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Thirteen years ago:
Grace had gently set down a black vinyl disk on a gramophone. Positioning the metal needle down on the disk, she then strolled to the entrance hall with a metal bell in hand while the informative voice from the record began speaking.
The woman in the blue dress rung the bell, signalling a meal had been cooked.
Immediately, the children of the academy hurried down the wooden stairs to their mother, awaiting another dinner with their wretched father, Reginald.
The eight patiently assembled themselves. They stood behind their dedicated chairs, hearing the familiar footsteps of the man growing closer.
Walking to his own antique seat at the end of the table, Reginald grasped its frame. "Sit!" he commanded, pulling the chair out as Grace advanced elsewhere.
Y/n pouted childishly as she obeyed. The young girl took her seat to the right of Allison, rethinking her decision on eating a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich before dinner.
As the rest collapsed into their own, the quiet dinner had began.
Allison collected her silver cutlery and glanced up at the blonde boy ahead of her. The two locked eyes, almost as if they were silently conversing. Allison's eyes trailed back down to her plate as she cut into her meal with a grin.
Y/n's hand hovered over her fork, though she retracted it. Just as Luther and Allison had, Y/n peered past the brown, curly locks of the girl beside her and over at Five.
Five looked back and shared a knowing look with her, though he seemed awfully fidgety and restless as he kept warily gazing at their father.
Sitting to the left of Five, Diego carved into his seat with a knife, efficiently discovering an excuse not to eat.
Ahead of him, Klaus attentively finished rolling up a small piece translucent parchment, most likely containing something illegal - like cannabis.
Beside Klaus, on the left, a young Asian boy, Ben, quietly read the book by Anton Chekhov that he had become engrossed in.
Y/n had continued to observe Five, though he had tore his now, stormy, green eyes, away from her, to Reginald. Balling up his left fist, his right grasped the knife that had been laying on his napkin.
A piercing clash rattled their porcelain plates on the wooden table that made Y/n flinch, eyes widening in shock.
Everyone looked towards the loud noise. Five's silver cutlery knife was now impaled through the wood as the boy glared at his father.
"Number Five!" Reginald announced, earning his awareness.
"I have a question-" Five began.
"-Knowledge is an admirable goal, but you know the rules: no talking during meal times. You are interrupting Herr Carlson!" the man exclaimed, reminding him as he waved around his own knife to emphasise his sentence.
Agitated, Five angrily shoved his plate away in annoyance.
"I want to time travel" he demanded, bitterly.
"No!" Hargreeves denied, unamused by the boy's behaviour.
"But I'm ready," Five argued, pushing back his chair as he stood up, "I've been practicing my spatial jumps, just like you said!"
In a flash of blue, Five teleported to the corner of the table, beside Y/n and in front of Reginald. "See?!"
Y/n nervously bit her lip, frowning up at him. Why was he doing this so suddenly? He had never mentioned to her about having the need to time travel.
"A spatial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel," Reginald explained, raising his glass of alcohol, "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."
"Well, I don't get it." Five replied, pursing his lips tightly.
"Hence the reason you're not ready." The man remarked.
Y/n didn't dare turn around, but she already knew Vanya was trying to warn Five somehow. The brown-haired girl looked up at the boy and his eyes met hers.
As he turned away from Vanya and looked to Y/n, she had mouthed: 'whatever you're doing, stop. Please, just sit', she quickly grew even more anxious.
Though, Five only stubbornly shook his head and turned away, protesting. "I'm not afraid."
"Fear isn't the issue," Reginald lectured, continuing on, "The effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable. Now, I forbid you to talk about this anymore!"
Scrunching up his nose, Five had enough of his father. Taking a last glance at the distressed girl beside him, he took off, running through to the entrance hall.
He could show his father wrong. He could show Y/n his true abilities. He could show everyone his true potential.
"Number Five!" the man called out to the boy, "You haven't been excused! Come back here!"
The academy perked up and saw Five sprint off.
"No one is to leave!" Reginald continued, "Stay seated, children!"
Y/n watched over her shoulder and clamped a trembling hand over her mouth to muffle her unstable breathing as she heard the front door being slammed shut.
Once it was closed, Five opened the black, metal gates ahead of it, rushing out to the cool evening. Confidently walking down the concrete sidewalk and past the pedestrians, the cold, whistling breezes roared around him.
Speeding up his pace, he spatial jumped.
Looking around at his new surroundings, the same street, but now colourful and bright, he carried on. "'not ready', my ass!" he exclaimed, grinning to himself, proud of his accomplishment.
Five teleported for the second time.
The street he was on before was now drowned in white, falling snow that covered the trees and roads. But that wasn't enough. The boy wanted to prove himself further.
In another last flash of blue, Five disappeared, again.
At the sensation of ash burning his eyes, and the scent of smoke, he suddenly halted. Backing away, Five's situation began to settle in.
Looking all around him, the boy fearfully examined the crumpled buildings and raging, orange fire.
That's all there was.
Just miles of fallen metal, bricks and debris accompanied by wisps of flickering fire and black smoke. Sprinting back down the dismantled street, he directed himself to the Umbrella Academy.
Staring up at the grey sky, his eyesight then trailed to the gates he had only forced open minutes ago.
Panting heavily, he continued to gaze at the rubble of the Academy in terror. "Y/n?!" Five cried out, "Vanya! Ben! Dad?! Anyone?!"
Gathering the final amount of the strength left within him, he clenched his fists in effort to spatial jump. "Come on!" he yelled in desperation, grimacing as blue energy was produced from his hands, "Shit!"
After multiple attempts, Five lowered his hands in defeat. Gaping at the remnants of his home, the boy collapsed to his knees in hopelessness. The sharp, hot wind, blew against his body while he blinked away the tears forming in his eyes.
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After Vanya had kindly offered them some coffee, Five and Y/n both accepted and pronounced their 'thank you's'.
Y/n had set the medical supplies on the small table, then carefully turned around to find no other vacant seats behind her. The only other one was dominated by a violin and bow.
Thinking that moving Vanya's items about wouldn't be a clever idea, she decided to go with sitting on the couch Vanya had occupied.
Returning to them, the woman handed the girl and the boy their coffees.
Soon, Five began speaking. "Survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find, You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well, it's total bullshit."
"Can't even imagine." Vanya sympathetically interrupted him.
"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die," Five said, "..So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it"
"'We'?" Vanya questioned him, confusedly, because he had previously stated only he was alive.
"Got anything stronger?" Five asked Vanya, disregarding her query.
"Yeah, I do." Vanya muttered, nodding her head.
The woman got up and walked over to her kitchen, opening a small cabinet on alcohol.
Reaching for a clean glass, she poured the contents into it.
Five repeated Vanya's actions and advanced to her kitchen.
"I-I should go." Y/n mumbled, though no one paid any attention to her, "Call it a night, I suppose. Clean up.. Too.." Awkwardly trailing off, the last of her sentence was spoken to herself.
The girl sighed softly as she watched Five gulp down his drink, talking to Vanya.
"You think I'm crazy." the boy surmised.
"No! This-.. It's just.." the woman spoke, stumbling on her words, "It's a lot to take in"
"Exactly what don't you understand?" Five queried her in exasperation.
"Why didn't you just time travel back?" she replied with uncertainty.
The boy scoffed.
"Gee, wish I thought of that," Five quipped, "Time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorned."
Vanya stared at the boy in puzzlement.
He continued on as if it were obvious. "You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?"
"If you grew old there. You know, in the apocalypse. How come you still look like a kid?" Vanya asked, gesturing at him.
"I told you already," Five answered her, advancing back to the bottle that was set on a kitchen counter, "Must've got the equations wrong!-"
"-I mean, Dad always use to say that.. Time travel could mess up your mind.." Vanya said, disagreeing with Five, "Well, maybe that's what's happening?"
"This was a mistake," he complained, walking back to Y/n, who was now waiting by the door for him, "You're too young, too naïve."
"I haven't seen you in a long time - the both of you. And I don't wanna lose you guys again," Vanya announced, looking at the two, "That's all."
Y/n shook her head and crossed her arms, closing her eyes in debate. No one had bothered to visit her for thirteen years when she was trapped and confined within the academy.
They had a choice to, but never did.
Why want her now?
"I have lessons early, and it's late, and I need to sleep," The woman insisted, "I'm sure you both do too."
"We'll get to the academy just fine, thanks." Y/n spoke through clenched teeth, but Vanya continued towards the couch, ignoring her.
Five glanced across at her with raised eyebrows but she only glared at him and huffed, waving him off.
Sighing, the boy mouthed: 'hold on'. He then took his hand out of his pocket to hold hers. The girl exhaled through her nose and sent a half-smile to Five, entwining their fingers.
Vanya finished preparing the blankets out on her couch. "We'll all talk in the morning, again, okay?" she said, "I promise. 'Night."
Vanya ambled off towards her room.
"'Night." Five acknowledged.
Y/n waited for Vanya to close the door before she decided to speak. "We aren't staying, are we?" the girl quietly asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Nah," Five whispered back, walking to the couch Vanya had set up, "Here, look."
The boy pulled out a cloth containing a prosthetic eyeball, passing it to Y/n.
"What.. Is this for?" she questioned him, bringing it closer to her face so she could examine it.
"The key to stopping the apocalypse." Five responded.
"MeriTech.. Huh." Y/n murmured, turning the eyeball around to view its serial number and company name.
"Our next destination," He clarified as she handed the glass eye to him, "Come on." Five tip-toed to the pale wooden door of Vanya's apartment and Y/n followed behind him.
As silently as possible, the boy grasped the knob and turned it, opening it up and closing it when they both were met by the long corridor of numerous other doors.
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"This place is so.. Pristine." Y/n noted, walking through to the reception of MeriTech with Five. The boy beside her held the prosthetic eye tightly and hummed in agreement.
Five paced around as he waited, while Y/n watched the scenery of the busy city through the large, panels of windows, standing behind the boy as she observed.
A man in a lab coat wandered in and glanced at the two who were lingering around for assistance, pausing to inspect them.
"Uh.. Can I help you?" the man asked, eyeing the supposed children.
With Five's back facing the man, the boy didn't respond, so Y/n gently nudged him with her elbow and he turned around.
"..I need to know who this belongs to." Five demanded, advancing towards the man as he raised the glass eye.
"Where did you get that?" he questioned the boy in uniform.
"Why do you care?" Five stubbornly argued.
A short silence fell over the three as the man in the white MeriTech coat furrowed his eyebrows at his behaviour.
"Uh.. We found it!" Y/n spoke up from behind Five, "At a.. Playground, actually. Uh.. Must've just.. Popped out?"
The girl flashed a fake toothy grin, hooking her arm around Five's. The man pursed his lips tightly and nodded, unconvinced.
"We wanna return it to its rightful owner." the boy added.
"Aw," the wavy-haired receptionist piped into their conversation, "What a.. Thoughtful young couple."
Y/n and Five would be lying if their faces weren't beet red. Though, they both silently decided against objecting.
"Yeah, look up the name for me, will 'ya?" Five said, smiling at the lady.
"Uh- I'm sorry," the man in front of them interrupted, "But patient records are strictly confidential.. That means I can't tell you-"
"-Yeah, I know what it means." Five irritably responded.
"But, I'll tell you what I can do," The man exclaimed, ignoring his remark, "I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner! I'm sure he, or she, will be very grateful. So, if I can, just-"
"Yeah, you're not touching this eye." Disagreed Five when the man reached out for it.
"Now, you listen here, young man-"
Unhooking his arm from Y/n's, Five angrily tugged on the man's shirt collar, pulling him down to his height. The girl beside Five shrugged nonchalantly at the receptionist who was staring right at her, just as frightened as her colleague.
"No! You listen to me, asshole," the boy seethed, his face inches away from the terrified man, "I've come a long way for this. Through some shit your pea-brain couldn't even comprehend. So just give me the information I need, and I'll be on my merry way!.. And if you call me 'young man', one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall."
"Ohh, dear." the receptionist exclaimed, her voice wavering.
"Call security!" the man urgently muttered, ordering the woman.
"Yeah," the lady murmured, grabbing the black phone to dial a number.
Five furiously shoved away the MeriTech employee. The man then released a shaking breath as he readjusted his lab coat.
"Perhaps.. The word 'pristine' suits this building," Y/n looked at the horrified receptionist and chuckled awkwardly.
"Let's save the bloodbath for another day."
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