Prologue

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer sought to locate and adopt as many of the 43 children born from the most unusual of circumstances.

He adopted eight of them.

However, as time flew by that number shrunk down to seven. Then down to six. And then down to five. Two disappeared, and one died. The tragedies were buried deep within the remaining five who eventually left the academy to pursue their own careers and lives; except for Luther, Number One, who remained with Reginald trying to keep the hope in the disbanded team alive.

They all knew of Bens death, Number 6. Five… well, he ran away from what they could understand so it was impossible to know where he was or whether he was alive.

Similarly, Levi Hargreeves, Number Eight, was lost in location as well. It happened roughly the same year as Five's dissapearance. However, the children had fuzzier memories of Levi since he hadn't been privileged with having anything to commemorate him like Five and Ben had been, and they were all still so young when he vanished. Twelve years old to be exact, borderline turning thirteen. Levi had been the first to go, and Reginald had gone white with fury when informed of his disappearance. The remaining children hadn't been allowed their Saturdays to be free from training for a whole year after that.

After all, it was partly their fault that Levi went missing seventeen years ago.

"Well, since we're out here we could play hide and seek." Luther declared, watching Allison prance ahead of the group with fond eyes.

"Hide and seek?" Klaus all but snorted in amusement at the proposal.

"Not a bad idea. Means if dad comes after us, we'll all be hiding." Allison's dress twirled around her knees as she swirled around with a bright smile, Luther watching her with fond eyes.

They had all decided to dress in casual clothes today, after all they weren't supposed to have left the mansion grounds without supervision. But the twelve-year-old superheroes had decided they were old enough and powerful enough to go out by themselves now. So casual clothes would help them to blend in better. They were only really breaking the rules because Levi had insisted so considering he was technically grounded by their dad for skipping training. Levi was known in the household for being a little...rebellious at times.

Luther nodded gratefully to Allison but frowned "We're not hiding from him if he comes after us. We're already breaking enough rules so-"

"Lighten up, we never do this kind of thing." Diego groaned at Luther's oncoming lecture about rule breaking. "Consider this… our official day off."

Ben anxiously tapped his fingers together gazing around the fairly quiet park that had some children running around being idly watched by their parents who sat to the side on benches talking amongst each other. "Are you sure we're safe?"

"Of course we are. We're the umbrella academy." Diego declared, puffing out his chest.

"It's only the park, Ben." Allison added.

"The park isn't the problem. Dads going to be so angry about us sneaking out like this." Luther muttered with doubt.

That made the smallest of their group pipe up "Aw come on Luth, don't be a spoil sport! Can't we just be normal kids for a day?" Levi asked with mischievous eyes that managed to extinguish the doubt in Luther's mind within seconds, replacing it with a growing giddiness.

Klaus put on puppy eyes to Luther "Yeah, you're being the spoiliest of sports right now."

Allison caught onto the act and leaned forwards towards Luther "Come on, just for a little bit, please?" she begged softly.

"Alright fine we can stay. Only three hours though!" Luther decided for them. Most decisions were 'made' by Luther given that he was number one. However, the team had learnt that certain individuals were able to sway his decisions a little bit. "And all of you have to do the explaining if we get caught."

The group whooped in delight and Vanya cocked her head to the side "Should we have rules? Like… you guys can't use your powers?" she suggested meekly and blushed when all eyes landed on her. "I mean… you said you wanted to be normal kids…"

Levi gaped for a moment before nodding "Yep, no powers. V is right. It's only fair."

"Aw shucks I was gonna call a dead guy to come help me choose a spot." Klaus retorted sarcastically.

"Alright, no powers. No teleporting, no rumours, and no shapeshifting." Luther glared at the white-haired boy in particular.

Levi put on a cheeky grin and placed a hand over his heart "I would never break my own rules!"

Diego snickered at Levi and shoved him before bolting ahead towards the swings in the centre of the park "Last one to the swings is the seeker!" he announced.

"Hey! Cheater!" Came Levi's voice from behind as the other children raced towards the swings, Five teleporting there and resting against the pole with a look of boredom. Levi wasn't a natural athlete, and after being shoved to the ground by Diego he found himself predictably reaching the swing set last to face the smug faces of his team-mates. "You all cheated."

"Technically only Diego cheated." Allison countered.

Diego rose his hands in the air "No idea what you're talking about."

Vanya took pity on him "I don't mind being it if you want."

Levi's scowl softened and he sighed and shook his head "Fine you've all got thirty seconds before I come find you." He said moodily, crossing his arms and glaring at the dirt.

Klaus, finding it highly amusing that their prankster of the group had to be the seeker, poked Levi's arm playfully "You're supposed to cover your eyes."

Exasperatedly Levi slowly rose his arm over his eyes "One, two, three-"

All the children squealed and scattered in several directions to go find their hiding places. Allison went and hid among a cluster of flowers, her yellow dress allowing her to blend in with the rows and rows of daffodils if she led down. Vanya took to hiding with Klaus behind the park wall, not really concealed very well. Ben panicked when everybody ran and tip-toed his way around the seeker into the park activities to crawl into the kids' tunnel and lie there, instantly regretting his decision but having no time to move. Five ignored the no powers rule, teleporting straight to the top of the Oaktree in the centre of the park and pulling out his notebook to continue the maths equation he'd been working on. Luther and Diego had similar ideas to hide in the treeline of the park which Diego found infuriating and demanded Luther left to find another spot, but the blonde refused and it resulted in an argument that was only halted by Levi's loud shout.

"Ready or not, here I come!"

And so they all held their breaths and waited…

And waited…

And waited.

Until eventually at least an hour and a half had passed by and they were all growing increasingly impatient, feeling cramped and bored. Klaus and Vanya had started coming to the conclusion that Levi was pulling a prank on them and was just waiting for them to show themselves. Diego and Luther had similar ideas. All of them were too stubborn to be the first to give in.

An hour and a half passed and the sunshine from earlier had disappeared, grey clouds forming that gradually began sprinkling rain.

Ben was the first of them to cave, wriggling out from the playground tube and scanning the area for his siblings. None of them were in sight. To Ben this instantly made him nervous, feeling alone in the park which seemed emptier than it had before.

"Guys?" he called out, wandering out onto the grass and doing a 360 turn on his heels. "If you all ditched me again…"

"Calm down Ben." Diego's voice rang as he emerged from the treeline with Luther following him, both of their expressions sour from being crouched besides each other for well over an hour. "I refuse to spend another second alone with him."

"The feeling is mutual." Luther grumbled.

Allison came into sight raising her arms in a W shape, her hair drenched "It's been hours. Did you guys get found? I'm bored."

Five teleported down beside her, stuffing his notebook into his pocket and staring at his watch "One and a half hours to be exact."

"I'm bored too, let's do something else." Luther proposed.

"In case you didn't realise people are still hiding." Diego huffed and cupped his mouth "Klaus! Vanya! Levi!" he shouted.

Klaus head popped up over the wall "Did we win!?" he asked hopefully, Vanya's head popping up next to his.

Ben shook his head "So nobody got found. Where's Levi?"

Klaus furrowed his eyebrows, having hopped the wall and joined the group with Vanya. "Levi's missing?" he asked, worry seeping into his voice. "Levi!" he then shouted, turning frantically to search over the park.

"Levi! Come out! We're the ones hiding not you!" Ben called as well.

"Levi!?" Allison joined in.

"Hold on." Luther ordered, sensing the growing panic and holding up his hands to calm the team. "Let's just take a moment. He's probably just trying to fool us; you know what he's like."

Allison nibbled on her bottom lip then said, "But it's been hours."

"Did anybody see him whilst they were hiding?" Diego asked them and they all shook their heads. "Maybe he is fooling us. He could be anybody in this park right now for all we know."

"Or he could be in trouble." Vanya said quietly.

Luther glared "Not helping."

"I saw him." Five announced dully, straining his forehead to think "I was up in the old Oaktree and glanced down for a second, I saw him heading towards the entrance, I think. I didn't see him after that, but I was busy doing equations."

Klaus shook his head "you're the only weirdo I know who does maths for fun."

Allison sighed "So he went back home?"

"Maybe. Why would he leave alone?" Diego asked in confusion, "and without telling us." He added.

Luther growled and faced the park again, looking at each person in it. There were only a few adults who were gathering two remaining children from the playground to leave due to the rain. "Levi if you're here this isn't funny!" he called out.

"Luther, what do we do?" Allison asked anxiously.

"I…" Luther thought deeply for a moment. "We search the park quickly for him just in case, then we return home. He's probably at home right now laughing at us."

Klaus stared at the people and pointed "Should we ask if they've seen him?"

"Just search the park." Luther ordered sharply and they all nodded and split up again.

Minutes later they had scoured every inch of the park, having no luck finding the shapeshifter. Annoyingly, Levi could just be blended in with his surroundings watching them all run around panicking. But Levi wouldn't do that, this prank was a bit far-fetched and they all deep down knew that. However, it was easier for them to tell themselves that Levi had gone home intending on pranking them rather than search for darker alternative explanations.

So they returned home, not one of them speaking and a certain urgency to their pace. Once they arrived home their mom greeted them with a warm smile.

"Well hello Darlings, where ever have you all been this morning? You drove Pogo into a fit of worry." She told them with a sweet smile, leading them straight into the kitchen and picking up a plate "I prepared cookies for your return."

"Thanks Mom." Diego nodded but none of them took a cookie. "Is Levi back?" he inquired, trying to keep his tone neutral.

Their mom kept her smile, but it strained as her eyes began darting over each of them doing a mental head count. "Nobody has entered the house today except you children. I thought he came back with you dears?" She asked them, the cookie plate being put down, hitting the table slightly too hard showing Grace's rising tension.

All seven children paled.

None of them had ever seen their dad so angry. When the news reached him that Number Eight was missing he was shaking with fury and jumped up from his desk, papers scattering everywhere. There was no time for them to have a lecture about sneaking out, Reginald was already sprinting down the stairs and out the front door with the phone, Grace and Pogo following. The children all sat on the stairs and waited once again, having been forbidden to accompany the search.

Nightfall came before their father returned. They were all still sat stiffly on the stairs when the front door opened, Reginald waltzing in with his cane in hand, drenched from the rain and glaring at them. Grace and Pogo sadly trailed inside and avoided the children's panicked stares when Levi didn't come bouncing into the room laughing.

The way Reginald had yelled at them that evening... none of them ever wanted to relive it.

News got out faster than expected; a boy from the umbrella academy was missing. The public had always liked Levi, they would spray paint their hair white to be like his, children liked him because he'd pull funny faces by shifting his features into animal ones behind Reginald's back as he spoke to the reporters. That had always gotten him in trouble. So, when they learnt it was Levi missing the search for him was massive. Millions upon millions was donated to find out where he went, shockingly enough mostly funded by Reginald himself who would stay up later in his office than before. Pogo suspected he was trying to find the young shapeshifter.

That was the problem, Levi was a shapeshifter. If he wanted to stay hidden, he could stay hidden by turning into somebody completely different.

The only clue they ever received about where Levi went came to them a few weeks later. Somebody had claimed that they had allegedly seen a boy being carried away by an older man a few blocks away from the park. Allegedly this boy had white hair. But there was no valid proof or suitable description of the man or whether it had actually been Levi.

Which of course reached them all like a bucket of ice-cold water being dumped over their heads. It meant Levi potentially hadn't run away, hadn't had an accident, hadn't been pulling a really elaborate prank on them. It meant he'd potentially been kidnapped. It meant that they weren't the almighty, untouchable Umbrella Academy they originally thought they were. It flooded the children with the guilt of not realising sooner that Levi had potentially been in real danger whilst they were all too stubborn to swallow their pride and leave their hiding spots. Of course that clue fizzled into a dry lead eventually and they were forced to go back to the drawing board.

Then one day all that searching stopped. One day Levi Hargreeves no longer mattered to Reginald no matter how determined the children were to find him.

However, years passed by and Levi Hargreaves was never found. After Ben died, the team barley held themselves together for much longer, disbanding the second they all turned eighteen and not looking back.

EXTRA ORDINARY, My Life as Number 7, by Vanya Hargreeves

CHAPTER 2 – Levi, Number 8 (Mimic)

There was a time that we were all actually connected, once upon a time that is. But that seems like a lifetime ago. I used to tell myself our first loss was what really separated us, but now I realise it was our first loss that made us grow up faster than we were supposed to. Number Eight our father would call him, to the public he became known as Mimic, but I knew him as Levi Hargreeves. To this day he is still lost to us.

My brother always was an enigma despite his charismatic ways, even before he disappeared. His power ensured he was never who he truly was, correction, our fathers' manipulation of his power made him so that he could never be who he truly was. He could turn into the president, a carbon copy of one of us, he could even adopt animalistic features if he chose to. I used to call his shapeshifting ability his 'mask' that he used, especially when trying to control his emotions.

But he always had a playful persona, a way of making us all feel like we really were just kids not superhero soldiers in the making. Likewise, I might have been ordinary, but Levi never treated me like I was. The only memories I have of him are childish ones, games, pranks and mischief that would drive our father up the wall. He was… the glue that kept us together in my opinion. The unofficial little brother of the group. It was probably the same childish behaviour that led to his disappearance; after all it was only a game of hide and seek we were trying to play. His idea originally to leave the house and go to the park. Another attempt to act like we were just like all the other twelve-year olds out there.

We never were just like all the other twelve-year olds though, were we? Twelve-year olds don't fight crime and have super powers.

Levi tried dragging us back down to normalcy, unaware that he was really dragging us to his disappearance. We hid for hours, waiting for him to find us when we should have been searching for him. A horrible twist of fate. Maybe if we had listened to Luther and stayed at home… or if Luther hadn't of suggested we play hide and seek… or if Diego didn't shove Levi down so he lost the deciding race on who had to be the seeker…maybe he would still be with us today.

We were just kids. We thought he was pulling another prank on us at first. How could we have imagined that one of the mighty Umbrella Academy's members had been potentially taken from us or hurt? After all, it wasn't uncommon for him to pull pranks on us. Never malicious or at this extent, but perhaps Levi was living his own 'the boy who cried wolf' moment. It was only our mothers worry when we returned home one number short that we realised he really wasn't playing a prank. The few days later he was officially marked as a missing person, and our lives changed.

I wish I could write about what happened to him. Did he run away? Get taken? Hit by a car? We never found out. I can only tell the stories of what happened before that day. Not that our father cared for long that one of us was missing. Levi didn't get a statue or a painting like Ben and Five did. In fact, every photo of him was erased from the house. It was like… our father was taking the memories we had left of him away. Our father forbade us from saying his name, forbade us from continuing our search for him, and forbade us from even thinking about him anymore.

Eventually Number Eight, Mimic, and Levi Hargreeves only existed in our minds.

AN: Hi! Welcome to the story!

Clearing a few things up before we start and if you want to go further lol, firstly Levi is PROBABLY going to be paired with Klaus. PROBABLY. Just a disclaimer for that, and that Levi's backstory is probably going to be quite dark (COUGH spoilers but i feel like i need to put a warning for that) but i'll try keep it as lighthearted as i can (Considering this is one heck of a dysfunctional lot...might be difficult!)

Anyway i hope you enjoy! Next chapter will start following the TV show.