Author's note:
Trigger warning for brief self-harm
~.~
"No, no, no, I don't understand. They keep following me."
"Wait, who?"
"Those Dutch sociopaths,"
Elaina could hear Diego and Luther talking to one another in the kitchen, just outside the bathroom where she currently was. The ape man arrived last night after being kicked out of his place for losing Ruby's fight. When Five, Diego and Elaina found him last night, him and Elliot were nothing but a bunch of hot messes with uncontrollable laughing fits. Apparently they got into Elliot's late Dad's nitrous oxide and had a bit of fun. After what the trio went through at the Consulate, it was safe to say that none were in the mood to question either Luther or Elliot and headed straight for bed.
The girl finished a quick shower and was currently staring at herself in the mirror as she put on a red headband to match her outfit of red shorts and a red and white polka dot button up. She looked at her reflection for a second before her eyes drifted to the sharp knife that sat on the sink's counter, reaching out slowly and grabbing it. Elaina looked down at her brother's throwing knife and twirled it between her fingers. She bit her lip as she looked back up at the mirror, raising her arm up, eyeing the skin of her inner bicep studiously.
Elaina's eyes glanced at her dainty wristwatch, making sure to keep track of how long it would take. She took a deep breath in and exhaled it out as she quickly brought up the knife and sliced her inner arm. The girl grunted slightly at the sudden sting, but brought up her hand swiftly to catch any blood. A few minutes past as Elaina carefully pulled her hand away to see the wound still weeping with minimal healing.
The sight made Elaina grit her teeth. "Why won't you heal faster?" she hissed silently as she angrily tore open the gauze wrapping she kept nearby in case this happened. "Freaking ridiculous..." she grumbled, taping the gauze to the wound. Elaina then discreetly tucked Diego's knife into her pants as she walked out the bathroom.
"Even if it was my fault -- which it isn't," Five tried to clarify a statement Elaina didn't catch, his eyes fell on her as she sat down at the small kitchen table. "We only have six days before the end of the world and the closest anyone's gotten to Dad was that driveway at the consulate."
"What did I miss?" the girl asked, grabbing a piece of buttered toast from an idling plate.
Luther was currently scrambling up a carton of eggs while Diego stood in the middle of the kitchen. Five leaned against the framed archway, a coffee mug in his hand as he glared at his brother's accusing looks.
"These two think I'm the cause of the end of the world. Oh, and the cause for Swedes relentless attacks on us too."
Elaina took a bite out of the toast. "I'm mean, you kind of are, but we're definitely accomplices." she rationalized, earning a look from everyone. "What? We've concluded that this apocalypse is following us, A.K.A your vortex, and we all agreed to jump in said-vortex or we'd be dead. The Swedes, though, I think they're completely coincidental,"
Diego scoffs. "Yeah, whatever."
"Well, going back to the topic of Dad," Luther sighs. "What you said about the driveway, it wasn't exactly true,"
Five narrowed his eyes as he, Diego and Elaina shared a look. "What do you mean?"
Luther remained quiet for a moment as he looked at his siblings, before saying, "I saw him." he sighed as he transferred the eggs from the pan to a bowl and took the vacant seat across from Elaina.
The man told his story of how he landed in the alleyway a year ago and after days of collecting change he managed to take a bus to Dad's house. Needless to say it didn't go well as their father tore apart Luther's messy appearance and smell, completely dismissing him and kicking him out of his house in the middle of a party.
"Shit, Luther," commented Elaina as she stared at her brother, Five moved from his place in the doorway and was currently standing behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders.
"That's pathetic," inputted Diego, taking a seat across from Elaina and Luther.
"Yeah, well," weakly combatted Luther. "At least he didn't shank my ass."
"No, bro," sincerity responded Diego. "He shanked your heart."
Elaina jerked back slightly, looking at Diego with surprised eyes. "How surprisingly deep."
"I can be sometimes," shrugged the knife wielder.
Elliot came in and took Five's previous spot at the archway as he looked to the group that gathered at the small kitchen table.
Elliot's eyes landed on Luther. "Is that my bathrobe?"
Luther froze mid-bite as he stared at Elliot with unconvincing eyes. "No."
Elliot only nodded relunactly, but didn't say a word to the blatant lie.
"Look, who cares what he shanked," piped in Five. "He knows something about time travel."
"Um..." anxiously started Elliot. "Wait, why don't you just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?"
Elaina giggled as Five scoffed, his grip on her shoulders tightening momentarily. "Elliot, you're adorable."
Five moved from behind Elaina and made his way to the coffee pot. "Anyone care to explain?"
"First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse," said Luther with his mouth partially-filled with eggs.
"Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls," generally explained Diego.
"And the last time he tried, he scattered us, and the rest of our family, across three years in Dallas, Texas," informed Elaina as she grabbed the empty plate from the table and walked it over to the sink.
"Possibly triggering a doomsday," added Five as he finished pouring himself another cup. "Any more questions, Elliot?" he asked, with a sarcastic tone and smile to match.
With his hands on his waist, Elliot shook his head. "Uh, no."
"You're missing the big picture. Dad is the ringleader of a sinister cabal that's planning to kill the president," exclaimed Diego.
Luther furrowed his brows. "A cabal?"
Elaina waved her hand. "Ignore him,"
"Look, the way I see it, we only have one option," said Five.
"Oh yeah?" countered Luther. "And what's that?"
"It's time to get the Umbrella Academy back together," concluded Five.
"Hell, yeah," agreed Diego. "Family meeting,"
Elaina crossed her arms as she saw Luther's sullen and pouting expression. "You doing alright there, big guy?" she tried to suppress the smile that started to form at how childishly he shoved another spoonful of eggs in his mouth.
"Fantastic," he said sarcastically with a full mouth. "Actually, can one of you get Allison, please?"
This earned a brow raise from the girl. "You two still a thing?"
Luther's only response was an unconvincing tilt of the head as he continued to chew. This made both Elaina and Diego lean forward in curiosity from their spots.
"Do we need to talk?" asked Diego as he noted Luther's tenseness.
"No," he answered, looking between the two. "She's married."
"Ouch," cringed Elaina.
"Whoa. Dude, that's rough."
Luther chuckled humorlessly. "I can handle it."
Elaina shook her head. "Nah, don't worry about it," she said, looking over to Five. "We got her."
Five nodded as he finished the last bit of coffee from his mug and placed it in the sink. "Yeah, we'll get her," he said as he walked over to the archway, Elaina following him. "Can you get Vanya without, uh, squeezing her to death?" he jeeringly asked Luther, his arm wrapping around Elaina's waist.
Luther gave Five a deadpanned look. "I'll try," he responded dryly.
Five gave him a smirk as he jumped himself and Elaina to Diego's car. Once there, Five took over the driver's side as Elaina went to the passengers. They managed to get the address from Luther earlier and it wasn't very far away. They should arrive in less than 15 minutes.
"So, were you going to tell me?" suddenly asked Five.
This took Elaina aback as she looked at him with furrowed brows. "What are you talking about?"
"About your healing and your concerns with it,"
Elaina scoffed. "I don't know what you mean,"
Five scoffed himself as he looked at her briefly. "For someone that asked me to not lie to them, you sure have been doing plenty yourself."
"I didn't lie," she shot back. "I can't lie about something I wasn't sure of -- that I'm not sure of." she corrected herself quickly. "I thought it was a flook when it first happened." she mumbled to herself.
Five still overheard. "So this has happened before?" he questioned, though it sounded more like a statement.
Elaina sighed before rolling her eyes. "Yeah, it's happened before, but only one time before."
"When?"
Elaina hesitated for a moment before saying. "The night Dad stabbed Diego. With Pogo..." she started to explain as Five jerked his head back.
"The scratch? Elaina, that was only a few nights ago, are you saying this just recently started happening?" he noted as he gave her bewildered expression as his hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Exactly what happened?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly, keeping her eyes on the dash in front of her. "Pogo scratched us and then we went looking for Diego in the building, and on our way to the car, I noticed it hadn't healed yet. It wasn't until we were halfway to Elliot's that it finally did."
"You weren't thinking about Dad... You were focusing on the scratch." Five thought out loud, remembering her silence on the ride back home that night.
"Like I said, that was the first time something like that ever happened, especially for something as minimal..." she sighed deeply. "I still don't know what the hell is going on, okay? Something is just wrong and I don't know what and it's driving me crazy." she confessed, looking away from him.
Five's eyes darted in her direction swiftly before he stiffly stated. "Is that's why you have a bleeding gauze on your arm?" his jaw jumped once as he tried to keep his calm composure. "I noticed it in the kitchen."
Elaina subconsciously brought her arm in tighter, shamefaced as she tried to nonchalantly play it off. "I wanted to see something," she brought her eyes down to the gauze as she pulled it off, feeling herself smirk slightly at the results. "See? Look, it's good as new. It only took..." she looked at her wristwatch and her smile fell faintly. "15 minutes, Jesus Christ."
"I think that gash on your forehead last night lasted just as long," noted Five.
"Great," huffed Elaina. "I'm at a 15 to 30 minute recovery time." she rolled down the window and shoved the gauze out through the crack.
Five came up to a red light and slowly came to a halt as he looked over Elaina's frustrated state. "You know," he started off cautiously, knowing she may not like his words. "Dad was the one that created and administer the serum that made you this way, maybe he'll know--"
"Uh uh,"
"But Elaina--"
"No."
"You have to be reasonable about this--"
"I am being reasonable, Five," snapped the girl as the car started to move again. "He doesn't adopt us until 1989, 20 plus years from now. The serum probably isn't even in his thoughts right now, and this isn't even counting the additional 16 years before he tries it out on me."
Five tilted his head as he shrugged. "That's your assumption. Maybe he's already started to think about it."
"And maybe he hasn't," countered Elaina before groaning and rubbing her head. "Okay, I'm over this discussion. Are we almost there yet?"
Five grunted, clearly not done on the subject himself, but taking a look at Elaina's agitated state, he reluctantly dropped the matter. "Should be a few more minutes," he responded.
"Good. I've missed Allison."
~.~
Five and Elaina walked up to the one story white house with brick walls that matched Luther's address of 75 Ellis St in South Dallas. The closer the pair got to the front door, the louder the music from the inside was heard.
"Sounds like she's throwing a party," stated Elaina as Five knocked on the door three times.
"I guess we'll find out,"
There were some muffled voices from behind the door before the knob started to shake, like the person on the other side was unsuccessfully unlocking it from the inside.
"No, to the left, you idiot!"
The voice made Elaina let out an excited chuckle, her heart pounding. "Her voice," she breathed happily. "She has it back," she said just as the door swung open.
The door opened to reveal a very intoxicated Klaus and a tipsy Allison in her night robe with a nearly empty bottle of Gin in the male's hand.
"Ray!" she exclaimed immediately before seeing who it was.
"I don't think it's your husband," slurrishly said Klaus as he looked at the teens before them before his eyes widened at the sight of Elaina. "But that sure looks like my baby!"
"Klaus!" exclaimed Elaina as she launched herself to the scrawny man, knocking them both to the ground. "You son of a bitch, where have you been?" she shouted while on top of him, completely caught off guard by the sight of him.
"Oh, you know, here, there, everywhere," he simply stated with a mischievous gleam in his eye that never seemed to venture too far. "But, look at you," his eyes softened as he cupped her cheek. "I've missed your little face, Laney. I truly have." his fingers caught the ends of her long strands. "Look at your hair!"
"Look at yours! And there's no way you've missed me as much as I've missed you, Klaus," chuckled Elaina, feeling her eyes tear up. "Shit, I'm such a crybaby," she murmured as she felt a hand on her shoulder to see Allison smiling down at her, Elaina instantly wrapped her arms around the woman's waist. "You too, Al, I could never forget about you."
Five cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Glad to see you're both here," he said with his hands in his pockets. "We're having a family meeting, the sooner you can get ready, the better."
"Nice to see you too, Five," responded Allison as she helped Klaus and Elaina up. "Come on in, I'll get dressed in a jiffy," she smiled crookedly.
Five quirked his brow. "Are you two drunk?"
"No!" both Allison and Klaus shouted.
"Tipsy is the wo-word," said Klaus as he nearly tripped over his own feet.
"No, no I think he was spot on," confirmed Elaina with an amused look as she and Five walked into Allison's house.
~.~
The ride over to Elliot's was eventful with two inebriated adults and the semi- inebriated teenager, thanks to the flask Klaus kept shoving down her throat. To say Five wasn't tempted to pull over and kicked them all out a handful of times would be a lie. Soon enough they finally arrived at Elliot's place, giggles were shared in between the three as Five rolled his eyes.
Elaina caught it and quickly made her way to Five as they exited the car, wrapping her arms around his waist, making him stop in his tracks as Allison and Klaus swaggered to the front doors.
"Hey, you," she said innocently into his shoulder blade as she looked at the side of his head. "Are you annoyed?"
Five sighs, craning his head back so he could look at her. "A bit agitated, but if it gets them in the building for the meeting, by all means,"
Elaina pouted. "Sorry,"
Five let out a brief snicker as he brought his hand up and tilted Elaina's head closer to him so he could kiss the top of her head. "It's fine, let's just get through this."
"Aw!" Klaus's voice suddenly exclaimed as he staggeredly held up the front door. "Aren't you two the cutest? Five and Elaina sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" he started to sing off-beat, making Allison laugh as she tagged along at the end.
Elaina chuckled as Five's grumbled something about them being 'childish' and a few other word choices as they walked in.
"Is anybody here?" asked Allison as everyone was inside of the TV & Radio Store. "Hello!"
"Le petit mort, le petit mort," giggled Klaus as he kept repeating the French phrase.
"What? You don't speak French." pointed out Allison.
"It's 'the little death'," he informed the woman.
"It's also the French word for 'orgasm'. How coincidental that's the phrase you chose to say." chimed in Elaina was an amused brow raised as Klaus winked back at her. "Perv," she giggled.
As they closed in to the middle of the building, they all looked up to see the rest of their siblings, along with Elliot, staring down at them from the top of the railings. Once Klaus and Allison noticed, they came to halt and looked up, everyone took in the sights of the family they thought they lost once they entered this time period.
"I know this is impossible," started off Klaus. "But did we all get sexier?"
~.~
After a share of hugs and words from their siblings, they all made their way upstairs to the den and sat down, ready for their first family meeting in a while. Five stood up while Elaina sat on the couch between Allison and Vanya, Luther sat across from them in a chair, Klaus was pouring up a glass of Gin to the side, and Diego was leaning over an armchair.
"Alright. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry," announced Five as he stood before everyone. "I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back in-time-and-getting-stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants is we brought the end of the world back here with us."
"Oh, my God, again?" questioned Klaus, turning around with a bottle of Gin in one hand and a glass in the other. He looked around the room to see everyone else's unsurprised faces to the news. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the-- Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."
"So you did start a cult," amusedly stated Elaina.
"We have until Monday. We have six days."
Klaus brought the glass of Gin to his lips. "Is it Vanya?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Klaus," scolded Allison as Vanya looked slightly offended.
"What? It's usually Vanya."
"I kinda asked the same thing when Five told me..." ashamedly mumbled Elaina under her breath.
"Do we have any leads, Five?" asked Vanya.
"Yeah, we have one," responded Five as Diego handed him a manila folder and he passed it along to Allison.
She opened it and her eyes widened. "Holy shit, is that Dad?"
"It surely is," confirmed Elaina as Vanya scooched in closer to Allison to take a look.
"That's him?" Vanya asked softly.
"Standing on the grassy knoll," inputted Diego.
"Diego, Elaina and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we've got nothing."
"Not nothing," added Diego, earning an eye roll from Elaina.
"Diego, don't."
Diego looked over to the girl. "He's planning to kill Kennedy,"
"Maybe."
"But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion," said Five, his hands naturally in his pockets as he explained.
"Exactly," included Elaina, giving Diego a pointed look. "Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent."
"But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right." finished Five.
"Yeah, but how, if we don't know what's broken?" noted Allison in her question.
"Oh, come on, do the math," snapped Diego. "We know Dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do." stood Diego, walking over to where Five was.
"Find Dad." - Five
"Kill Dad." - Diego
They both answered simultaneously, giving each other a look at their responses, Five's was more annoyed than anything.
"None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it's us?" questioned Vanya. "Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"
The room of siblings got extremely quiet very fast as they reflected on their actions since arriving in the past. Their eyes wandered around the room before Luther decided to break the silence.
"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald,"
"And you're working for Jack Ruby!"
Klaus casually said from his armchair. "Allison has been very involved in local politics."
"Okay, you started a cult," she snapped back, causing Klaus to cat hiss at her.
"Wooow," drawled out Elaina as she shook her head. "Y'all folded like some lawn chairs. We're supposed to be a team here."
"Don't think you're out of this," pointed Diego a finger at Elaina as she pointed herself at his accusation. "I saw all those Kennedy flyers at the bar you've been staying at. Clearly that has something to do with this."
"Uh, dumbass, Viva Kennedy, is a campaign group -- they've never see the president and have nothing what's-so-ever to do with the assaination!" she snapped, grabbing the glass of recently poured Gin out Allison's hand, taking a swig as the woman rolled her eyes.
"I'm... I'm just a... a nanny on a farm," quickly informed Vanya. "I don't have anything to do with all of that,"
"Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet," shrugged Allison.
The sound of Diego's whistling brought all their attention to him. "Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Elaina was involved in a Kennedy campaign, Klaus is..." he trailed off as he looked over to his intoxicated brother. "Doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly, we're all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
"Don't have to say his full name like your friends or something..." mumbled Elaina, earning scowl from Diego.
"I've just about had it with you!"
"Or really? Bring it, Batman!"
And just like that, all Hell broke loose as everyone started arguing, jumping down one another throats. Amidst of it all, Five started to remember the doomsday he arrived in: the Soviet soldiers, the injured, his family fighting and the nukes that took out everything. In the middle of her argument with Diego, Elaina looked over to see the distressed look on Five's face as the memories replayed in his head.
"Five?" she asked worriedly, walking away from Diego and placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
This seemed to snap Five out of his trance as he looked down at Elaina, a sad smile playing on his lips as he brought his gaze up to the group. "Guys, you all die," he finally said, making the chatter around him cease instantly. "I was there. I saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can't," he said, looking down mournfully, making Elaina bring her hand down into his, giving him an encouraging squeeze. "I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it... in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me," he said, everyone remained silent as they listened to Five's words. "I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything. But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."
"Okay, I'm out," suddenly exclaimed Luther as he hopped out of his seat.
"Did you even hear him, Luther?" asked Elaina as the man started to pass them all to get the staircase.
"Yeah, yeah, I did," stopped Luther, turning to look at the teens. "I heard a 58-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up." with that, the man stormed away.
"Luther!"
"Luther, comeback,"
"Where are you going?"
Everyone called out to their supposed leader as he turned away from them, Diego quickly jumping up to trail after him. Five and Elaina shared a look of astonishment as the boy sighed and spatial jumped away. He ended up cutting off Luther and Diego's path down the stairs as he appeared in front of them. Elaina walked over and watched from the railings above.
"No one leaves until we figure this out," sternly said Five as he looked up to his brother.
Luther simply stared before letting out a sigh and pressing his lips into a hard line. Without warning, he suddenly grabbed Five by the blazer and tossed him off the side of the stairs. Elaina's eyes widened as Five flailed briefly before disappearing in a flash of blue.
"The hell was that?" exclaimed Elaina as Luther tried to continue down the stairs, her words managed to stop him again.
"Upset I threw your boyfriend?" he cheekily responded.
"Um, yeah! You don't just go tossing people like that," she said, rounding the corner of the stairs. "What the hell is wrong with you, Luther? It's not like he was spewing out bullshit, it was pure facts about the goddamn doomsday that's coming."
"Yeah, well, I'm over it," he shrugged, turning away from her. "I'm over all of it, and I don't give a damn what you or Five have to say. And I'll tell you something, I would gladly toss his ass again."
Elaina growled. "Oh, yeah?"
Luther stopped and turned quickly to her. "Yeah!" he challenged as Diego watched cautiously from the step he was on.
The girl sucked her teeth and nodded her head once. "Okay," with a push of her hand, her force field shot out and shoved Luther, making him tumble down the remaining steps.
"Jesus, Elaina!" exclaimed Diego as he jogged down the stairs to help the dazed Luther.
"Now, I don't know what happened to your manners in the 60s, but you sure as hell better go find them," stated Elaina with crossed arms and a hard stare. "And don't even think about coming back until you do, because I swear, I'll blast your ass to the 70s, you got that? Now get out, the both of you."
Diego swiftly helped Luther to his feet as they fled, looking back at the girl momentarily before closing the door behind them. Elaina looked back to see the stunned and mildly terrified looks on her sisters and Klaus's faces.
"You know," started off Klaus sluggishly. "I think Five is starting to rub off on you." he said, both her sisters nodding in agreement.
"What makes you say that?" Elaina cooly responded as she strolled over to them and collapsed on the nearby chair. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving," she looked over to see Klaus nibbling on Elliot's weird looking ambrosia salad. "And I'm not in the mood for any more gelatine." she said, remembering Elliot's Tuna Mold. Elaina didn't get the 60s obsession with gelatine.
"You know, I could really go for some tacos right now," agreed Klaus.
Elaina's face lit up. "Oh, my God, yes!"
Klaus smiled and looked over to Allison. "Allison? Tacos?"
"Shouldn't we wait?"
"You know those guys. I mean, it could take forever for them to bro it out," he then turned his sights to Vanya. "Vanya, tacos?"
"Is there any way that tacos are gonna cause the end of the world?" she asked meekly.
Elaina was about to pipe in and suggest the Bird's Nest for their place to eat, but thinking about the conversation she planned on having with Tony made her think against it, especially if the majority of her current siblings were tipsy, and Klaus couldn't be trusted either way.
Elaina jumped up. "Only one way to find out," she said mischievously getting a chuckle from Klaus.
"God, I've missed you!" he cooed, walking over and wrapping his arms around the girl, making her giggle.
"Oh, Al!" she exclaimed, looking over to Allison as the woman raised her brow in response. "You work in a beauty parlor, right?" she grabbed a handful of her hair and dangled it. "I need you to chop this."
"Your hair?" she asked, looking at it. "But it looks so nice long, you sure?"
"Positive," said Elaina, letting go of her hair. "But first, we feast!"
"That's the spirit!" exclaimed Klaus, leading the trio of females down the stairs. Their laughters echoed as they went down the stairs.
~.~
I'm so sorry for the late update, this week got really crazy for me and didn't have as much time to type as I would've wanted. I promise to get the next one out sooner!
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and let me know if you catched any errors, I probably didn't proof-read it that well 😅
P.S: Happy Taco Tuesday everyone!