"Care for dessert?"
Five and I were sitting beside each other, across from The Handler in her office.
"I had a bad Twinkie in the apocalypse once. It kind of put me off desserts," Five declined.
The Handler pursed her lips and pushed the bowl towards me.
"None for me," I smiled sarcastically.
"Please, indulge me," The Handler persisted.
Five sighed and grabbed a handful of the candies that The Handler had in a bowl. She leaned back in her chair and lit a cigarette. Five looked at her and popped one of the candies into his mouth.
"What's that taste like to you?" she asked.
Five sucked on the candy for a second before answering.
"The 1950s?"
"Precisely right," The Handler smiled. "Our clever metaphysics division concocted away to perfectly distill an entire decade into a single candy,"
Five leaned back in his chair slightly.
"Remarkable," he muttered.
"You'll be happy to know it's the very division that's building your new bodies," The Handler continued. "Oh, that reminds me. I have something for the two of you,"
The woman pressed a button on her phone.
"Carla?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"Would you bring the box in, please?"
"Certainly,"
The Handler lifted her hand from the phone and smiled at Five and I. Footsteps sounded from the doorway and a woman walked in holding a box. She set the box down in between Five and I. The Handler walked up behind us, smiling.
"Go ahead. Open it,"
Five and I exchanged looks before Five lifted the the lid off of the box. Inside, there were two uniforms. Perfect for the Commission.
"Clothes make the man. And woman, of course," The Handler commented. "Won't it be nice when you can actually wear them? Very soon, I assure you. They're perfecting your bodies as we speak,"
Five held the clothing in his hand before looking up at The Handler.
"Thank you," he breathed.
I looked from the fine uniform and back up to the woman beside me.
"It's a very fine gift," I confirmed.
~
Dot rushed across the hallway, a capsule in her hand. She entered the room that Gloria was currently in. Five and I were hidden around the corner, watching the scene secretively.
Five grabbed my hand quickly before blinking into the room and pressing me against the wall, hiding us from view.
"Gloria, The Handler knows that Five and Keely are up to something," Dot whispered, handing they capsule over to Gloria. "Get this to Hazel and Cha-Cha immediately,"
Gloria looked at the capsule unsurely.
"Immediately!" Dot urged.
Gloria nodded quickly and took the capsule from her.
"Okay. Yeah,"
Dot sped out of the room and Five stepped away from me, letting me off of the wall.
He blinked in behind Gloria and smashed a stapler over her head, knocking the old woman out. I sped out from behind the wall and picked up the capsule. I tossed it over to Five and he opened it urgently.
He blinked over to the desk and sat down at the typewriter. I stood over his shoulder, waiting impatiently for him to unroll the message. He did. On the paper, there were four words written in bold printing.
REASSIGNMENT: PROTECT HAROLD JENKINS.
"Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" I questioned.
Five shook his head quickly before handing me the paper. I folded it up and stuck into a pocket in the inside of my blazer.
Five typed out two new papers.
TERMINATE HAZEL FOR IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION.
The first one read. After typing that one, he typed out a new one but replaced Hazels name with Cha-Chas.
I saw what he was doing. Smart.
He threw each of them in a separate capsule before blinking back over to the tubes and finding each of their appropriate spots. Just as he slipped the second capsule in, a voice sounded from behind us.
"You know that's not how we do things here,"
I spun around quickly, raising my hands. The Handler was standing in the doorway, her hands clasped together.
"Where's Gloria?" she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Don't know. We couldn't find her anywhere," I lied.
I had thought my lie had worked but straight away, I heard groaning from behind the desk. Right where Gloria was laying, semi-conscious.
The Handlers smile faded and she turned slowly at the noise.
"You're great disappointments to me," she sneered.
Five pushed himself up off the the tubes and looked at The Handler, slight fear evident in his eyes.
"You can't change what's to come," The Handler began. "I truly find it so odd that you can't shed this fantasy. You're first-rate pragmatists. You belong here with us!"
Fives fear disappeared and instead it was replaced with anger.
"I don't belong anywhere, thanks to you," he spat. "You made me a killer!"
"You were always killers. I just pointed you in the right direction,"
The Handler unzipped a zipper on the leg of her dress. She pulled a gun out and pointed it straight at Five and I. Fives eyes widened and he tackled me around the waist. We disappeared and reappeared in the office area, hidden from view.
The Handler stalked around the room, her gun pointed out, ready to shoot anything that moved. When I tried to peek around the corner, her gun fired and pierced me straight in the shoulder.
~
"Is this really how you want the last line of your report to read?" The Handler asked, walking down the hallway slowly.
Five trailed away from me slowly and appeared in front of the woman. I leaned against the wall i was behind, clutching my wounded shoulder.
"When I'm done, I'm just done, I guess," Five snarled.
The Handler glared at the man-child, her gun pointed straight at him.
"You can't keep this up, Five. We both know that even you have a limit," she spat. "I saved you from a lifetime of being alone... You owe me,"
I stepped out into the open, behind The Handler.
"He's not alone," I corrected, staring daggers at the tall woman.
(NATASHA WHO?)
The woman turned around to shoot at me instead, but when she pulled the trigger of the gun, it didn't go off. I flicked my head to the left and her gun clattered to the ground.
She looked back and forth from me and five in a state of panic.
"I do owe a debt," Five smirked and appeared next to me, a grenade in his hand. "But it's not to you,"
He unclipped the grenade and rolled it on the ground toward The Handler.
"Shit," she muttered.
Five grabbed my good arm and ran with me outside of the door. We turned the corner quickly and hid against the wall, away from the blast occurring from within the tube room.
As soon as the blast had subsided, Five grabbed ahold of my hand and we appeared in the briefcase room. I ripped one of the briefcases down from the shelf and tossed it to Five.
In exchange, he tossed me a grenade and I ripped off the pin. I threw the explosive into the room and ran after Five, away from the room that would soon explode.
We ran through the exterior room, trying to get away from the explosion.
"Hey! What're you doing-,"
The man that had been yelling at us was cut off by the explosion that threw him forward quickly. Five turned around and put his arm around my waist. Before the large blast could reach us, he turned something on the briefcase and we disappeared.
~
There was a crackle of electricity and Five and I appeared in the Academy. We fell from the air and I landed on top of Five who had smashed into the bar counter.
"You guys, am I still high, or do you see them too?"
"Where have you guys been?"
I groaned and rubbed my head in pain. I rolled off of Five and onto the floor, grasping my shoulder.
Klaus, Allison, and Luther stood over me in concern.
"Are you all right?" Allison cried, scanning over my body.
Five slid off of the counter and stood beside Allison, looking down at me as well.
"Who did this?" Luther asked.
"It doesn't matter," I insisted, standing up from my place on the ground.
Five turned around and took a slurp from a bottle that he had grabbed from the counter. After finishing, he stood beside me and looked at the other members of the Academy.
"So, the apocalypse is in three days," he confessed. "The only chance we have to save our world is well, us,"
"The Umbrella Academy," Luther nodded.
Five scoffed slightly.
"Yeah, but with us, obviously," he said, pointing to himself and I. "So if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together and get over yourselves we're screwed. Who cares if Dad messed us up? Are we gonna let that define us?"
Everyone stared at Five blankly, not knowing if they were meant to answer or not.
"No. And to give us a fighting chance to see next week, we've come back with a lead," Five continued.
I nodded, looking around at the Academy with my hands on my hips.
Five stared at me before elbowing me in the ribs.
"Hey- what-?"
"The paper," he muttered.
"Oh, right!" I realized, taking the folded piece of paper out from my blazer.
Five took the piece of paper from me and unfolded it.
"We know who's responsible for the apocalypse," he informed.
Allison stepped forward and Five handed the piece of paper to her. Her dark eyes scanned over the small slip before looking back up at us.
"Harold Jenkins?" she asked.
"Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" Diego added.
"We don't know... yet," I answered.
"But we do know he's responsible for the apocalypse," Five continued. "So we have to find him. And we have to do it now,"
"How is he connected to what's gonna happen?" Luther asked skeptically.
"We don't know," I muttered.
"Wait, so you just know his name? That's it?" Diego questioned.
"That's enough," Five snapped.
"There's probably dozens of Harold Jenkinses in the city," Diego exclaimed.
"Well, we just better start looking, then," Five spat.
"I'm sorry. Am I the only one that's skeptical here?" Allison asked, looking around at her siblings. "I mean, how exactly do you know all of this about what's his name?"
"Harold Jenkins. You know those lunatics in masks who attacked the house?" I asked, growing impatient.
Klaus scratched the back of his neck and pretended to be deep in thought.
"Oh, yeah, I think I remember those guys," he recalled sarcastically.
"Yeah, the ones that attacked us while you two were getting drunk," Diego spat.
"Yeah, them," I muttered.
"They were sent by the Temps Commission to stop us from coming back and preventing the end of life on Earth," Five continued.
"The Temps what?" Allison asked suspiciously.
"Our former employer," I answered.
"They monitor all of time and space to make sure that whatever is supposed to happen, happens. They believe the apocalypse is coming in three days," Five said.
"So, we went to Commission headquarters and intercepted a message that was meant for said lunatics. 'Protect Harold Jenkins.' So he must be responsible for the apocalypse," I added.
Everyone went silent and looked around at each other.
"What do you mean, protect time and space?"
"Where is this Hazel?"
"Do you have any idea how insane this sounds?"
"I don't even know what you guys are talking about,"
The room had gone up in chaos. Everyone spoke at the same time. Five threw up his hands in frustration.
"You know what else is insane? I look like a 16 year old boy, Klaus talks to the dead, Keely moves shit with her mind, and Luther thinks he's fooling everybody with that overcoat," he snapped. "Everything about us is insane. It always has been,"
"He's got a point there," Klaus spoke up, looking over at his siblings.
"We didn't choose this life, we're just living it. For the next three days anyway," Five explained.
"But the last time we tried to stop it, we all died. Why is this time any different? Why shouldn't I go home to my daughter?" Allison asked, crossing her arms.
"Because this time, we're here. We have the name of the man responsible," I answered.
"We actually have the chance to save the lives of billions of people," Five paused for a second. "Including Claire,"
Allison looked back to Five and her face softened.
"You know her name?" she asked.
"I do, and I'd like to live long enough to meet her," Five answered.
Allison nodded and looked between the men standing beside her.
"All right... Let's get this bastard," she said slowly.
"You had me at Gerald Jenkins," Diego added.
"Harold Jenkins," I corrected.
"Whatever, I've already lost two people this week, I'm not losing anyone else?" Diego answered, turning to walk out of the room.
"And Luther?" Five asked.
"Yeah, you go. I'm gonna stay and go through Dad's files. I still think this has something to do with why he sent me to the moon," Luther explained.
"The fucking moon," I muttered.
"Seriously? Now you wanna make the end of the world about you and Dad?" Diego groaned.
"No 'Watch for threats.' That's what he told me," Luther retorted. "You think that's a coincidence? This all has to be connected somehow,"
"No, we should all stick together," Allison argued. , looking at Luther.
"We don't have time for this!" Five yelled in annoyance.
"Let's roll. I know where we can find this asshole. Klaus, you're with me," Diego said, looking over at Klaus.
Klaus looked up from the couch he was sitting on and waved his hand, declining the offer.
"Yeah. I- I'm good. I think I'll, uh... I think I'll pass. I'm... I'm feeling a bit under the weather," Klaus stammered as he walked out of the room.
Diego and Five glanced at each other before trailing out of the room as well, me straight behind.