and only then that she allowed herself to cry.
But as Kadence lay here, under a cloak of day instead of night, she was beginning to realize that not much had changed from when she was younger. Her father may not be bothering her anymore, but he'd been replaced by her siblings—siblings that, despite the few good memories she had with them, were growing to become more and more like strangers.
Still, things were better now. Kadence didn't need to wait until her family was long asleep to find comfort within herself. She didn't need to sneak through hallways and manipulate matter in order to evade the security cameras. She didn't have only an hour to herself a day—today, all of today, was hers alone. And that had to mean something.
This was her life, now. She was a superhero. She was a gardener. She was an athlete. And she could give herself a moment of peace at any time of the day.
...Well, almost.
Kadence was just inhaling the scent of the flowers she'd so lovingly tended to when a foot nudged itself into her side. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, but it was sudden enough to startle her, especially since her eyes had drifted shut without her knowledge. They popped open again.
Fei and Ben stared down at her.
She sat up quickly, taking off her headphones and letting them hang around her neck. The music was cut off in favour of the breeze whistling through the trees. Kadence immediately missed it.
She cleared her throat. "Hey," she said. "What's up?"
"We need you to leave," Fei said.
Oh. That was how it was going to be.
Kadence looked from Fei to Ben and back again, a little hurt. "What?"
"Go back inside," Ben said. "We've got a meeting set up here, and we need this place to be cleared out while it happens."
Kadence's eyes narrowed. As if she was just some dirt that could be brushed away. "What meeting?"
Ben waved her off. "Nothing for you to be concerned about."
Kadence was about to protest vehemently to this when Fei sighed. "Oh, come on. What's the harm in telling her? Apparently, the Umbrella Academy is going to meet us here to negotiate a trade. We're going to get back Marcus, and they're going to get... whatever it is they want." She picked at her nails idly. "Of course, as soon as we get Marcus back, they're dead meat, but that doesn't matter."
"You're confronting the Umbrella Academy?" Kadence shot to her feet. "Just you two? Are you fucking delusional?"
Fei waved a hand at her. "Oh, it's not all of them. It's just three. The little one, the blonde bitch, and Cape-Lady."
Kadence scoffed, crossing her arms. "You seem to forget that the little one kicked all of our asses." She picked up a stick, twisting it between her fingers. It turned to salt, drizzling into the palm of her hand. "And Cape-Lady quite literally froze you in place. Even the blonde bitch put up a fight."
Ben tilted his head. "Your point?"
"The two of you aren't equipped to go against those three by yourself. You need me."
"You? Why the hell would we need you?"
"Because," Kadence said, "if things go wrong, I know exactly how to take all three of them down."
She'd had a lot of time to think about this. And between the fight at the pharmacy, her reviewing of the surveillance camera footage, her old training, and what she remembered from her conflict with the blonde bitch, it had been easy to put the pieces together.
The two exchanged a look, then bent their heads closer. For a moment, there was no sound except for their harried whispering. But then they finally broke apart.
Ben lifted his chin, his dark eyes meeting her own. "We're listening."
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
HAVEN: hehehe...
thanks for reading! <333