A bell was heard throughout the house, signalling that it was time for dinner. I fell into step beside Five as the eight of us entered into the dining room. Mom was standing to the side, smiling proudly at us.
There were four chairs on each side of the table. Seating Vanya, Five, Allison, and I on one side and Luther, Ben, Klaus, and Diego on the other.
We stood patiently behind our seats, awaiting our Fathers arrival. It came. He stood behind the only seat at the end of table, observing each and every one of us.
"Sit," he said loudly.
Everyone sat down in sync, digging into their food straight away. Everyone except Five. He shot me a side glance before looking straight at his Father. His face grew angrier before he stuck his knife straight into the table.
I flinched slightly, looking over at him with wide eyes.
"Number Five?" Reginald asked sternly.
"I have a question," Five said, clasping his hands together.
"Knowledge is an admirable goal, but you know the rules. No talking during mealtime," Reginald replied, not looking at Five. "You are interrupting Herr Carlson,"
Five scoffed and let his cutlery clatter onto his plate.
"I want to time travel," Five told Reginald.
"No," Reginald denied, annoyance in his voice.
"But I'm ready! I've been practicing my spatial jumps, just like you said," Five demonstrated by appearing right next to Reginald. "See?"
"A spatial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel. One is like sliding along the ice, the other is akin to descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn," Reginald told Five, taking a sip of his drink.
"Well, I don't get it," Five said quietly.
"Hence the reason you're not ready," Reginald continued carelessly.
Five looked over at me a second. I shook my head quickly, trying to get him to drop it and sit down.
He looked away from me and back at Reginald, an angry look on his face once again.
"I'm not afraid," he told him.
"Fear isn't the issue. The effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable," Reginald dropped his cutlery and looked at Five sternly. "Now, I forbid you to talk about this anymore,"
Five furrowed his brow and looked back at me. It almost looked as though he was about to apologize. As quickly as he looked at me, he looked away and walked towards the door.
"Number Five! You haven't been excused!" Reginald said loudly as Five sped away.
"Five wait!" I yelled as Five ran out the doors of the Umbrella Academy.
I got up from my seat at our dining room table and ran after him. I couldn't lose him. He was the one thing keeping me sane at that place.
"Number 8! You have not been cleared to leave!" I heard Reginald yell after me as I pushed open the front doors.
I was going to lose Five. He was already 3 buildings ahead of me. I stopped running and focused on the boy in front of me. Five was stopped dead in his tracks.
"Keely... Let me go." Five said slowly.
"It doesn't have to go like this, take me with you," I cried out.
"You need to stay here, finish your training," he replied, struggling to free himself.
"I've had enough training!" I said, tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
I let Five free. Hoping that he would change his mind and take me away from the Academy. He turned to look at me.
"Well, come on then," he said slowly.
A small smile tugged at my lips and I started running towards him while he stuck out his hand. I took it and I was momentarily blinded.
We travelled through time, different colours popping out as the decades changed until- Nothing. I looked around me, looking at the piles of debris covering the ground.
"Five?!" I yelled.
I pointed my hands to the ground and started lifting up the debris in stacks all the while yelling Fives name.
"Ben? Klaus?" I yelled frantically.
Nobody was in sight. for miles and miles all there was, was rubble. I slumped down against a pile of rubble and rubbed my eyes. My face was red, tears running down it.
"Keely?"
I spun around and saw Five standing mere feet away from me.
"Five!" I said in relief, struggling to get myself to my feet and hugging him tightly.
"I thought I lost you," I mumbled.
"I'm right here," he whispered.
~
We lived in nothingness for years. Not any other human life other than our own.
I was 56 when we got out of that place. 'The Handler' is what people called her. She found me and Five and offered us each jobs. A 5 year contract for the each of us.
That didn't go as planned. On that faithful day, we left. We were sick of it.
"We need to get back home," Five stated.
"How? What about the contract?" I questioned.
"The contract doesn't matter anymore. We could stop the apocalypse that brought us into this job in the first place,"
Five set down the large gun he was holding and clenched his fists. A large blue circle opened up straight in front of him.
"Don't waste anytime going through after I'm gone," he told me.
"Got it," I replied.
Five threw himself into the portal and disappeared seconds after. I walked towards the portal, took a deep breath, and jumped in.
I pushed myself through the portal, straight after Five had disappeared within. I looked down upon the courtyard of the house I had spent 14 years of my life in. Before I could steady myself, my head collided with the ground.
"God damn it," I groaned, rubbing my head and standing up slowly.
I looked ahead of me and saw my family. The family that I hadn't seen in 45 years.
"Does anyone else see little Number Five and Keely, or is that just me?"
My brows furrowed in confusion before I looked down at my body. I had shrunk significantly. My body looked the same as it did when I was 14.
"Shit,"
~
Yes if we were following the accurate timeline Keely would only be 11 or 12 at this point but I thought it would be better for the story if Keely was 14 and Five was 16.