krystalwinterswrites

[krystalwinterswrites]

See You Again (At The Ending)

[Summary from AO3: Five jumps too far into the future, ending up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. God decides Klaus is a nuisance and kicks him out of the afterlife. These events are both years and seconds apart.]

[Short Description: Klaus survives the apocalypse AU, in which Five and Klaus spend years together through the apocalypse and the Commission, all while Five is trying to find the right equation to get back home and Klaus is trying to figure out why this time-traveling, space-jumping kid seems vaguely familiar.]

Part 4: See You Again

Beginning of Work | Previous Part

[Notes: This chapter has already been published on AO3. It also will make zero sense without context from original chapters.]

Interlude VIII: I Heard A Rumour

“‘Five?’” Luther repeats, questioning.

Klaus looks to the kid, to Ben, to Allison. He has years’ worth of questions, years’ worth of theories, years’ worth of pretending he knows who this kid, who clearly knows him, is. He’s been confused for decades over why this kid is so familiar. And now Allison recognizes him? Just like that?

But the rest of them are staring blankly, or with a mixture of confusion and concern, and something inside him snaps.

Five, she had called him. Like he was one of them.

And Klaus remembers.

He remembers the way the kid always acted like Klaus’ family was his family. He remembers the way the kid knew important facts, hidden facts, about their family that no one outside of it should have known. He remembers the way the kid had teleported, and traveled through time, and done everything to show that he was remarkable.

That he was one of them.

He remembers what Allison can do.

“Allison,” he growls, “you have a lot of explaining to do.”

~~~

At thirteen years old, Klaus is pulled away from his siblings and taken to a dark, secluded room.

“Number Four,” Reginald Hargreeves says, curt and commanding. “Contact Number Five.”

And Klaus tries. Klaus really, really tries.

He finds nothing.

~~~

Allison is thirteen, barely a month away from fourteen, when her father pulls her aside.

“Number Three.” His voice is sharp as ever, demanding attention.

Since she can’t think of anything else to do, she nods.

Oddly, something in her father’s gaze softens. “Allison,” he says, “I have a very important job for you.”

He had never called her the name Grace gave her before. Granted, it was a recent development, but she had thought his adamant refusal to use anyone’s name would never change.

She nods again, shoving her confusion aside. This is her chance to impress him. All of them had always tried to impress him.

When he’s done explaining, Reginald gives her a day to think it over. she resolves to ask Luther his opinion, but…

When she sees Luther, he looks broken, and he’s staring at old family photos with tears in his eyes.

When she passes Ben’s room, she hears small sniffles, quiet crying as opposed to Vanya’s sobs.

When she passes Diego’s room, she hears his knives whistling through the air, hitting his target harsh and quick.

When she passes Klaus’ room, he is missing.

And she has already made up her mind.

~~~

“Why are you so sad?” Luther asks later.

Allison smiles. “I don’t know,” she lies. “I guess I just feel like I’m missing something.”

“Funny,” Luther says. “Well, not funny, because it’s making you sad, but… I’ve been feeling the same way. Like something’s wrong, but I just can’t place it.”

Allison can’t help it; something in her breaks.

~~~

The pictures are missing so quickly.

Every article is taken down and destroyed in the span of a day.

She even helps paint the room.

It’s scary how easily people disappear.

~~~

Allison is sixteen when she tells her siblings not to cry about Ben. She doesn’t give a good explanation, just that he would want them to keep fighting, but they seem to take it anyway. They trust her, and they value her opinion. They clearly hear the urgency in her tone.

Klaus is the most skeptical, but it’s okay. She can hear him talking to Ben late into the night. He hasn’t lost anything; he still has his brother.

This time, Reginald does nothing.

~~~

As a sort of honour for Five’s memory, Allison searches through every book she can about quantum physics and time travel. Fiction, nonfiction, doesn’t matter. As long as it relates, she pulls it off of the shelves.

Some of her coworkers and friends ask what she’s reading, and seem impressed when she shows them.

Later, whenever Claire asks what she’s reading, she does her best to explain the concepts in simple terms.

It doesn’t do anything to send the grief away, but it helps ground her in her current life.

~~~

“I heard a rumour—“

~~~

Ben’s funeral is short, but most of them don’t cry. Vanya does—she’s always been more emotional than the rest of them—but other than her, the rest of them sit in mournful silence. Tears burn their eyes, but they do not escape.

Reginald looks Allison’s way, meets her gaze. His expression is grave, but—

Allison shakes her head. “No,” she mouths. “Not this time.” And he nods in agreement.

~~~

“—that Number Five never existed.”

~~~

They stop talking about him, suddenly. She was expecting it.

It doesn’t make the blow any softer.

For nights afterwards, she wonders whether she made the right decision. Years. But she can see how much happier they are to think they haven’t lost anything; she can see how much it hurts when Ben dies.

It doesn’t make the decision any easier. It doesn’t stop her from thinking about it. But it does make the guilt ebb away, little by little, with time.

~~~

“I heard a rumour… that Ben is our Number Five.”

“I heard a rumour… that Vanya is Number Six.”

~~~

Sometimes, people startle Allison when they call Ben by his new number.

Sometimes, albeit rarely, Reginald almost calls Ben “Number Six,” or Vanya “Number Seven.” Luther jokes that he has too many kids, or that he’s getting old, and Allison plays along with a laugh, though her heart aches.

Sometimes, Allison starts to recall a story, only to be interrupted and told it never happened.

“Oh,” she says, feigning confusion as she realizes Five was a part of it. “I must’ve dreamt it.”

~~~

“You must not speak of this to anyone. It will only cause them to grieve them more.”

“I understand, Father.”

She doesn’t.

~~~

It’s the anniversary of Five’s disappearance, and Allison locks herself in her room and cries. No one knows why.

She never tells them.

~~~

Hypocritical as she is for it, when Ben dies, Allison cries the hardest. She hides where no one can hear, sometimes in parts of the mansion she’s not even supposed to be in, and she cries over the death of her second brother.

When Pogo sees her, once, he shakes his head before leaving to give her privacy.

When Grace sees her, she offers a blanket and warm milk. She only smiles and walks away when Allison declines.

When Reginald sees her, he sits down next to her.

“I understand that you’re upset,” he says. “It is only reasonable to be so. But you mustn’t let it distract you from your duties.”

Allison nods. “Of course,” she agrees with a sniffle, because what else can she do? There is no disobeying her father.

“Nor can you allow it to distract your siblings from their duties.”

“I understand.”

~~~

She still, absolutely, does not understand anything. She doesn’t understand why her father asked her to make Five disappear to begin with. She doesn’t understand how it was so easy, how her power could change so much so quickly.

She doesn’t understand why she agreed to do it.

~~~

Allison wears her makeup as a mask. It’s a silly excuse, but she convinces herself not to cry because her eyeliner would run.

When Luther says she seems off, she only shakes her head.

“Ben’s dead,” she replies. “Everything is wrong.”

I’ve lost a second brother, she thinks.

~~~

At the end of Allison’s story, they all stand in silent shock. The room doesn’t know how to react.

By now, Allison’s voice is wavering. “I-I thought I was doing the right thing. That it was good, since you wouldn’t be sad anymore. I didn’t realize that I was just covering up Dad’s mistakes.

“You weren’t,” says Five, his tone far too calm in comparison to the storm behind his eyes. “You were covering up my biggest mistake, and you buried me with it. Good fucking job, Allison. It’s nice to know I’m so bad of a family screw-up that you had to pretend I never existed.”

“Five, it’s not like—”

It’s too late. Five has turned around, blinking away.

“Wait,” Diego says. “He’s really our sibling?”

Allison nods.

“Anything else you’re keeping from us?”

She shakes her head. “Klaus… already said the last one.” Her eyes flicker to Viktor, who is staring down at the ground.

“You… I can’t believe you’d hide something like this,” Viktor says. “He’s— he’s our brother, and you made us forget about him?”

“I—”

“Will we ever even remember?”

Allison takes a breath. “I… I can try to make you remember, but—” She pauses, taking a deep breath. “When I’ve rumoured someone for that long, it’s hard to reverse.”

“Viktor remembered,” Klaus says.

They all turn to Viktor, who is staring at Klaus in confusion.

“The other Viktor,” he clarifies. “He… I don’t think he remembered Five. If he did, he didn’t tell me. But he remembered his childhood. I was wondering if you could at least try… Well, they’re your powers.”

“I can’t— I can’t take it back.”

Klaus sighs. “Look, Allison. When I was a kid, I thought I was cursed to talk to ghosts. Then I realised I could interact with them and give them physical form. I can act as a medium for possession. I’m immortal, I can levitate, and can apparently make other things levitate, too. I don’t think it’s too farfetched to believe there’s more to your abilities than you think there is.”

“You can fly?” Diego asks.

“That’s what you got from that?” For a moment, Klaus seems annoyed. Then, he grins. “This is why you’re my favourite.”

“I suppose I can… practice?” Allison says. “I can try.”

Klaus nods. “Good start. Viktor and I are also practicing his sound manipulation.” He takes a deep breath. “We’ll… figure everything out.”

The uncertainty in his voice unsettles Allison. When he had first showed up, he seemed to have everything figured out, preposterous as it sounded. He had been the picture of confidence when he told them all that Viktor ended the world. That he knew how to prevent it.

Now, he looks like he’s questioning his abilities.

“Where’d Five go?” They all jump at the sound of someone else’s voice. They’re young, with curly dark hair, brown skin, curious eyes, and blood-covered hands gloves.

As Allison begins to ask who they are, Klaus whirls on them. “You knew the whole time?”

The person blinks. “Yes? Neither of you are good with secrets, good as you are at pretending you’re good at it.” By the time it takes Allison to process that sentence fully, the person has already strided past her, picked up several of the body parts, and walked right back out of the room.

“Who the hell was that?” Allison asks, more than a little alarmed.

“Oh,” Klaus says. “That’s Ariadne. They’re dealing with the evidence.”

Allison’s gaze sweeps past the entryway, taking in the entire mess for the first time. “What… happened?”

Diego points a knife at Klaus. “He conjured Ben.”

“He what?”

Klaus shrugs. “Just another thing I do. I said I could give ghosts physical form. Ben happens to be a ghost who’s been stuck with me for the past thirty-ish years.”

A moment passes. Klaus hisses at the air.

“So,” Diego says. “Do I get any new, flashy powers?”

Klaus shrugs. “We’ll see. For now— Allison, Viktor, training room. Ariadne and Diego will deal with the mess. Luther… could you find the kid?”

Luther makes a face. “Why me?”

“I don’t know. You figure it out.”

Ariadne pipes up, “He’s probably in his room.”

“What room?”

They shrug. “Attic, I think. To the left, or whatever.”

Diego mimics Luther’s baffled expression. “That’s—”

“—the one across from Ben’s,” Klaus finishes with the satisfaction of someone who’s been solving a life-long mystery. “Of course.” He pauses. “I think… I think Ben may be getting some of his memories back. And if he’s getting them back…”

“…the rest of us can, too,” Viktor says.

Klaus hops up from the couch. “We should start, then.”

Allison nods and willingly follows him.

Maybe, she can learn how to fix this. She can finally understand.

End of Interlude.

Link to AO3 | Link to Next Part (to be added)

#my writing #fanfiction #the umbrella academy #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #tw violence #tw death #tw grief #tw corpses

[krystalwinterswrites]

See You Again (At The Ending)

[Summary from AO3: Five jumps too far into the future, ending up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. God decides Klaus is a nuisance and kicks him out of the afterlife. These events are both years and seconds apart.]

[Short Description: Klaus survives the apocalypse AU, in which Five and Klaus spend years together through the apocalypse and the Commission, all while Five is trying to find the right equation to get back home and Klaus is trying to figure out why this time-traveling, space-jumping kid seems vaguely familiar.]

Part 4: See You Again

Beginning of Work | Previous Part

[Notes: This chapter has already been published on AO3. It also will make zero sense without context from original chapters.]

Chapter 26: From The Start

What’s the best way to sabotage an operation meant to kill your brother? Trick question! There is no best answer. So Five’s solution is to tear it down from the inside, gathering as much information as he can about the Commission’s decisions pertaining to stopping him and Klaus.

Nora gets him a suit in a small enough size to fit him. Another member of their team quietly vanishes. And then the mission begins.

Five intentionally messes up everything. When they get to the Academy’s front door, he makes enough racket to surely alert Klaus ahead of time. When the gunfire starts, he distracts every member he can, even “accidentally” shooting some.

Next to him, Nora sighs, barely audible beneath the sound of the gunshots. But she doesn’t say anything; she’s not shooting either. Oddly enough, Five can’t tell if Sebastian’s around. From what he can guess, Sebastian was probably removed from the equation. In this body, there’s no way he’d pass for someone as tall as Sebastian, so that must mean he’s been replaced with someone else.

Although he distrusts Nora, he never would have suspected her of eliminating her own teammate. He supposes even he has the liberty of being wrong sometimes.

Klaus appears at the stairs, and what follows is a cacophony of gunshots and soft thuds of bodies hitting the ground. There’s a spectral blue, and Five’s body reacts before he can. He lunges forward, tapping Nora’s shoulder and teleporting them both away.

~~~

They tumble down the short flight of steps, disorganised and disoriented. Nora manages to spring to her feet at the end of it, though she seems queasy. Five doesn’t bother to try.

“That was not my room,” Five mutters. He hadn’t even realised he had been aiming for his room until he missed.

Nora stares at him. “You live in a mansion? I didn’t expect that.”

“Lived,” he corrects.

“Funny,” she says. “I never guessed you were someone for ostentation. You seem more suited for a simple life.” After a moment, she adds, “Not that you seem like the type to find a home on the floor, either.”

Five glares up at her before forcing himself into a sitting position. “Take off your mask,” he instructs, taking off his own.

“Why?” Nora asks, though she follows directions anyway.

“Because,” he says, “any moment, Diego is going to rush up those stairs, and we’re going to have to convince him not to kill us instantly.”

“Diego?”

“My brother. The knife-thrower.” Five grins. “You couldn’t ever compare to his aim.”

Nora blinks. “Oh. That’s who you were talking about the day—” She cuts off, looking down the hall. Diego stands at the end of it, knives at the ready.

“No guns,” Five says, holding up his empty hands. He isn’t unarmed—he still has several knives—but it’s true enough.

Diego looks between the two of them.

“Drop your knife, Nora,” Five says without bothering to look at her.

The knife clatters to the ground. Diego opens his mouth to say something, but Five speaks before he can.

“Where’s Klaus?” he demands.

Diego glares at him. “You barged into my house to kill us,” he deadpans. “Why would I tell you anything?”

Five stands, ready to blink away if Diego throws another knife. Nothing happens.

“Where’s Klaus?” he repeats. He’s half certain Klaus has probably fainted for summoning Ben after all the wreckage of the past few days.

Which means Klaus can’t get him out of this.

“Here,” Five says. “We’ll leave behind all our weapons and follow you. We promise not to hurt you, Viktor, Klaus, Luther, Allison, Pogo, or M— Grace.” He’s not even sure Luther or Allison are home, though he guesses they aren’t because they would have helped fight if they were.

Diego tenses up. “How do you know us?”

“Your names are all over the news?”

Grace’s and Pogo’s certainly aren’t. Diego narrows his eyes; he’s clearly picked up on that.

Nora drops another knife.

Diego looks like he’s about to act when there’s a call from the entryway.

“There’s another one!” There’s no doubt that’s Viktor, voice shaking with urgency.

Cussing, Diego rushes away. After exchanging a glance with Nora, Five follows painfully slowly. He doesn’t want to tick off Diego.

They reach the main staircase, and the scene unfolds.

There’s clearly been a slaughter. Corpses litter the floor, cut into pieces. The whole place has been painted crimson, reflecting a hundred tiny spots of the chandelier’s light. The place reeks of blood.

In the centre of the room stands Viktor, unarmed and untrained.

Someone stands across from her, unmoving. They aren’t holding a weapon.

“Don’t,” says Nora, grabbing Diego’s risk. “Don’t hurt them!” she calls, addressing both Diego and the other.

This must be the person who replaced Sebastian, judging by Nora’s reaction.

Diego shrugs off her grip.

At the same time, the other person says, “Do I look like someone who knows how to fight?”

Five blinks. “Ariadne?”

They look his way. It’s definitely Ariadne.

From what he knows, Ariadne certainly isn’t someone skilled in combat. On the missions they spent together, Ariadne had thrown one punch, and that single punch had been of terrible enough form that they broke their own thumb, hurting themselves more than they harmed their opponent.

“They can’t do a thing,” Five assures Diego. “Viktor could throw a better punch.”

There’s a long moment where Five thinks Diego is going to attack anyway. Then, he sighs, his shoulders dropping.

Ariadne looks between everyone in the room. Finally, they sigh, taking off their mask. “I don’t understand how you normal agents tolerate these things. I’m sweating so much I may as well be dead.”

“We don’t normally wear the full outfits,” Five answers.

He moves to descend the stairs, but Diego flings a knife. It curves mid-flight, whizzing right in front of Five, slicing his left shin.

“Don’t you dare go near Viktor,” Diego growls.

“Careful,” Five says, sitting down to tend to his new wound. “I wouldn’t hurt me too badly if I were you.”

“Why?”

“Because if you do, Klaus might stab you.”

“Might?” Nora asks.

“Just ‘stab?’” Ariadne adds. “He’d kill for you.”

Five makes a face. “Not his own brother. He doesn’t like me that much.”

Diego is staring at him, perplexed.

“Spit it out, Diego.”

“What’s your name?”

Five sighs. “Depends who you ask. Really, I don’t have one. But the police think I’m Aidan Rodriguez here.”

“Oh,” Diego says. “You’re Klaus’ kid.”

Five starts to respond, “I—”

“Wait, kid?” Ariadne says. “I thought you were brothers.”

Nora nods. “Yeah. And Diego’s your brother, too, isn’t he?”

“That brat isn’t my—”

Five takes a breath. “It’s complicated,” he says.

“How the hell is family complicated?”

He blinks. “Are you seriously asking that, Diego? When has this family ever been simple?” Before Diego can respond, he blinks again, appearing next Ariadne. “Drop all your weapons. We’re trying to negotiate.”

“If I drop my weapons, they’ll break and burn holes into your floor.” They listen anyway, striding across the room to the nearest table, where they set down several glass vials filled with various liquids.

“Now,” Five says. “Let’s talk this out.”

Viktor looks at the bodies. “Uh…”

“Not associated with them,” Five says.

Ariadne adds, “Broke my contract.”

“Same.” Nora jumps onto the banister, sliding down with perfect balance before vaulting off at the bottom. “They’re a former employer.”

Diego glares at her. “They tried to kill us.”

“Sure, but I didn’t.”

“Are you attacking Klaus for being formerly involved with them?” Five asks.

“Klaus is my brother,” Diego says, oblivious to how much it hurts to hear. “Besides, Klaus shot six of them down. He didn’t shoot at us.”

Nora nods as she walks around, pausing to observe the decorations. “So? I removed two. And I didn’t shoot you, either” She glances around. “Do you have any food?”

“To your left. Top cabinets,” Five says. “Probably.”

Viktor gives him a confused look. “That’s… How do you know that?”

Five sighs. “Where. Is. Klaus?”

“He fainted, so—”

“Right.” Five ignores the way they call after him, rushing towards the medical area. He stops at the door, knocking quietly, uncertain whether he’s in the right place.

It feels odd. He should know his way around the house. He grew up here. Spent thirteen years of his life here. Yet he’s still second-guessing himself. He could be knocking at any random room in the house, for all he knew.

But he’s in the right place. Grace opens the door with a smile. “Hello. How can I help you?”

Five stares at her. For some stupid reason, he feels like crying. Everything that once belonged to him no longer does, and he’s left to scavenge for anything that feels familiar. Grace…

Nothing about her is different. She’s exactly the same.

Yet.

“Do you know who I am?”

She pauses, her smile fading for a fraction of a second. Then, it returns as she says, “I don’t recall.”

“Okay,” Five says. “Is Klaus…?”

“Klaus will be fine. He needs to rest.”

Five nods.

“Would you like cookies?”

He pauses. “You know what? Fine. Why not?”

~~~

They gather around the table. Five has picked up one cookie, but he hasn’t taken a bite. He’s not sure he could if he wanted to with the way Diego is glaring at him from across the table. Ariadne hasn’t even touched the cookies.

Nora, on the other hand, is stuffing her face. “These are good,” she says. “Your mom rocks.”

Diego’s eye twitches when Nora mentions Grace.

“Why are you trying to kill us?” Viktor asks, tentatively choosing his own cookie and taking a bite.

“Trying?” Ariadne says. “If I were trying to kill you, you would’ve died the second you started eating. I always carry nightshade.”

Viktor looks back down at the cookie and at the way Ariadne hasn’t eaten. He nudges his plate away.

With a huff, Ariadne sits back in their spot. “Anyway, we aren’t trying to hurt you. Especially not you, what’s-your-face.” They point at Viktor.

“Why?”

“‘Cause you end the world. Those people are part of the Commission. They—”

“—preserve the timeline,” Diego finishes. “Klaus already said as much.”

Five is busy staring at Viktor, not paying too much attention as the conversation continues. Without bothering to wait for Diego to stop talking, he says, mostly to himself, “I though Ben—”

He cuts off. Number Six caused the apocalypse. Number Six caused the apocalypse. If he’s not a part of the Academy…

“What’s your number?”

Viktor blinks. “Uh… Why? I teach the violin, but—”

“Not that number, Viktor,” Five grits out. “What number are you? Luther is One. Diego is Two. So on. Which are you?”

“Wouldn’t you know?” Diego asks. Five ignores this.

Viktor’s answer sounds like a question. “I’m Number Six?”

It’s official. He’s been erased.

Suddenly, Five gets the urge to run. To run, run, run away so that he doesn’t have to deal with this anymore.

To run back to a time when everything was fine. When he was real, and his siblings hated him, and his father held great expectations for him. When he saved people, when he could go home from missions expecting a warm smile from his mother, when he had a whole room to himself where he wrote out equations on the walls.

“Hey.” Someone kicks him in his injured shin, eliciting a soft hiss of pain.

“Nora,” he growls.

She rolls her eyes. “Fine. I’m sorry.”

“Are you okay?” Leave it to Viktor to be concerned about people who tried to kill him.

Five blinks at him. “No. Someone cut me in the shin.”

“And you still haven’t properly treated that severed finger, have you?” Nora adds.

He still hates perceptive people. He had been very intentional about hiding the injury. It wasn’t hard, considering how these uniforms had gloves. But she could have noticed at any time.

“I treated it to the best of my ability,” he responds.

He had, the moment he had noticed it. And he’s changed the bandages since. But it still isn’t the greatest.

“Let me take a look at it,” Grace says.

With a long-suffering sigh, Five stands. “Fine.”

They go to the medical area again, Diego following after them. Even Diego is smart enough to tell that Five is the most skilled threat.

Klaus is sleeping on the bed, looking too serene for someone who’s been through so much. He isn’t even hooked up to anything; he clearly needs rest, and nothing more.

“Sit down,” Grace says, and Five listens, claiming a chair in the corner of the room.

They go through the motions, Diego watching them carefully. It’s like he suspects Five’s going to try to kill an android, which Five doesn’t understand. Seriously. If something happens to Grace, Pogo can probably rebuild her anyway.

Everything passes in a familiar blur. Grace checks a few vitals. Asks about any more injuries.

“Nothing, really,” Five says. After a moment, he continues, “I did mess up my hip in the jump. It’s gotten better, but I still haven’t fixed it entirely.”

Grace nods. Runs the normal tests. “How long have you been walking on it?”

“A few days. Why?”

“It’s fractured,” she says. “But it should heal normally if you let it rest.”

Diego raises an eyebrow. “You’ve been walking around on a broken hip?”

“Fractured hip,” Five responds. “Did the police really say nothing to you about the missing finger?”

He shakes his head. “We weren’t there long. Klaus insisted on leaving without even filing a report.”

“Oh.” It would be pretty complicated to file a missing person’s report over someone who didn’t exist. “You should call Detective Patch. Tell her you found me.”

“But—”

“You wouldn’t want her to see you as an entirely incompetent guardian, would you? Might ward her away from having kids with you, or whatever.”

A vein pulses in his neck. “You—”

“Careful,” Five says. “Can’t abuse your ward.”

Diego takes a breath. He seems to be a second from screaming.

“You’re good to go,” Grace says. “Just don’t put weight on your hip. Take this.” She hands him a cane.

He takes it. “Now I’m really an old man, aren’t I?”

Diego snorts. “You’re like, five.”

“I am—” He cuts off. “I’m older than you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Klaus, of all people, is nearly fifty. And you’re judging my age?”

Diego’s gaze flickers to Klaus. He doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear he’s tempted to.

“Mistreat me, and Ben will tell him. If he’s here,” Five threats. He looks someplace beyond Ben. “Hi, Ben, if you’re here.”

With that, he gets up, awkwardly using the cane. It’s going to mess up his calculations if he has to blink, but it will be useful in a fight. He can tell from holding it it’s weighted specifically for use in combat, which doesn’t surprise him. A kid-sized cane made for breaking bones? Sounds like Reginald.

It’s harder to get back to the others, getting used to the cane. It’s even harder to ignore Diego’s eyes on him, now that there’s some hint of concern in them.

Everyone has gathered in the living room. Ariadne and Nora sit on the couch, and Viktor occupies an armchair. Five joins Ariadne and Nora, resting his cane in between the cushion and the armrest.

“So,” he says, not entirely sure where he’s going with this. What is he supposed to say to explain their situation?

“I should go,” Nora says. “Sebastian is waiting for me.”

Five looks at her. “You didn’t kill him?”

“Of course not!”

“I’m surprised.”

Nora rolls her eyes. “We agreed to run away together in the midst of… this whole mess. Figured the Commission would have more important things to do together.”

“And why is Ariadne here?”

“I’m the one who told them about your plan,” Ariadne says. “Sorry. But I wanted in.”

Five sighs. “So you’re all leaving the Commission?”

“Yep. Hazel probably will, too, if something pushes him enough this mission,” Nora answers. “But I’ll keep in touch.”

“How do I know I can trust you not to come back with more people who want to kill us?” Diego asks.

“I—”

“Let’s wait until Klaus wakes up. Okay?” Five says.

There comes a voice from the entryway. “Why are we waiting for me to wake up?” he asks. His eyes land on Five. “Good. You’re not dead.”

“Nice to see you too, Klaus.”

Klaus smiles. “Diego didn’t give you any trouble, did he?”

“Actually—”

“He looked like the people who were trying to kill us!” Diego defends himself before Five can even rat him out.

“He looks like a child!”

“I’m 34!”

“Doesn’t do anything to fix your height, kid,” Klaus says.

If it wouldn’t get him instantly killed by Diego, Five would whack him with the cane.

Instead, he settles for a glare. “Nora should leave,” he says, “before her partner blows this whole place up.”

“He’s not my partner anymore,” Nora responds. “We’re no longer Commission.”

Klaus grins. “You left the Commission?”

“Yep.”

“The Handler is going to be sooo frustrated,” Klaus says gleefully.

“…Okay? I don’t base my decisions based on whether or not it would irritate the Handler.”

Klaus shrugs, dropping to the floor. “I do.”

“You do you,” she says. “Oh, and you should probably get rid of the bodies before people start asking uncomfortable questions.”

Ariadne beams. “I can dissolve them!”

“How about we not do that?” Five suggests.

“…We can burn them?”

Klaus glances at the mess. “Suit yourself. Just don’t burn down the house. As much as I hate the place, it’s where I’m currently staying.”

Ariadne cheers, rushing away. She starts the process of moving the bodies into the courtyard so that the burning flesh won’t make the house smell.

“Shouldn’t we talk about this?” Viktor asks. “These people… You said they won’t stop until I end the world.”

“They won’t stop until we change the timeline,” Five corrects. “We reach April 2nd, and everything will be fine. They won’t be able to do anything by then.”

Klaus nods. “What the kid said.”

“So what do we do, then?” Diego asks. “Can’t we just put Viktor back onto his meds until then?”

“The Commission will do anything they can to sabotage us. They may even blow up the pharmacy.”

Viktor shakes his head. “I have a refill at home. It should last until the end of next month.”

“We should go get it, then, before the Commission does. Or Leonard,” Klaus says.

He pulls himself up off the floor. Despite his rest, he still looks dead tired. Then again, he had always looked dead tired, so it was nothing new.

The rest of them filter slowly out of the room, following him.

“Who’s Leonard?” Five asks. He vaguely recalls the name… something about a manipulative asshole?

Klaus gestures to Viktor. “His boyfriend.”

“Who isn’t evil.”

“Wait,” Diego says. “What do we do about Aidan and Ariadne.”

“That’s not my name.”

Klaus shrugs. “Ariadne will leave once they’ve had their fun. And you can tell Eudora we found Aidan.”

All the anger in him flares up. Klaus has been lying all this time about knowing him. He’s been deceiving Five. Maybe, if Five knew he had been erased earlier, he wouldn’t be left to pick up the pieces of his life and redefine every last one right in the middle of saving the world.

Klaus could have told the truth. He should, have told the truth, right from the start.

“That still isn’t my name, Klaus.”

“Kid—”

“You don’t even know what I’m actually called, do you?” Five retorts, stepping closer. He can’t decide whether he wants to hit Klaus or cry. Maybe both, in that order.

But he doesn’t want to fight with Klaus, despite everything. He can’t bring himself to throw away their thirty years together. He’s clinging to all the years he spent with the others as hard as he can. All the time he had lived in the Academy, surrounded by his family.

All the time he hadn’t lived.

Moment by moment, memory by memory, he falls apart.

“No one here does.”

Klaus opens his mouth, then closes it.

“Of course no one knows who you are,” Diego says. “Who would?”

At that same moment, the front door slides open, and Luther and Allison step inside.

Luther’s gaze slides across the entire scene as he takes everything in: the blood, the new person, the remaining bodies. His eyes grow progressively wider as he looks around, almost to the point of being comical.

Allison’s eyes, however, remain fixed on one person.

“Five,” she breathes.

End of Chapter 26.

Link to AO3 | Link to Next Part (to be added)

#my writing #fanfiction #the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #tw violence #tw injury #tw death

[krystalwinterswrites]

See You Again (At The Ending)

[Summary from AO3: Five jumps too far into the future, ending up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. God decides Klaus is a nuisance and kicks him out of the afterlife. These events are both years and seconds apart.]

[Short Description: Klaus survives the apocalypse AU, in which Five and Klaus spend years together through the apocalypse and the Commission, all while Five is trying to find the right equation to get back home and Klaus is trying to figure out why this time-traveling, space-jumping kid seems vaguely familiar.]

Part 4: See You Again

Beginning of Work | Previous Part

[Notes: This chapter has already been published on AO3. It also will make zero sense without context from original chapters.]

Chapter 25: Chapter 28

The morning after the Commission’s attack and Klaus’ explanation, Klaus catches Allison in her room with various items scattered across her bedspread. Clothes and other necessities, along with three books on motherhood he knows she was in the middle of reading before the world ends.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

Allison folds another skirt, dropping it into the suitcase. “Packing.” It’s an obvious answer that doesn’t mean anything.

“What for?”

“A trip.”

“A trip?” he asks, disbelieving. “Allison, the world is going to end in a week.”

Allison turns towards him. “You’ve already said that. But the timeline has changed. And if the world is ending in a week, then I need to be with my daughter.”

Klaus gapes. “You don’t believe me.”

A beat passes, and he laughs a dark, hysteric laugh.

“You seriously don’t believe me. Allison…” He doesn’t know what to say, so he merely trails off, watching her finish.

With a soft set of clicks, Allison’s suitcase closes. She stands, regarding him with that slightly arrogant look that always annoyed him.

“I need to see my daughter.”

“We need to save the world.”

She rolls her eyes. “Save the world on your own.”

“You don’t even have legal rights to see your daughter.”

“So?”

“So you should help us save the world. If we save the world, you’ll have years with Claire. Not just one week.”

Allison steps forward. “There is no ‘we’ or ‘us’ here. There’s just you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to leave.”

“Just hear me out.”

“No,” she says.

“Al—“

Allison approaches him, something dangerous in her eyes. She opens her mouth, and Klaus half expects her to rumour him into staying out of her way.

“Have you ever loved someone enough that you might die if you’re apart from them? Like you could actually die if you can’t see them?” she asks instead, her voice strained. “You need them like you need air. Like you need your heart to beat. Can you really say you’ve ever felt like that?”

Klaus stares at her.

He thinks of how hard those first few months of the apocalypse were. How he despaired and grieved for his siblings. How he wanted so badly to do anything to see them again.

He thinks of Dave. Of how seeing him die was the worst moment of his life. Of how being torn away from him was like dying himself. Of how he had lost his support, his very reason for living, the love that had kept him alive through the war. Of how afterwards, he had gotten dead drunk in a despondent state, wishing he could move to the afterlife if only to see Dave again.

He thinks of Ben. Of all the years they had spent together. Of everything they had been through. Of how many times Ben had pulled him away form the edge, had talked him out of bad decisions.

He thinks of the kid. How he has clung to him like a lifeline. How he had survived twenty years in the apocalypse just to make sure the kid was alright. That he wasn’t alone. How he felt like he couldn’t breathe when they were apart.

How he feels like he can’t breathe now, the worry stitching its way through his lungs and tearing its way through his heart.

“Yes,” he says firmly. “Yes, I can.”

Allison scoffs. “Yeah, right.” She shoves past him, and it’s all he can do not to scream at her. He knows how she’s hurting. He knows she’s going through a lot.

It doesn’t make being brushed off any easier.

~~~

In the end, everyone goes their separate ways. Screwed up and obvious though the Commission’s attack against them was, none of them are listening to Klaus.

Luther leaves with Allison on a two-day trip to LA, where Allison will attend therapy and Luther may get the chance to meet Claire. A chance.

Viktor insists that Leonard is different in this timeline. Yet he refuses to organise a meeting between Klaus and Leonard on the basis that Klaus may randomly throw around accusations. There’s probably also some kind of subconscious understanding that Leonard isn’t perfect that Viktor is choosing to ignore.

Diego says he has important business to take care of. Klaus would bet twenty dollars that “important business” consists of running around the city in leather, throwing knives and being a thorn in his ex’s side.

Thus, Klaus is left to his own devices.

Which means that he’s following Diego around like a lost puppy, returning the mansion regularly for any sign of Five. They’ve marked it as a rendezvous location and their destination. The secondary rendezvous point has always been Diego’s workplace. The Academy may be compromised due to the Commission; Cha Cha and Hazel have definitely found him.

Diego’s workplace is exactly as Klaus remembers it from the one time Diego had dragged him there after finding him out on the streets with none of his wits about him, though it is a lot less blurry.

He shuffles after Diego, feeling awkward all the while. He follows Diego like a shadow. One half of it is having someone other than Ben as company; the other half is having someone who can physically ensure that Klaus doesn’t fall back on bad habits.

It’s in the afternoon when Diego’s boss approaches them. Diego looks at him, confused, as Klaus stands behind Diego, half expecting to be thrown out.

Instead, the boss’ eyes don’t even look at Klaus. “Got a phonecall from the police for you,” he says.

Diego stills. “Oh, yeah?”

“Something about a lost kid. Aidan Rodriguez. Says he’s yours.”

Diego opens his mouth, but Klaus leaps into the discussion.

“We’ll be sure to take care of that,” he promises. “Actually, it would be very convenient if you were to let Diego off work early.”

Diego’s boss looks between him and Diego. Klaus utilizes his best puppy-dog eyes. “All right,” he relents. “But just this once.”

“Thank you,” Klaus sing-songs, yanking Diego along with him as he leaves the establishment.

Once they’re outside, Diego rounds on him. “What was that about?” he demands. “I don’t have a—”

“—kid,” Klaus responds meaningfully. He raises an eyebrow.

Diego raises one right back. “Fine. We’ll go see if it’s yours.”

“Thank you!” Klaus exclaims with a happy skip in his step.

Diego shakes his head with amusement. “I guess we know his name, now.” He brings them around to where his car is parked.

“Come to think of it, I think he said he didn’t have a name. Aidan is just one of many I suggested during the first months we knew each other.” Klaus sits down next to Diego. He straps in, and then they’re off, though it feels like it’s taken forever and a decade already.

Normally, he would sit in the back with Ben. But for now, Ben has disappeared again. Intentionally this time; he’s looking for the kid. He’ll be happy to hear any news on the matter.

“Is that how he knew you’d notice if he called me? You mentioned me?”

“Y—”

He cuts off. It surely isn’t entirely because of that. He can still remember the fear in the kid’s voice and the grief in his expression on that unfortunate day they met. The kid had always acted like he knew Klaus before the apocalypse hit.

Klaus takes a breath. “I’m pretty sure he knew us before the apocalypse.”

“But you don’t know him?” Diego asks.

“I suppose I must have,” he responds.

“He could have known through the academy. We were pretty famous.”

“No, no. He feels awfully familiar. Like you’ve met him before but can’t remember where, how, or why you know him.”

Diego hums, taking a right turn. “Another one of Dad’s experiments?”

“Who knows us personally? Who was thirteen when I was thirty?” Klaus responds. “The only people were even at home when they were seventeen were Luther, Allison, and Viktor. Even if he were one of—”

He finds himself taken back, abruptly, to the day he had met the kid. Disoriented at the time, he hadn’t thought much of it. And he may not remember correctly after all these years, but he’s pretty sure the kid said—

“Dad.”

Shit. Maybe the kid is part of Reginald’s experiments.

“‘Even if he were one of Dad?’” Diego quotes back.

Klaus leans forward in his seat, watching the buildings creep past. “Can’t you go any faster?”

“Not gonna happen.”

Klaus gives him a withering look. “Why?”

“Because.” Diego turns into a lot. “We’re right by a police station. Wouldn’t want to get caught for a traffic violation.” He finds a space, shifting into park.

The second the car is stopped, Klaus bolts—at a reasonable rate so as not to be run over. Diego follows more slowly with a mixture of amusement and concern. Amusement because Klaus was acting weird—weirder. Concern because of the whole awful, terrible, absolutely no-good situation they were in.

Klaus flings open the door, then stops short. He has no idea where to go from here. Luckily, he just so happens to be with the sibling who knows this place best.

Diego strides in like he owns the place, ignoring various looks of confusion. No doubt they were surprised to see him outside of the handcuffs. Klaus follows him until they reach an area where Eudora is working, dealing with paperwork.

“Hey, Eudora,” Diego says.

She looks up. “Hello, Mr. Rodriguez.”

“Eu—”

“I’m Detective Eudora Patch,” she introduces herself.

Diego sighs. “Please don’t do this.”

“Klaus,” Klaus says, electing to avoid getting involved with Diego’s love troubles. “Where’s the kid?”

Eudora gives him a not-quite smile. “Aidan’s currently in a waiting room, ready to take a statement. I’ll take you to him.”

Rapidly, his hopes drop. As much as he would love to see the kid, he knows not to be too much of a fool. The second the kid is left alone in a waiting room will always be the same second he leaves.

Sure enough, when they open the door, no one’s there.

Eudora blinks. “He was just—”

“Oh, yeah, he does that sometimes.”

“You mean you didn’t even know if he was here?” Diego asks.

Klaus doesn’t bother to respond, instead staring at the seat. “Our little Aidan”—Diego glares at him—“is something of a rebel. Teenagers, y’know? I keep thinking he’ll come around eventually, but here we are. Not even respecting the police and waiting for twelve fucking minutes.” He growls the last words out, releasing most of his frustration in the six syllables.

“What’s your relation to Aidan?” Eudora asks. She probably should have already, but Klaus imagines she’s out of sorts, having learned that her ex-boyfriend apparently has a teenage kid

Klaus smiles. This is the kid’s own fault this time. “We’re his two dads.”

Diego is giving him a look that is somewhere between what-the-hell and I-will-strangle-you. “We should go search for him,” Diego says. “Thanks for… telling us.”

“You can file a missing persons—”

Klaus smiles politely. “We’ll find him ourselves.” It’s better than saying he’d rather die. “Just… keep an eye out, will you? We’ll be in touch.”

Eudora opens her mouth, but Klaus is already dragging Diego away.

“Thank you for your time and sorry for the inconvenience!” Klaus calls, ignoring a few turned heads.

The moment they exit the station, Diego rounds on him. “What the hell, Klaus?”

“Oh, good,” he says. “I was scared for option two.”

“You—”

“The conversation was not going to get any better. Would you have liked to tell her that the kid has no relation to us?”

Diego glares at him. “When you went missing,” he says, “I didn’t expect you to come back as an asshole.”

Klaus deflates. “Right. Sorry.” He forces himself to calm down. “I get mean when I’m worried.”

Without a response, Diego walks back to the car. Klaus lingers for a moment, unsure if he’s invited before he decides that screw it, Diego can fuss if he wants. It’s still the most convenient transportation. This time, Klaus returns to his usual seat, although Ben still isn’t around. He just doesn’t want to talk.

They ride in silence. Somehow, it takes longer to get back to Diego’s place than it did to get to the station.

Nevertheless, they reach their destination eventually. Diego returns to his work, and Klaus invades Diego’s home, claiming the only chair.

It’s not long until he says, “Hi, Ben.” Right on time, Ben materializes on the bed.

“I didn’t find him,” Ben reports.

Klaus sighs. “We know he’s here.”

“Where?”

“That’s the problem. We only know he was inside the police station long enough to tell them Diego was his legal guardian and then leave.”

Any trace of Ben’s excitement fades. “Oh.” Then, he snickers. “How’d that go over with Diego?”

Klaus grins. “You should’ve seen the look on his face when I told Detective Patch that we were the kid’s two dad.”

“You did what?”

“It was glorious,” Klaus says. Bad as he feels about lying, he’ll remember the moment forever.

Ben smiles. “I would’ve loved to be there.” It’s odd to see the childish side of him after all these years. For a too long, they’ve both been forced to focus on surviving with barely any chance to fool around.

“But he is angry with me right now for lying to his ex.”

Ben glances at the door as though Diego may appear any moment. As though Diego could hear what he says to begin with. Then, his gaze turns back to Klaus. “Maybe he should stop pursuing someone who’s clearly not interested in any more of his bullshit?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“But you should still clear things up, if you get the chance.”

“Also true.” Klaus stands and stretches. “I’m going to go get something to eat. Diego’s planning on going back to the Academy in the morning, and I think Viktor will be there, too.”

Ben hums. “Maybe he’ll bring Leonard?”

“It would probably be good to meet him,” he responds as he makes his way to the exit. That way he could figure out the differences between this Leonard and the one he knew. He pauses at the landing, turning back to Ben. “Where do you want to eat?”

~~~

It’s a surreal experience to be at the Academy again. Previously, he didn’t get much of an opportunity to take it all in, confronted with Cha Cha and Hazel as he was during his first hour of consciousness.

Now, he can’t stop himself from staring at every little thing. The walls are littered in bullets thanks to Cha Cha and Hazel; the picture of Ben over the mantlepiece has a bullet hole in the corner. His room is exactly as he left it, albeit slightly more dusty. His siblings’ rooms have barely changed.

If he tries, he can imagine himself walking along that hall, following through with whatever training Reginald organized. He can imagine himself racing along the hallway, the alarms blaring in the deafening noise to remind them of missions. He can imagine himself following Grace, going through the nightly routine.

He stands in the doorway to his room, staring at its contents. None of it is of any worth to him anymore. All his keepsakes and treasures from childhood mean nothing now

Maybe, if he searches through and discards things, he’ll find something worth keeping. A book recommended by Ben. A friendship bracelet Allison braided, part of a matched set she had made for everyone. Sketches and doodles from Viktor, along with half-composed sheet music he’ll never understand. A list of things Luther liked about him, written as punishment for the broken nose he had given Klaus.

Yes, there are certainly things of value buried somewhere in there. But most of it is bitter memories and things he’d rather leave in the past.

On a whim, he goes to Ben’s room. Everything is pristine. Ben didn’t always keep things neat, but he did clean up after himself every now and then. It’s clear one of those times was before his last mission.

Klaus closes the door. He doesn’t want to think about Ben’s death. He’s spent the last two decades confronting too much death already, and the decade before that coming to terms with Ben’s death.

He’s about to leave and head for the kitchen when a memory resurfaces.

“Did anyone ever live in the room across from mine?”

At the time, it had seemed entirely insignificant. Just Ben acting weird. But maybe…

The doors slides open easily, creaking loudly. It’s clear the room hasn’t been touched, even to be cleaned, in ages. He steps inside, casting a glance around.

The room looks vaguely like someplace Viktor would stay, which makes sense. He’s the only one who’s ever lived in the room. And after that, the room had been locked for the rest of Klaus’ stay in the Academy.

It’s decorated in mostly muted colors, and the whole place is mostly barren. Viktor had moved, after all. He had taken his stuff with him.

Still, Klaus forges on, looking through the desk and finding it empty expect for a broken pen clip. He brushes off the shelves that no doubt had housed Viktor’s violin for a while; there’s still a block of rosin waiting for use. Other than that, the room is completely abandoned.

He sighs. Of course there’s nothing there. What had he been looking for, anyway?

“Why are you looking at the spare room as though it’s personally offended you?” That’s Diego, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe.

“I just… Thought I’d find more of Dad’s secrets?”

Diego snorts. “Since when have you cared about Dad’s secrets? You aren’t Luther.”

“Luther isn’t here. Maybe I’m taking his place.”

“Okay, Number One,” Diego responds. He says it with clear distaste. “I’ll be in the kitchen, appreciating Mom’s cooking.”

“Yeah. I’ll be right there.”

Diego’s tone turns concerned. “Klaus—”

“Hm?” He accidentally cut Diego off.

“Are you even listening?”

Klaus waves him away. “No, yeah. Of course I am.”

“Klaus, I can honestly say that I don’t understand what you’re doing right now. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis or whatever fifty-year-olds do. But whatever it is, I doubt it’s helping you save the world.” Diego walks over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Eating will. Mom’s made pancakes. How about you come join us for them, and we’ll have a discussion over breakfast?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Klaus relents. “Fine. But they better be smiley faces.”

“Naturally.”

He’s following Diego out the door when he stops, staring at the edge of the door.

“Klaus,” Diego says, exasperated.

Ignoring him, Klaus opens the door to Ben’s room and compares the two with a frown.

“Look, I don’t know what this is about, but—”

“It’s painted,” Klaus muses.

Diego gives him an odd look. “What’s painted?”

“The door.”

“So? They all are.”

Klaus shakes his head. “Ben’s isn’t painted the same way. See? The edge of Ben’s isn’t painted. But this one is.” The edge of Ben’s door is still the wood’s natural color, but the other is painted to match the rest of it. He runs his fingers down it; just the regular, smooth feeling.

Diego snorts. “Since when have you ever had any attention to detail?”

“Since it was necessary for my occupation.”

“I really think you’re making something out of no—”

Ben interrupts Diego. “Klaus, look at this.” He points to the inside edge of the door.

Klaus walks over. There’s a scribble of black marker, mostly covered by the paint. Still frowning, Klaus picks away at the paint with his fingernail. He can barely make out anything of the writing. It just looks like… numbers.

“What?” His voice sounds distant, even to himself.

“You go eat breakfast,” Ben says. “I’ll look around more while you do.”

Klaus smiles. “Fine. Thanks, Ben.” He turns back to Diego. “Ready to— What is it?”

Diego is openly gaping at him. “Ben’s here?”

Oh. Ohhh. That one small, tiny detail he hadn’t ever told his family about. Right. That thing.

“I’ll explain over breakfast?”

“You’d better,” Diego growls.

Klaus crosses his arms. “On second thought, I’ve reconsidered. I won’t explain at all because I don’t have to explain anything to you.”

“Fine. I’d like you to explain.”

“Great!” Klaus walks away, making his way down to the kitchen, where Grace and Viktor are already waiting.

The pancakes are still warm, covered in just the right amount of syrup and butter and arranged to make a smiley face with the bacon. Viktor is picking at it slowly, as though it’s some foreign food he’s been warned against eating.

Klaus, however digs right in, practically shoving the entire pancake into his mouth whole.

“Woah, slow down. You’ll choke,” Diego says.

“Kinky,” Klaus responds around a mouthful of pancake.

Viktor and Diego make matching faces of disgust. Grace’s humming doesn’t even pause.

“So,” Diego says, rapidly changing topics. “Ben.”

“Riiight. Ben. Yeah.”

Viktor looks between the two of them. “What about Ben?”

Klaus sighs. “I’ve been able to see him since the day of his funeral.”

Outrage flickers across both Diego’s and Viktor’s faces, though Viktor schools his expression quickly. Diego, on the other hand, remains livid.

“Since the day he died.”

Klaus nods.

“And you didn’t tell us?”

“I did. But none of you believed me.” It’s been a bitter spot for ages. “You all kind of shrugged me off. At least you listened, Viktor, but you were only being polite. Allison, on the other hand, completely freaked out on me the moment I mentioned Ben.”

Diego looks away. No doubt he’s recalling the way he had slammed the door in Klaus’ face, telling him to come back when he was sober. Luther’s reaction had been similar, though he didn’t tell Klaus to come back. Allison had freaked out and told him not to bring up Ben ever again, and he had obliged.

“Anyway,” Klaus says. “Ben and I both won’t be around long if the world ends.”

Viktor is obviously holding back an eyeroll. “Right.”

“So. Training.”

“I’m starting to think it would be better if—”

“Nope! None of that. We’re trying the training first.”

Viktor sighs. “I really don’t—”

“One day,” Klaus says. “Your meds won’t be enough. One day, you’ll forget to take them, or you’ll run out, or whatever else. And you won’t have any idea how to use your powers. If we begin training, we work on preventing that.”

“Well, what if I lose control during training?”

“I know how to work with that.”

Viktor sets down his fork, no longer supporting the illusion that he’s interested in breakfast. “You’ve trained me before?”

Klaus shrugs. “Apocalypse. You survived. I met your ghost.”

“Those statements are contrary,” Diego points out.

“Well, he died before the kid and I joined the Commission. He just so happened to follow us with the time travel.”

“Ghosts can’t use their powers… can they?”

Klaus shrugs. “It worked out. Anyway, we’ll need a place to start.”

“Where are we even supposed to train my powers?”

“There’s a soundproof chamber in the basement. We can start there.”

“Soundproof?”

This is going to take a lot of explaining.

~~~

Viktor gives up the second they move on to practical training, too embarrassed and frustrated that it didn’t work. He’s convinced Klaus is making this all up, despite all evidence to the contrary. Yet Klaus can’t blame him; he’s been convinced all his life that he doesn’t have any powers. Why would this change now?

If this is going to work, he’ll have to talk with Allison about giving Viktor’s memories back.

~~~

“I’d still like to meet Leonard,” Klaus says as he and Viktor are leaving the chamber. “I’ll feel better if I can see that he’s really different here.”

Diego laughs from the top of the stairs. “You know, you seem very interested in other people’s dating lives. First Viktor, then mine, and now Viktor’s again. Hell, you even asked about Allison’s.”

“That—”

“Word of advice,” Diego says, “focus on your own dating life. I know that you have a problem being a nosy little shit, but it’s getting kind of…”

Klaus tries to listen. He really does. But he can barely hear anything over the planes. Over the gunfire. The shouts. The bombs. The screams that are his own voice calling, “Dave, Dave, Dave.” Like that will bring him back.

He can barely hear anything over the sound of his ragged breathing. Of his own overworking heart, which acts as though it’s trying to make up for the absence of Dave’s heartbeat. He can barely feel anything beyond the blood—so much blood—and the crushing grief, the feeling that it should have been him. That he can come back.

That Dave can’t.

He can barely hear anything beyond the pain, the sorrow, the loss. Not over the sound of a name being called. “Dave, Dave—”

“—Klaus!”

It isn’t his own voice. It’s Ben’s, reaching through all the pain, cutting through all the sorrow, pulling him away from all the loss. Ben has always been something of an anchor for him, a foundation, a solid ground.

It’s odd how things stay the same, even when everything around them changes.

Klaus looks at Diego. He can actually see him now, past the dark and the explosions and the ghosts. So, so many ghosts.

Without another word, Klaus leaves before he says something he’ll regret.

~~~

If he’s going to stop the apocalypse, he’ll have to do it alone.

~~~

“How can I help you?”

“I’d like to file a missing person’s report.”

“All right. What’s the name?”

Klaus blinks. “Mine, or his?”

“His.”

“Oh,” he says. “Leonard Peabody.”

“And what is your relation to Peabody? Friend, relative?”

Klaus smiles. “I’m his boyfriend. Viktor Hargreeves.” It’s as good a time as any for identity fraud.

When requested, he exchanges information, gives a whole sob story, and promises to be in touch through the Academy’s phone number.

He can only hope Viktor’s busy for long enough that he doesn’t notice anything.

~~~

Once Klaus steps into the Academy, he’s met with the sight of Diego dejectedly waiting in one of the chairs in the living room. It’s odd; if anyone, he expected to run into Viktor, who was planning on ransacking his room for anything of worth before leaving… probably forever.

“Hey, man,” Diego says.

“Guten Tag.”

Diego responds, “Buenas tardes.” He takes a breath. “I’m… sorry about earlier.”

Klaus stares at him. “That was quick.” The words fall out without his permission. Diego may be a lot of things, but quick to apologise is not one of them.

However, even with Klaus’ undoubtedly annoying reaction, Diego continues, “I overreacted, and I shouldn’t have said what I did. If you really come from a future where the world ends, I can understand that you would be frustrated with the whole… situation.”

“Frustrated” is an understatement. But Klaus isn’t going to focus on that. Instead, he sits across from Diego.

“I…” Klaus swallows back the tears before they can even begin. There’s no way he’s going to get a semblance of this story out while crying. “His name was Dave. David Katz.” He can still see the typewriter font.

The blood.

“‘Was?’”

Klaus squeezes his eyes shut, giving himself another moment. “He… died.”

Ben stands next to Klaus, a comforting presence. “You don’t have to force yourself to talk about him until you’re ready,” he says.

Klaus nods. “He… was shot down. Vietnam war. Right through the chest.”

A heavy silence falls, so tangible Klaus can feel its weight on his shoulders.

“I—”

“Don’t,” Klaus says. “Just… don’t. I can conjure him. I know I can. I’ll just… need my powers if anything happens.”

Diego hums. “Like the apocalypse?”

“Like the apocalypse.”

“Can’t you just… try again?”

Klaus shudders. “Sorry,” he says. “Would you want to be stuck in a twenty-year-long loop, trying and failing to save the world?”

“So we get it right this time.” He makes it sound so easy.

“And that includes talking to Viktor. Training him. Making sure his cause-the-apocalypse meter doesn’t go above halfway.” Klaus sighs. “Meeting Leonard.”

He’s not entirely looking forward to meeting Leonard, but it feels necessary. If he’s going to see whether this Leonard is acceptable, he’s going to need to meet the man. He has low hopes, but maybe things are different enough here that Leonard’s a good person.

Ha. Those hopes are very, very low.

“Shouldn’t we deal with Cha Cha and Hazel, too?”

Klaus shakes his head. “It won’t matter. Until we actually succeed at changing the timeline, the Commission will come after us.”

On cue, the front door shakes.

“Shit,” Klaus says tonelessly. He knows it’s not Allison and Luther; they won’t be back until later. Maybe not until tomorrow morning.

Thus, he stands. “I’m getting Dad’s rifle,” he says, leaving no room for argument. “See about taking Viktor to safety.”

“So, what? Do you call the shots every time—”

“Is now really the time to argue?” Klaus retorts.

He leaves before Diego can respond, rushing up the stairs and hoping everything will be fine when things get back. The kid isn’t even here to reverse things, if he can even reverse time as opposed to traveling through it. Klaus has no idea about the extent of his abilities.

All he knows is what he can do to help. He knows exactly where Reginald’s rifle is; surprisingly, it hasn’t been cleaned out yet, despite Diego’s efforts. Probably because it’s harder to sell a rifle than a pen. Not that it was too hard. Seriously, he could’ve just found a local Walmart and left it there.

Klaus shoves these thoughts to the back of his mind, grabs the rifle, and runs back. The sound of gunfire is startlingly loud, and he has to focus hard on reality so that he doesn’t have a repeat of this morning.

The rifle has only so many shots. Still. Every shot hits someone in the center of the chest or forehead. Klaus isn’t made for the killing. But he’s even less suited towards letting his family die.

Diego’s knives keep hitting their marks. Once, twice, seven times. It’s not enough. It’s clear these are just the less trained people; they’re only here in the hopes they’ll be important enough to throw things off balance.

And maybe they would. If they were facing anyone else.

Klaus is out of bullets.

He’s not out of Bens.

“Ready, Benerino?”

Ben seems concerned. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You haven’t been sober for long in this body.”

“I’m taking that as a yes,” Klaus says. Without any further warning, he stepped out from his cover, slipping down the stairs before springing up and conjuring Ben with a practiced ease. It’s harder than normal, but they’ve worked with each other enough that he can manage it, despite the effort it takes.

“Klaus!” Diego yells, fussing at him for standing in the middle of the gunfire. Even if he does get shot down, he’ll get back up again. The pain is temporary.

It’s all Klaus can do to let Ben do his thing.

The sound of the monsters is familiar. The aftermath is familiar, too. He can see the people freaking out as their coworkers are torn to shreds.

One leaps behind a pillar, dropping their gun before doing so. Others panic and try to shoot the tentacles, to no avail.

The smallest of the bunch, leaps towards another, tapping her shoulder.

They both blink away.

Too rapidly, Klaus dismisses Ben, making himself dizzy in the process.

The kid is here. The kid is safe. He almost had Ben kill the kid. But the kid is here.

He’s alive.

Link to AO3 | Link to Next Part (to be added)

#fanfiction #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves #diego hargreeves #ben hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #my writing #tw violence #tw childhood trauma #tw medication #tw death

[krystalwinterswrites]

See You Again (At The Ending)

[Summary from AO3: Five jumps too far into the future, ending up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. God decides Klaus is a nuisance and kicks him out of the afterlife. These events are both years and seconds apart.]

[Short Description: Klaus survives the apocalypse AU, in which Five and Klaus spend years together through the apocalypse and the Commission, all while Five is trying to find the right equation to get back home and Klaus is trying to figure out why this time-traveling, space-jumping kid seems vaguely familiar.]

Part 4: See You Again

Beginning of Work | Previous Part

[Notes: This chapter has already been published on AO3. It also will make zero sense without context from original chapters. This chapter also includes original characters, which makes it even less comprehensible to those who haven't read the rest.]

Chapter 24: Drowned Rat

It’s the day of the Kennedy mission. They’ve received their files, and Klaus is in the process of exiting the room.

“You coming?” He motions to the door, looking at Five expectantly. Seems everyone wants Five for something recently.

“Actually,” Five says. “I’d like a word with the Handler. In private.”

Klaus’ gaze flickers between him and the Handler. “But—”

“And I’d rather not waste everyone’s time.”

His shoulders drop. “Fine. But if you’re not wasting people’s time, make it quick. I’ll be in the hall.” He’s unnaturally professional. All morning, Klaus has been a mix of emotions and nerves. This is a forced calm.

The door latches shut.

“What ever could you want from me, Number Five?” the Handler asks, leaning back into her seat and flicking some of the ashes off her cigarette.

“You said I ‘was’ erased, not that I erased myself.”

The Handler turns back to her work with disinterest. “I’m aware.”

“What erased me?”

“I’m sure you’ll find out in your own time,” the Handler says, flipping through files.

“So there is something.”

She smiled. “Someone.”

~~~

When Five time travels back to 2019, he didn’t expect to drop into the middle of a lake. He didn’t expect to be fished out by members of a caravan and set on the ground, looking like a drowned rat.

What he definitely didn’t expect was to stand and see that the ground was a lot closer than normal.

He looks down at his unscarred hands, his too-big suit, and his child’s body.

“Shit,” he says.

He can’t gather much of what they’re saying, but he does know that they’re in the middle of a desert. The Sahara. He’s lucky he landed in an oasis, and especially lucky there was a caravan passing through. They can help him get home. Or, at least in a position where he can get himself home.

He’s not sure how close he is to the nearest airport, but he knows he can’t teleport all the way across the ocean. He’s exhausted from traveling through time, and he doesn’t think his powers will be recharging any time soon to so much as blink to the other side of the lake, much less find his way home.

And if he even gets home, will Klaus be there? Is Ben still with Klaus? What about Viktor? He has too many unanswered questions, and the only way to answer them is to get home.

It’s several days of walking before he finally reaches a place where he feels he can genuinely rest. He can’t help but be reminded of the apocalypse. Of walking hours out of every day, just so they could live to see another.

But this is a much nicer journey. He knows the worry of starvation is only left because of his past. He knows that everything will be fine, that he’s with people who have traveled through this space a million times without struggle, but it’s still frustrating.

The worst of his concern lies with his injuries. For the first time in a long time, he has managed to terribly mess up a jump, and now he is missing an entire finger—smallest, right hand. He is also fairly certain that he had messed up his hip somehow because it keeps aching when he moves. That, he can probably fix with another jump. But he has no idea how he’s supposed to fix his finger.

It’s not the worst outcome. Worst case scenario, they fail, and the world ends again. Right now, they still have a fighting chance.

He just needs to find Klaus, and then they can move from there.

~~~

Once they finally reach an airport, he immediately books himself a ride home. He can’t exactly buy his own plane ticket, so this comes in the form of blinking onto the plane. It’s a struggle—his powers are still far from reach—but he manages.

Traveling like normal people is slow. Tedious. It’s noisy and frustrating, and he wants nothing more than for it to be over. He doesn’t know how anyone else manages. Even as he reaches his destination, he feels sluggish and annoyed. When he stumbles out of the plane, all he wants to do is sleep for a week.

But he doesn’t.

Instead, he works his way into the city, navigating the crowds with practiced ease.

It’s odd how that works. It’s been at least a decade since he’s even been in the rubble of this city, yet he still remembers his way around as he did when he was thirteen. The streets are all the same, with the odd building here and there that has changed. He’s only a while away from the Academy when he sees the news report:

Multiple Reports of Gunfire at Mansion of the Late Reginald Hargreeves

Five paused, staring at it uncomprehendingly with displeasure. Gunfire? Near home?

And then his frown pulls into a smile. It must be the Commission, after Klaus. And that means Klaus is probably here.

That, or the Commission is grasping at straws. He can’t let his hopes get too high, but there’s excitement mixed with urgency in his step. He’ll see Klaus again.

He’ll see everyone again.

Of course, it’s at this moment that he spies Cha Cha and Hazel across the street from him.

Shit, he thinks eloquently before ducking into a nearby alleyway. For most people, slipping into alleyways is the worst course of action. It’s very easy to get cornered without knowing the way.

For Five, getting cornered would be preposterous. His powers may still be recharging, but he knows he can jump into a building if he needs to. His only hope is that it won’t be a repeat of the LA incident.

Unluckily for him, he can practically feel them watching him. He doesn’t know if he’s being paranoid or if there’s reason for the feeling, but it doesn’t matter.

He blinks as far as he can in the direction of the Academy.

Regretting his life decisions, he stumbles towards the nearest wall to lean against it for support. He’s certain he can find his way, especially after looking around, but he’s just so tired. He can’t help it: He faints, right in the middle of the street.

~~~

It’s a wonder he doesn’t get kidnapped. Though he supposes he has been moved to a secondary location without his consent, and they won’t let him leave. That’s pretty much the definition of kidnapping. But who cares? It’s the police. They do what they want.

He’s set up in a little waiting area he knows is made for witnesses. Somehow, it feels patronising just to be in the room. They’re expecting him to be either some scared kid or some teenager who ran away from home, he guesses. He supposes the latter was true, once. And for that, he’s stuck in this situation.

At least he can save the world. He doesn’t know how, exactly, but he can. Without his mistake, they probably wouldn’t know the apocalypse is coming to begin with.

He’s not sure Klaus would have made it back on his own. In fact, he’s almost entirely certain he wouldn’t have. Klaus probably wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to join the Commission. Everyone there certainly had seemed to hate him for their entire stay, although everyone loved Five for some reason. Probably because he killed people efficiently, while Klaus hesitated at every step.

And because he can teleport. A talent he is planning to employ before a cop walks into the room.

A very familiar cop.

“Eudora Patch,” he says, his voice deceptively level.

Her surprise barely shows. “I am Detective Eudora Patch,” she says. “I’m the one who found you.”

“Passed out on the street,” he recalls. “Not the most comfortable place for a nap, but not the worst, I suppose.”

She nods, her expression morphing into one of concern—not too much concern, but the polite concern that is reasonable to show towards witnesses. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“No. I can’t.”

Well, he can. But he won’t. It’s not any of her business.

“Alright,” she says, clearly recognising that this conversation will probably lead nowhere. Still, it’s her job to get all the information that she can. “What’s your name?” she tries.

Five… doesn’t know how to answer that.

Does he even have a name? Does he exist?

He wonders if he’s causing some kind of paradox that he should be concerned about, but he can’t recall anything from the handbook. The best he can think of is the grandfather paradox, but he’s pretty sure he hasn’t somehow killed his mother. He was erased just from jumping twenty years into the future. That, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t cause a paradox.

Regardless, the fact remains that he doesn’t know whether he exists. And if he does, “Five Hargreeves” would sound fake.

He says the first name that comes to mind. “Aidan.”

It’s one of the names Klaus said randomly during the first few months of knowing him; it had been something of a running joke for Klaus to try to find a name that worked for him.

That is, until Five threatened to stab him with the fork.

“Okay, Aidan,” Eudora responds, writing down what’s probably his name on a sheet of paper. “What’s your legal guardian’s name?”

He can’t say Reginald Hargreeves because the man is, fortunately for everyone, dead. Grace probably doesn’t exist in government records, and even if she did, she can’t come to the station because her programming won’t allow her to leave the house.

He’s not even sure Klaus is here, so he certainly isn’t an option. He can’t say Allison. If they only told her that her kid was at the police, she would freak out about Claire, and he doesn’t want to do that to her. Luther won’t go along with it, if he’s even back from the moon yet.

Viktor might go along with it, if only to figure out what’s happening. He would certainly want to help a lost kid in any way that he can. He might expect Five to be one of his students at first, and then Five could explain the situation to him.

Still, the name that falls out is, “Diego Rodriguez.”

Eudora raises an eyebrow before she manages to regain her composure. “And how can we get in contact with him?”

“You can call his workplace.” Five gives the name and what he can remember of the number. All he knows of it is Klaus’ scattered knowledge, and he’s not even sure if that’s accurate. “Rodriguez” was a vague, possibly incorrect memory that Klaus had only tangentially been related anyway.

With a hint of annoyance, Eudora stands. “I’m going to call your guardian. Once he’s here, we can answer more questions and get an official statement. Okay?” If her tone is any indicator, it seems he got the surname right.

“I understand,” Five says. Here’s his opportunity for escape.

The second Eudora disappears from view, Five disappears as well. Comical as it could be to watch Diego walk into the room, confused after having been badgered with questions about a hidden kid, it will only delay him.

So he blinks away.

The station is farther from home than he was previously, as he is infuriated to discover. It seems everything is keeping him from returning home. The world is against him.

It’s not surprising. The Commission would never make this easy. The police incident wasn’t its fault, but some other problems occur thanks to it. He can’t help but freeze when he sees another familiar face across the road. Nora is here. He wonders if this is the time she belongs to, and if he’s just being paranoid. He wouldn’t expect Nora to be around while Cha Cha and Hazel are already on the job.

He wouldn’t put it past the Commission to recruit someone by telling them the world was about to end. That they would die if they didn’t.

He wonders how many Commission agents were employed right before their would-be deaths. It’s a pretty tempting offer: Travel through time, preserve the timeline, retire to wherever and whenever you want after just five years of service.

Nora’s head turns towards him, and he blinks away before she can catch sight of him.

He lands on a rooftop.

It’s a very familiar position. In crowded cities, sniping targets from rooftops had been his preferred method. If he needed to, he would make his way through the crowds to his target, stab them, and blink away in the chaos. He would poison someone’s cup. He would do whatever he needed to kill someone. But he preferred the nice, clean kills bought from a shot to the head. Less pain. Not that it was cleaner than poison.

From the roof, he can see the crowds pass below. The streets are surprisingly barren. When he was a kid, they were always full of people, begging for a glance at the Umbrella Academy. He supposes it’s different now. There is no longer an Academy; he’s no longer a celebrity. If anyone’s going to be recognised in public, it’s Allison.

He won’t even be recognised by his own family, if it’s true that he’s been erased. It means his entire life has become a lie, some sort of sick joke the timeline is playing on him.

Some joke Klaus is playing on him, if he’s right that Klaus doesn’t remember him.

Why wouldn’t he say it was so? Wouldn’t it be easiest to admit he didn’t know Five? If Five weren’t his sibling, then he had no obligation to look after him in the apocalypse. Why bother? He’s just another mouth to feed. Another wound to treat. Yet Klaus had helped him anyway, ever the kind one in the bunch.

The least he can do is save the world, as promised. We can do this, he thought to himself. It was something Klaus had said a lot, convincing himself more than Five. Now, the words are a comfort.

They can do this. He just needs to find out how.

His eyes catch on Nora again. She’s looking around, confused. Maybe he hadn’t blinked away in time; it seems like she’s searching for him.

And there’s Sebastian, tugging at her arm, spurring her onwards towards whatever destination they’re finding. With him around, Five doesn’t doubt that they’re here on Commission work, especially since Nora appeared to be searching for him.

Maybe he can use this. He needs to deal with the Commission anyway. This is his opportunity to help out.

It’s nearly impossible to get close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation without being noticed. But Five is the best of the best. He manages.

“—don’t understand why you insisted on sightseeing. We have a mission to complete, Nora,” Sebastian is saying, disgruntled. Five can’t remember when he became so frustrated. The Sebastian Five knows is stubborn, but more withdrawn. But it may be years since the last time Five has truly seen him.

Nora sighs, loudly. She’s normally more quiet than that, as obvious of a presence she tends to be. Every time she and Five were in the same room, he could pretty much feel her burning hatred. It was impossible to ignore.

“Seriously, Nora. You aren’t one for these things.”

“Maybe I’m interested at this time. I’ve never been around this place.”

He huffs, crossing his arms. “That’s never interested you before. What’s new now?”

“Have you ever seen buildings so tall?” Nora asked, twirling around. “Streets so vibrant? A noise so full of sound? Face it: Everywhere we’ve gone has been dead. This is something alive.”

Sebastian snorts. “Won’t be in a week.”

“If we succeed at our mission.”

“You’ve never been concerned about failure before.”

“No,” she says. “But you know who we’re dealing with. I dueled with him during his first few months at the Commission, and he was still difficult to take down. And Klaus isn’t too bad himself.”

“Since when have you said anything nice about Klaus?”

Nora shrugs. “He’s entertaining. Can’t all notions have experienced little position updates? See”—Nora makes an all-encompassing gesture—“I’ve changed my opinion. This world is interesting. I’m sure there’s something worth saving in him. If he just returns to the Commission—”

“People can’t just return to the Commission.”

“I know. If they leave, they’d better have a plan,” Nora responds. “But surely they could pull some strings. It’s Five. He’s one of the Handler’s favourites.”

Five pauses. One of? Last he knew, he had been her only favourite. What changed?

“The Handler isn’t in charge of the Commission, and she never will be. She can’t change everything, Nora,” Sebastian says with a hint of derision.

She whirls around, and Five can tell she’s struggling not to put a knife to his throat. “Say my name in that tone one more time, Sebastian. I dare you.”

Good. They’re fighting. Maybe he can use this. Maybe he can use their presence in general to his advantage. If he needs to, he can reach the Handler through them. Make some kind of exchange. But only as a last resort. If he never sees the Handler’s face again, he’ll be a happy man.

He realises too late that Nora’s gaze has flickered his way. He tries to act normal, but he can tell she’s spotted him. He really wishes he had a gun—or any weapon—but he’ll have to improvise if a fight breaks out.

But one doesn’t.

“See something?” That’s Sebastian, but Five is taking care not to look directly at them anymore.

Nora’s voice is light. “No. We should go check out that donut shop, and then we can regroup with the others before searching the mansion. They’re bound to be there.”

“You sure? Weren’t we going to—”

She scoffs. “They know who causes the apocalypse. There’s no way they aren’t tracking him down at the moment. Sooner we deal with them, the better.”

“If you say so,” he says, but he doesn’t sound like he’s following the spirit of “if you say so”. His voice is growing distant, though, so that’s good.

Five dares to glance their way. They’re walking away, heading towards the Academy.

He narrows his eyes at Nora’s retreating form. Did she just… intentionally give him information? Of all the people he would expect to help him, she’s the last in line.

With a sigh, he follows them. He may be walking into a trap. This is probably foolish. Still, he wants to hear what Nora has to say. And he probably can afford a detour.

A plan begins to form.

~~~

He slips into the alleyway next to the building where Nora and Sebastian are apparently staying. And then he waits.

It isn’t long until Nora appears, exiting the building through the back door.

“Knew you’d be here,” Nora says. “Now, I have until Sebastian finishes his shower before he notices I’m gone. So I’d suggest you spit it out.”

Five glances towards the building. “How many agents are you with?”

“Plenty. We’re supposed to track down and kill both you and Klaus.”

“Great!” He claps his hands together. “I want in.” It’s a tentative plan, but it’s what he has.

“You what?”

“Help me kill Klaus.”

Nora blinks. “Why would you turn on him?”

“I’ve recently discovered he’s been lying to me this entire time.” He puts his hands in his pockets. “Vengeance sounds very appealing at the moment.

“You just hid your hands. Your tone changed, too. Your body language definitely spiked.” He hates perceptive people. “That could be a coincidence. But I’m willing to bet it isn’t.”

“I—”

“Look, I don’t know what you want, exactly, but I know what I can bring to the table. I’m certain you do as well. So what do you want, pipsqueak?”

He’s two seconds from throttling her. He refrains, instead stating his request. It’s a simple deal, arranged in a moment.

They’ll protect each other. They’re at a truce. For now.

It’s more of a stalemate; they’re both stuck, trapped by their poor choices. And now they’re allied against a common enemy. The odds are completely against them, against Five. There’s nothing he can arrange that would efficiently turn the tides. No way to move his pieces, no way to change the game.

But Five is certain he’ll be the one to win.

End of Chapter 24

Link to AO3 | Link to Next Part

#my writing #fanfiction #five hargreeves #tw injury #tw police #tw kidnap mention

[krystalwinterswrites]

See You Again (At The Ending)

[Summary from AO3: Five accidentally jumps too far into the future, ending up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. God decides Klaus is a nuisance and kicks him out of the afterlife. These events are both years and seconds apart.]

[Short Description: Basically a "Klaus survives the apocalypse" AU, in which Five and Klaus spend years together through the apocalypse and the Commission, all while Five is trying to find the right equation to get back home and Klaus is trying to figure out why this time-traveling, space-jumping kid seems vaguely familiar.]

Part 4: See You Again

Beginning of Work | Previous Part

[Notes: This chapter has already been published on AO3. It also will make zero sense without context from original chapters.]

Chapter 23: A Normal Tuesday

So far, it has been a normal Tuesday. They’ve been told to assassinate Kennedy. Yay! Nothing out of the usual there. They’re going on a mission together to kill someone. That’s the way their life usually is.

But that’s about to change. Klaus was never happy with the status quo of killing, and now they’re going to go back to saving the world. He hasn’t tried that since he was thirty. And now he’s fifty-one.

The kid lingers in the Handler’s office a moment, talking to her alone. Gathering information on some master plan he thinks she has, though Klaus isn’t sure why he can’t be there while they’re discussing the matter. Once the kid is done, they set off immediately to go kill the president.

Which they don’t actually do. They go, they set up the gun, and then they open a wormhole through time.

Klaus flops down right in the middle of Daddy Dearest’s funeral. He has a pounding headache, and it’s worse than any of the other headaches from time travel. He’s also very dizzy; the world is spinning.

Shit, he thinks, rubbing at his eyes. They hurt at the slightest hint of light, and it only worsens his headache.

The scene around him gradually fades into view. His siblings are clamouring around him, full of worry and overwhelming questions. Although it’s Reginald’s funeral, none of them are crying. Instead, they’re all just standing there, like they were the first time.

What is surprising, however, is to see that he isn’t present, though he was warned of it. The others probably thought he was just out somewhere, fooling around like he used to do. But he had seen the kid’s broken expression, right before they left. He had listened to the kid explain that he had simply dealt with another variable: Klaus’ old body.

“Did you just fall from the sky?” Luther’s voice asks, incredulous.

Klaus vaguely remembers something about that. He mutters something about shutting up, but of course they don’t listen. Ever since leaving the Academy, none of them have been good at following instructions.

Someone asks some variation of “What happened?”

And Klaus has no idea how he’s supposed to answer that. The world ended. He met this strange kid and they lived with each other for two whole decades. He fought in Vietnam. He lost the love of his life. He killed a ton of people.

He made it back home.

“A lot,” he decides. “But at least we made it here.” He turns towards the kid. “Ri—?” But the kid isn’t there.

He squeezes his eyes shut, giving them a moment to refresh before opening them again.

The spot is still empty. He’s staring at a wall.

“Double shit.”

He can feel the others’ eyes on him, but he can’t force himself to turn away. After all this time… What had the kid said about possible results of incorrect time travel? Being lost in time? Losing a finger? Dying?

“Klaus!” Diego exclaims, sending a sharp pain through Klaus’ head and increasing his nausea tenfold.

Trying to stand, he repeats, “Shut up.” This time, it’s more forceful, as he’s finding a foothold in this new time.

“Oh, shit,” Allison says. “That’s a lot of blood.”

Blood? What? Klaus scans the area, but no one’s bleeding. Still, there’s an awfully familiar copper scent. He’s faced a lot of it over the past year and a half. He looks down at himself and his crimson-stained suit.

“Oh,” he says.

He promptly faints.

~~~

When he wakes up, it’s to the gentle beeping of the heart monitor. Grace is around, fidgeting with the medical kit. Barely fitting into the small room, his siblings are hovering with worry—including Ben. If Ben made it here safely, where is the kid?

“Klaus,” Diego says. “What happened, exactly?”

“I already said,” he responds. “A lot.”

“That explains nothing.”

Klaus struggles into an upright position. “It explains enough.”

“You were missing. For a month.”

“It’s been— It’s been a wild ride, Diego,” he says, placing both his hands on Diego’s shoulders for emphasis. One of them is bandaged, the white gauze wrapping around his palm.

Allison snorts. “You came back covered in blood, Klaus. You were missing an entire chunk of muscle in both your arm and thigh.”

“No wonder they feel funny.” This comment only further exasperates everyone in the room.

“You fell out of the sky. How’d you even get into the sky?”

“I can levitate?” he responds. Trying for a joke, he continues, “Wow. It’s like you guys know nothing about me.”

They all stare. It’s Luther who speaks, “Since when can you levitate?”

Oh, right. That had happened for the first time a couple months into a semblance of sobriety in Vietnam. He had figured out a lot about his powers, then, once he had started experimenting with them.

“Never mind that,” he dismisses. He’s not sure how much he wants to explain before finding the kid. “Viktor—”

Diego interrupts. “Never mind that? What do you mean?” His eyebrows are pinched in worry. “You’ve been missing for a month, and you show up covered in blood, falling out of the sky, wearing the most plain clothes I’ve ever seen you wear since leaving the academy. You even had a gun. I think you owe us a better explanation.”

He glares at Diego. “I was getting to that.” He’s a little concerned about the had a gun part. He needs his gun. They left the rifle behind, but Klaus has always carried a handgun with him for urgent situations.

“Well, get on with it then.”

Klaus turns to Viktor. He begins bluntly, “You end the w—” He cuts off at the sound of movement from the entryway. There’s a small clattering noise. “What was that?”

Ben leaves the room.

“Probably Pogo,” Luther says. Diego nods.

Allison adds, “He’s been working a lot since Dad died. Pogo—”

Returning with urgency, Ben corrects, “Not Pogo.”

“Well, who is it, then?” Klaus asks, cutting off Allison.

“Commission. Cha Cha and Hazel.”

Klaus pauses, staring at him. The dots take a moment to connect; his head still hurts.

“Triple shit,” he mutters. He really needs his gun. He had thought it would take longer for them to find him, but he supposes the Handler knows where he lives and can expect him to be there.

“We need to move,” Klaus says. “Viktor, stay behind. Allison, protect Viktor if it comes to it.”

Diego interrupts. “Klaus, what are you—”

“Diego, Luther, prepare for a fight,” Klaus instructs. “And where did you put my gun?”

Luther makes a face. “‘Your’ gun? Do you even know how to shoot that thing?”

“I could hit you in the forehead from several meters away,” he retorts. “Now, I need my gun. Do you have all your knives?”

Diego seems almost disappointed that Klaus had to ask.

“Your gun is in your room, with the rest of your things,” Grace informs him helpfully. “But you should not be fighting in your current state. You’ll hurt yourself.”

Klaus rolls his eyes, leaping out of bed. His leg aches—no doubt the muscle. And his head is still killing.

“Woah, buddy,” Diego says placatingly. “Luther and I can handle this. You’ve just been through surgery, and—”

“You and Luther can’t handle this alone. Don’t underestimate—”

“Over here. I hear something.” That’s Cha Cha.

Klaus shoves Diego aside. It doesn’t work. “Go, go, go,” he insists. And then Luther’s holding him back, stopping him. Stupid superstrength.

With a sigh, Diego peeks out of the room. A round of bullets sounds out, and Diego moves back to safety so quickly he probably catches whiplash. “They have guns.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Allison responds.

Diego looks outside again, throwing two knives. There are two distinctive thuds of the knives hitting their mark, nearly drowned out by the new gunfire.

“Does one of them have a briefcase?” Klaus asks. He knows Hazel doesn’t like carrying the case around. If they’ve left it in the house, that’s good, but they’ve probably stuck it in some hidden spot in the hotel. Like the vent.

“No. Why would they?”

Klaus is trying to think, form a reasonable plan, but he can’t function properly. His head is still killing, and they probably have him on some sort of drugs for the surgery.

“Change of plans,” he says. “Allison, Luther, and Diego are on offense. Do whatever you can to take them down. Viktor, you and I are going to grab my gun. If we can’t do anything else, we’re going on a field trip.” He can’t drive in this state, but he knows that Viktor can.

Viktor seems unsure. “Klaus—”

There’s another round of gunfire.

“Diego. Do what you can about the guns.”

At the same time, Cha Cha speaks again. “There are five of them.” Probably guessed from the directions, given as she didn’t mention Grace.

“Huh,” says Hazel. “I thought it was just Klaus and his kid.”

Allison turns to Klaus. “Your what?”

“Not the time,” Klaus responds. “Diego, the guns!”

Diego throws two more knives. This time, it’s a round of curses rather than gunfire.

“Hit their wrists. They may bleed out.”

Klaus doesn’t know how he feels about it. As much as Cha Cha and Hazel are trying to kill them right now, he knows they’re only following directions. He’s seen Hazel’s heart in the few moments they’ve interacted. And Cha Cha just wants to reach retirement.

He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do. Killing them would be meaningless; the Commission will send more if this doesn’t work. He should find a way to prolong Cha Cha and Hazel’s stay here. As annoying as they’ll be, it’s better than dealing with a large group of less skilled individuals.

Slowly, the room darkens as Hazel appears in the doorway. He’s missing his gun, and his wrist has already been hastily bandaged.

Luther throws the first punch, and then the chaos begins. Allison and Diego join the fray against Cha Cha and Hazel, and Klaus can barely force himself to focus on his own mission through his worry for his siblings. He grabs hold of Viktor’s wrist and flees, rushing them down the hallway at the quickest pace he can muster.

Awkwardly and without elegance, they stumble to Klaus’ room, Viktor supporting his weight fully by the end of it. They’re both out of breath, and Klaus feels like he’s going to lose his injured leg. But they’ve made it. That’s what matters.

True to Grace’s report, Klaus’ things are set neatly on his bed. His gun rests on the very top, and he sweeps it up without a second thought.

His aim will probably be shit if he uses it, though. He’s recently been through surgery, and he’s still under the effects of whatever drugs they probably gave him. His dominant hand has a cut through it, and he can see the bandages reddening.

“What are we supposed to do?” Viktor asks, voice edged in panic. “Ugh, I feel so helpless. I can’t do anything, can I?”

Klaus begins to answer, and then he sees the pill bottle. His mind blanks, his body acting on instinct as he rips Viktor’s anti-anxiety-slash-power-suppressant medication away.

“Hey!” Viktor protests. “Don’t—”

“Don’t take them.”

Viktor crosses his arms. “Why not?” He appears to be listening, albeit frustratedly.

“Because—”

Gunshots interrupt Klaus’ sentence.

“I really need them,” Viktor says. And of course he thinks that. There’s no reason he’d think otherwise. As far as he knows, they’re meant to help. Prescription pills to help him from worrying.

Prescription pills to keep him in place. “Just trust me,” Klaus says. “I’ll explain later, but for now—”

The gunfire rains again, loud and consistent. He knows Cha Cha and Hazel can probably use the guns so long as they’ve bandaged their wounds. Unlike Klaus, who’s drugged up on anesthetics or something of the like. Depressants.

“They went this way!” Cha Cha calls, and her voice echoes down the hallway.

Klaus winces. This is not going to be pretty. “Stay here,” he mutters, moving towards the door.

“But—”

He clicks the safety off his gun, flings open the door, spies Cha Cha, and fires.

Misses.

Fires again.

There’s a hiss of pain as Klaus retreats.

Viktor is staring at him like he’s some kind of alien. “Did you…?”

“Hit her, yeah.” There are footsteps. “Just not accurately enough.” He’s bracing himself to aim again, trying to make sure his vision isn’t messed up, when there’s a thud. Luther, he guesses, fighting Cha Cha.

He hopes Allison and Diego are doing well. Hazel isn’t the most dangerous opponent, but he can be a pain. And he’ll do what it takes to follow Commission orders.

Once Luther has flung Cha Cha across the hall with his superstrength, it’s not too long until she and Hazel make their exit, leaving the house as a wreck in the process.

The family regroups to assess the damage. Viktor is uninjured. Allison is mostly exhausted and bruised—nothing too major. Luther is in the same boat.

Diego has been shot. It’s only a graze, and it’s luckily their worst injury. Other than Klaus, who has reopened his wounds. If the kid were here, he would be laughing.

It’s when he’s in the bathroom afterwards, with Allison treating his wounds, that he finally realises.

“Quadruple shit.” He raises his hand to touch his awfully young face. Clearly, he’s regressed. Right back to the age he’s supposed to be at this time, he guesses. “I’m thirty again.”

Allison looks at him with confusion. “Thirty?”

“Thirty years old,” he answers absently.

“You’re 29,” she corrects. “Like you’ve been for the past few months?”

Klaus groans. This is going to be a lot to explain.

“Seriously, what is going on with you? We’re all worried, and—”

“Family meeting!” he declares. He’s not sure how familiar they are with the concept of getting together as a family, but he figures they’re all still around the house. It won’t be too hard to gather them together.

It really isn’t, in the end. They all gather around in the sitting area, waiting expectantly for Klaus to condense the last twenty years of his life into a clear and concise lecture.

Klaus is good at neither clear nor concise.

“So.” He clears his throat, not sure how to continue.

He’s never exactly had a problem with being the centre of attention. There had been a point in his life where he would have tried his hardest be the most noticeable person in the room.

But now, standing before his family, it feels like he’s on trial for the crime of keeping secrets. Even Grace and Pogo are there.

Their eyes are all fixed on him, unmoving. Diego is flipping one of his knives like he normally does when he’s bored. Allison taps her fingers against the counter, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay,” Klaus says, sweeping his gaze over all of them. Where to even start?

His gaze lands on Viktor, who is sitting quietly, drowning in a light blue shirt he changed into after the fight.

“The medication.”

Viktor nods for him to continue.

“They’re suppressants.”

“They’re anti-anxiety meds.”

Klaus sighs. “It’s a mind-altering medication made to keep your emotions in check,” he explains, “so that you don’t accidentally use your powers.”

The rooms goes still. It’s an odd picture where everyone’s looking a different way, their focus scattered and movements clearly mapped out yet frozen into some kind of baroque painting.

Luther breaks the scene. “But… Viktor doesn’t have powers. Otherwise, he would’ve been part of the academy.”

Klaus smiles exaggeratedly. He’s about three sentences into actually explaining and one moment from snapping. “How many times has Dad lied to us?”

“He has a point,” Diego says, pointing his knife at Klaus. This is why Diego is Klaus’ favourite sibling.

“But he wouldn’t lie about something like that,” Luther objects. “Something so major… There’s no way he would hide that. Right, Allison?”

She seems distracted, like her mind has been wandering. “Right…” Maybe she’s recalling the time she used her powers on Viktor. A time she had told them all about the first time around.

Viktor speaks next. “Yeah, Klaus. You’re— This doesn’t make any sense. Why would I have powers? I’m just… ordinary.”

“There’s no way Viktor would have powers this entire time and not tell any of us,” Luther says. His eyes flicker to Pogo, who has been rightfully silent, for a moment.

Klaus sighs. He’s zero seconds from losing his composure.

“I heard a rumour you’re ordinary!” he blurts out. “Should sound awfully familiar to two people in this room.” He looks pointedly at Pogo, who appears outwardly undisturbed, and then at Allison, who pales.

Allison starts, “I—”

“No need to justify yourself just yet,” Klaus intervenes. “Dad talked you into it or something. Whatever.” He’s being too dismissive, but he has a lot to get out and not much time for it. “According to my previous experience, the world ends in eight days.” He had snuck a look at the calendar earlier. March 24th.

Diego laughs. “The world ends on April Fools’ Day?”

Klaus nods. “Yeah. And Viktor ends it.”

“What?” Viktor asks, springing to his feet in disbelief. “I wouldn’t— How do you even know that?”

“Because I’ve lived it,” he answers plainly. It’s such a simple sentence to explain away decades of hardship. Years of traveling around, famished and dehydrated. Standing in the blistering heat with no shelter or air conditioning. Shivering out in the snow with a fire running, sitting next to the kid, who would be writing in Viktor’s book, hoping they’ll just make it to tomorrow.

“If you’ve gone through the end of the world,” Allison says, “how are you here? How are you alive?”

Diego interjects, “Groundhog day?”

“Not exactly,” Klaus says. “More like… I’m immortal.”

“I find that very hard to believe.”

He huffs. “Give me a gun and I’ll show you.” It’s an empty statement. He already has a gun, and he’s not going to use it. Dying is painful enough, and he doesn’t want to relive it again.

“Let’s not be drastic,” Luther says, clearly trying to diffuse the argument.

Klaus accepts this, moving on. “Anyway. I’ve made it back here thanks to a friend I made in the apocalypse. Time travel, and all.”

“Is that who you were trying to talk to when you first appeared?” Diego responds. Klaus can barely remember showing up, ut he can remember the raw terror at realising the kid was not by his side.

“Yeah,” he answers. “Something went wrong with the time travel. I guess I got hurt in the process, and now the kid’s missing.”

“The kid?”

Klaus hesitates. “Earlier, Hazel mentioned—”

“Hazel?” It’s Viktor this time.

“The guy that invaded. Anyway, he said—”

Luther interrupts, “Wait, you know those people?”

Klaus takes in a deep breath in place of a frustrated scream. “Can I get one sentence out? Just one?”

The room falls quiet.

“The kid Hazel mentioned was that same friend I made in the apocalypse,” he explains. He waits a moment to be cut off before going on, “He has some kind of teleportation powers. Time travel. He messed up and ended up in the apocalypse.”

“Why’d they call him your kid?” Allison asks. “How old is he?”

Klaus shrugs. “Don’t know why they call him that. I never asked his name, and I’ve just called him ‘kid’ the entire time.” It feels ridiculous, now, to say it aloud. “He already knew me somehow when we met, so I felt awkward to question it. He was thirteen when I met him. So he’s… thirty-four, now. Maybe.” He doesn’t know how long the kid spent with the Commission in comparison to him.

“You made friends with a… thirteen-year-old… who can time travel,” she says. “In the apocalypse.”

“Wait, he’s thirty-four now? How old are you?” Diego asks.

Klaus smiles. “Fifty.”

The room goes still.

“Something went wrong in the time travel,” he repeats. “My body has regressed. My mind hasn’t.”

“How long… Was that all in the apocalypse?” Viktor asks. “Did I really end the world?”

“You did, and it wasn’t all in the apocalypse. Just two decades of it,” Klaus says. “I spent a year in Vietnam carrying out order from the Commission in order to preserve the ‘right’ progression of events within the timeline.”

He talks about the Handler, about Cha Cha and Hazel. Explains that they’re after him because he broke his contract and is trying to change the timeline. Mentions how, until they’ve saved the world, the Commission will follow him, and he’s not even sure they’ll stop them.

They may have to dismantle the entire Commission.

By the end of it, his siblings are staring at him blankly. It seems like they’re only partially grasping the concept. Pogo has taken his leave, no doubt not wanting to explain the whole Viktor situation.

“Why did I end the world the first time?” Viktor circles back to the topic. Klaus can’t blame him. Learning you caused the demise of everyone you’ve ever loved—minus one, assuming he loves Klaus—can’t feel good.

If Klaus ended the world…

He could barely imagine killing Dad. Or Luther. But hurting Allison? Viktor? Diego? The kid? It would tear him apart.

No, Klaus can’t blame him for panicking. But he needs them all to listen.

“You were gaslighted and manipulated into it,” Klaus responds.

Viktor’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Who would do that?”

Luckily, he shouldn’t have met him by now.

“His name is Leonard Peabody.”

“No,” Viktor says in disbelief as Allison gasps.

Luther says, “Isn’t that Viktor’s boyfriend?”

Klaus blanks. “That’s… not supposed to…”

“What do you mean?” Viktor asks. “Leonard would never. I can’t believe you would—”

“You’re not even supposed to have met yet. What’s different this time?” Klaus looks around the room, as if that will give him answers, but everything is in the same state as it was before the previous apocalypse.

Viktor crosses his arms. “Well, maybe the old Leonard was manipulative, but this one isn’t.” Of course he would defend his boyfriend. It’s only natural to protect loved ones, even if they’re huge sacks of shit. “And if that’s all, I’m leaving.”

“It isn’t all,” Klaus says before he can leave. “Things are different. I’ve caught you up on the past few years of my life. I’ll need your input on things that may be different here.”

Luther is the first to speak. “I was on the moon for four—”

“—years?” When Luther nods, Klaus says, “Nothing different there.” That’s about the sum of Luther’s life.

“I’m a vigilante.”

“Yep. I knew that.”

“I’m an actor.”

Klaus tilts his head. “No divorce?”

By the way she flinches, he already knows the answer.

“When did Ben die?”

This time, everyone flinches.

“2006,” Diego mumbles.

Klaus glances over at Ben, who’s been hovering in the background for a while. He already knows that this version of Ben is the one who’s spent time in the apocalypse with him.

“I’ve been gone for a month,” Klaus says, “and Viktor is already dating Leonard.”

“So that’s good, if that’s all that changed, right?” Diego asks. “Preserving the timeline?”

Klaus shakes his head. “The kid and I are aiming to change the timeline. If we don’t, the world ends.”

“So why not just keep me on my medication?” Viktor asks. “If I’m going to end the world, then we can take away my ability to.”

“It’s not that simple. One day or another, something is going to happen to mess things up. However!” He grins, clapping his hands together. “I can train your powers. And we’ll have nothing to worry about! Problem solved.”

Viktor still doesn’t seem keen on the idea.

“We’ll give it a shot,” Klaus says. “And if it goes wrong, you’ll go back on your meds until we find a better way to fix things. Deal?”

“Fine,” he agrees. “Deal.”

That’s one problem down.

End of Chapter 23.

Link to AO3 | Link to Next Part (to be added)

#fanfiction #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves #my writing #tw medication #tw violence

[krystalwinterswrites]

Future Plans

For transparency's and information's sakes or whatever, I'm making a post about future plans. Keep reading is here so this is easier to just ignore.

Here are my short-term plans for my writings on this blog:

1 post daily from the queue for the current WIP fanfiction I'm writing on AO3. This will include the entirety of the text for that chapter along with a link to the work on AO3, where to find the work here, and where to find the previous part

(Maybe) 1 post of other writing, such as a short prompt response or some very short fic I had in mind

Here are my long-term plans:

Set up the queue for my own original works so that one chapter or one small work posts from that.

Any non-writing thing will not be from the queue, except for this. Non-writing things will be major announcements normally. Smaller announcements are confined to my other blog @krystalalinawinters. General plans for the future, along with other updates, will be in the Future Plans tab on this blog.

#queue

[krystalwinterswrites]

Title Page/Pinned Post

Hello, everyone! This is Krys from @krystalalinawinters. This is just my writing blog!

If you have any advice, comments, concerns, information, etc. to share with me, you can either message @krystalalinawinters or place them in the comments underneath this post. This goes for pointing out typos, giving me writing tips, and screaming into the void.

For prompts, please check the guidelines before submitting anything, and then submit your prompt through the ask box or the comment section of one of my fics on AO3 that's somehow related to the prompt.

My AO3: KrystalWintersWrites

Links to all KrystalWintersWrites tumblr pages: Pages

#pinned post #intro

[krystalwinterswrites]

Reblogging so that people know they're at the right blog!

It's still Krys! This is just my writing blog :)

Hello, dear AO3 readers,

This is Krys! (krystalwinterswrites on AO3).

I'm in the process of migrating my works over to tumblr for people who are looking for something to read in these trying times. I'll keep these works on the tumblr site permanently after this.

I've only written for Six of Crows and The Umbrella Academy so far, and they aren't masterpieces. But they'll be available for reading, probably within the hour.

I'll post a link when they're done.

Sincerely,

Krys

#reblog