2

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."

"Reagan?"

Diego's voice was what yanked her from the dream. She inhaled sharply as she turned to face him, but she knew better than to expect him to have seen what she just did. Her abilities were a curse she had always been forced to bear alone. This time was no different.

"You okay?" Diego asked.

Reagan bobbed her head as she gave the rest of the courtyard a quick glance. Everyone left except Diego and Five, who was standing by the door leading into the house. She tried to keep her expression neutral when her now-younger brother met her gaze. It wasn't difficult to figure out that it was his daydream she was forced into. A part of her wanted to try to believe that it was just that: a daydream. But she knew better.

No sane person would ever dream up the end of the world.

Diego stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Five, and put a hand on her shoulder. "You sure, Reg?"

She pushed his hand off her shoulder and gave him a smirk. "Don't call me that."

Reagan moved past Diego, striding toward the door where Five was still waiting. He flashed a smile and pulled open the door. She leaned over slightly, lowering her voice as she walked by him.

"We need to talk," she told him before continuing inside without a second look back. If her assumptions were right and it really was the apocalypse that was now staring them in the face, she sure as hell wasn't going to let her brother handle it on his own.

"What's the date?" Five asked as he went to get some bread off one of the shelves in the kitchen. "The exact date."

"The 24th," Vanya answered.

"Of what?"

"March."

Five paused for a second, which only Reagan seemed to catch. "Good."

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked, keeping his attention locked onto their brother. When Five didn't answer, he stood from his seat to tower over him. "It's been 17 years."

Five didn't flinch at Luther's attempt to be intimidating, though. He only scoffed as he stepped closer to him. "It's been a lot longer than that."

Reagan chuckled to herself when he teleported through Luther to the stool by the stove.

Luther sighed. "I haven't missed that."

"Where did you go?" Diego asked.

"The future," Five said. Once he grabbed the marshmallows off the high shelf, he jumped back to the table and continued making his sandwich. "It's shit by the way."

"Called it!" Klaus exclaimed, throwing a hand up.

Five looked over to where Reagan was sitting on the long table pushed against the wall, apart from the rest of her siblings. He watched her for a moment, as if waiting for her to say something, but when all she would give him was a faint tilt of her head, he turned back to his food.

Reagan leaned back against the wall behind her as the conversation between her siblings went on. She still remembered the last fight Five had with their dad, so hearing him admit the man was right about the whole time travel thing made her do a double take. Out of all her siblings, Five started out as the most defiant before the title went to Klaus. She never expected to see him this…levelheaded.

"Nice dress," Five said after looking up at Klaus.

"Oh, well, danke."

Vanya shook her head as she gestured at their brother. "Wait, how did you get back?"

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time," Five explained. Reagan didn't even try to understand half of what he'd said.

"That doesn't make any sense," Diego mumbled.

"Well, it would if you were smarter," Five said without pause. Diego launched himself up from his chair, but Luther stuck out his arm to block him before he could tackle the kid.

"How long were you there?"

"Forty-five years. Give or take."

Reagan had been trying to keep her distance for most of the conversation in hopes of avoiding accidentally revealing what she'd discovered, but she couldn't mask the shock from hearing that her brother had been stuck in the future for forty-five years. Diego and Luther sat back into their seats, unable to take their eyes off Five just like the rest of them.

"So, what are you saying? That you're 58?" Luther asked.

Five smiled sarcastically as he looked up from his meal. "No, my consciousness is 58. Apparently my body is now 13 again."

Vanya shook her head. "Wait, how does that even work?"

"Dolores kept saying the equations were off," Five said as he turned his back to them. "Eh, I bet she's laughing now."

"Dolores?"

Without answering Vanya, Five picked up the newspaper sitting on the table beside the cutting board. "Hm, guess I missed the funeral."

"How'd you know about that?" Luther asked, earning an eyeroll from Reagan.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Five said before she could. "Heart failure, huh?"

"Yeah," Diego confirmed.

"No," Luther countered.

"Nice to see nothing's changed," Five said before walking out of the room.

Allison turned. "That's it? That's all you have to say?"

"What else is there to say? The circle of life."

Reagan managed to wait a few moments before following her brother out of the basement. The rest of her siblings were still trying to process everything they'd just learned, but Reagan had a bigger issue on her mind.

She found him in his room, but his door was already shut so she knocked twice. "It's Reagan."

A few seconds later the door swung open and she couldn't help but laugh at what her brother had opted to change into. The Umbrella Academy uniform was probably the only thing he could find in his closet, but that didn't stop her from imagining how hard it was for him to put it on again after all these years.

"Love the suit," Reagan joked. Five rolled his eyes and moved aside so she could walk into his room. Once inside, he closed the door behind her.

"What did you need to talk about?" Five asked as he faced her.

"You know what."

He shook his head. "No, I really don't."

Reagan tilted her head as her eyes narrowed, silently daring him to continue his ruse. When he didn't budge, she shut her eyes and brought his dream back to the forefront of her mind. With a sigh she imagined putting it into a ball and pushing it out of her head. It was an exercise that her father came up with to help her train when she was young, but it was still just as effective.

Opening her eyes, she looked around the room to see that she was standing in the middle of the same destroyed street she saw earlier. She turned her attention back to her brother and watched his expression as he surveyed the dream-like illusion she was showing him. He sighed as his gaze met hers.

"So, you really did see it," Five said. Reagan didn't answer, knowing full well that showing him his own dream would be enough. Shaking his head, Five's shoulders slumped. "I imagined my return for years. I went over every detail and problem that I could think of, but somehow…I didn't account for this."

"What?"

Five gave a half-hearted shrug. "Your help."

"You know, as fun as it was watching you and Luther finally go at it, couldn't you have waited until after the memorial?"

Diego chuckled to himself and shook his head. "What happened to you stopping us?"

"What happened to you not being a royal pain in the ass?"

"I'll take a day off tomorrow," Diego said, smiling up at her. "Pinky promise."

"Well, I'll believe it when I see it," Reagan said. She strolled into his room and sat down beside him on the bed. Resting her head on his shoulder, she sighed. "Was it a mistake to come back?"

"For you or for me?"

"Both of us," Reagan paused as she grabbed his hand, "we come as a matching set, remember?"

Diego leaned his head against hers. "Well, it might not have been the smartest choice, but it definitely wasn't the wrong one. I mean, we got our brother back after all this time. Isn't that something to celebrate?"

"Yeah," Reagan said. She shut her eyes and tried to keep her mind off all the extra issues that arrived alongside Five.

"Do you still think about him? Ben?"

Reagan swallowed hard and lifted her head from Diego's shoulder. While a part of her was happy for the distraction from the looming apocalypse, she wasn't so sure talking about their dead brother was much better.

"It's hard not to, being in this house again. His pictures are all over the place and there are memories tucked into every corner," Reagan told him.

"And seeing him whenever our addict brother summons him from the dead definitely doesn't help any either,"is what she didn't tell him.

"Do you think if you were there that day that you could have saved him?"

Reagan laughed mirthlessly as she stood from the bed and faced her brother. "Why the fuck are you bringing this up again, Diego?"

Running a hand over one of the knives strapped to his leg, he shrugged. "I don't know. I just—with Five b—be—being h—"

Reagan sighed when she realized that he was having trouble speaking again. After years of practice with her and mom, he'd nearly gotten rid of his stutter completely, but it still came back whenever he was stressed.

She dropped to her knees in front of him and took his hands in hers. She smiled sincerely at him. "Remember what mom always said. Picture the words."

Reagan read the thoughts that popped up above his head and pushed them out of her mind so he could see them like she'd done with Five earlier. Diego's eyes skimmed the air above her head as he opened his mouth. "With Five being here… it just brings it all back."

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she thought about what he asked her. It was the same thing that she'd asked herself a million times before. She could lie to him, but he wasn't just her brother. As sad as it was, he was her best friend. If she couldn't say this to him, then who could she say it to?

"I don't know if me being there would've stopped Ben from dying that day… or if it would've gotten me killed, too," Reagan said, "but it doesn't matter either way. I can't go back to change it, and even if I could I'm not sure I would. The only reason that I wasn't there that day was because I got shot saving Luther. As much as I loved Ben, I could never be the one to decide whether or not his life was more important than Luther's."

"So, where does that leave you?"

Reagan bit her lip, lifting her shoulder in a half-shrug. "Forever missing the brother that I couldn't save."

Hugging her arms over her chest, Reagan nuzzled her face against the fabric of her coat. It was freezing outside, but she had to be there when her brother inevitably jumped from the basement to the back alley. As if on cue, Five appeared out of the blue surge of energy that trademarked his abilities.

"Five," Reagan said, pushing herself off the wall to step toward her brother.

She could hear him chuckle before facing her. His amused smile told her he hadn't expected to see her standing there. "How'd you know I was leaving?"

"For the past ten minutes, the only thing going through your head was 'Where's the coffee? I gotta find the coffee. Why isn't there any coffee? I need coffee. Gotta go find coffee somewhere.' That doesn't really leave much room for interpretation," Reagan explained. She shifted her weight as she pointed to him. "You do know that caffeine kills brain cells, right?"

"Why are you following me?" He asked, easily ignoring her question.

"Because we need to talk, Five."

"I thought we already talked."

Reagan scoffed. "I don't know what post-apocalyptic school you went to but saying 'your help' and then walking out of your room doesn't actually tell me how I'm supposed to help you stop the end of the world. You have to talk to me like an adult since apparently you are one now."

Her brother shrugged. "The world's ending. We have just over a week to stop it. What else is there to say?"

"Five, I can see every thought, memory, and idea that runs through that head of yours," Reagan retorted, balling her hands into fists at her sides. "I want to help you. Not just because it's the end of the world we're talking about, but because you're my brother and right now you are completely alone in this like you have been for the past 45 years. You're not alone anymore, though. You have me. So please, don't make this any harder by trying to hide things from me. Believe me when I say that won't work."

Five's jaw clenched as he watched her, mulling over everything she said. After a few more moments of silence passed between them, he nodded and gestured to the car.

"Get in. We're getting coffee."

The donut shop they ended up at was a few blocks from the house. Reagan didn't have to ask why Five decided to go there when there were several places closer to the house he could have chosen. They'd spent plenty nights there binging on donuts with their siblings. It was probably one of the few good memories that Five still had of their childhood. Reagan knew it was for her at least.

"You bring your wallet?" Her brother asked as they walked into the empty shop.

She rolled her eyes before pulling her wallet out of her pocket. "I'm cutting you off after two cups, though."

"You do know that technically I am older than you, right?"

"You might have the consciousness of a 58 year old, but you're still in the body of a 13 year old and I'm not in the mood to deal with you on a caffeine high. Besides, I'm the one footing the bill, so I can decide what I pay for."

Five cocked his head as he pulled out a seat for her. "Well, from what I heard, you can afford it."

Sighing, Reagan looked at him when he sat down beside her. "I decided to do something with my life that would let me stop living off dad's buck while helping people at the same time. Becoming a renowned psychologist just happened to be it."

"I didn't say a bad thing, Reg," Five said. He leaned forward to ring the bell on the counter and Reagan bit back the urge to correct him on her nickname. "I'm happy you found something that you enjoy. I know even when we were kids, being a front-page hero wasn't really your thing."

"I did like saving people, but I always wondered what happened to them after we left. How do people get over the horrors that we rescued them from? How do they live with it? How do they move on?" Reagan shrugged, propping her chin up on her hand. "Then one day I realized I could use my powers to help them figure it out."

"Dad always said you were the heart of the team," Five said, smiling at her. "I know he was trying to imply you were weak, but I always thought that made you a better hero than the rest of us."

Reagan narrowed her eyes at her brother. She couldn't remember if she'd ever heard him compliment her. "Jesus, Five. What the hell happened to you in the future?"

"Isn't that what we're here to talk about?"

Both of them turned to look over their shoulder when they heard the door open behind them. They were joined by an older man, who sat at the table beside Five. Reagan looked at her brother edgewise and caught the weak nod of his head, understanding that they'd have to wait to talk.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Reagan said after a comfortable silence fell over the donut shop. She stood from her seat and put her hand on Five's shoulder as she walked past him. "One cup at a time, please."

"Of course, mom," Five said, turning to peer up at her. She laughed to herself when she saw how wide his smile was. It looked almost painful.

Playing along with the ruse, she lifted a hand to pinch his cheek. "That's my boy."

Five's hand on the counter flinched and Reagan could tell he wanted to smack her hand away. Somehow, he fought the urge in order to keep up the appearance of them being a functional family. She smiled sweetly at the man sitting beside her brother before heading to the back of the donut shop where she remembered the bathroom being located.

Once the door swung closed behind her, she pulled out her phone and found Diego's number. Putting the phone to her ear, Reagan bit into her lower lip. She wasn't sure exactly what she was going to tell him, but that uneasy feeling in her gut still hadn't gone away. She just needed someone to tell her everything was going to be okay. Even if it was a lie.

"Where the hell did you go?" Diego asked when he answered the call.

Reagan shifted her weight. "Out…"

Her brother huffed. "Yeah, well, I had to get out of that house, but I'll be back tomorrow to take you home, okay?"

"What happened to us sticking together?"

"I'd offer to let you stay with me, but my place is kind of small," Diego said.

Reagan exhaled slowly. "No, it's fine. I'll just go back to the house once I'm done here."

"And where is that exactly?"

Glancing around the bathroom, she threaded a hand through her hair. "I, uh, needed to go for a walk."

"You're a terrible liar," Diego said with a soft chuckle. "You don't have to tell me where you are. Just be careful."

"Since when am I not careful?"

"Since you were a kid, jumping in front of bullets to save our dumbass brother."

"That was one time," Reagan reminded him.

"Haven't you heard? History always repeats itself, Reg."

She lifted a hand, rubbing the back of her neck as her train of thought shifted back to her other brother who was waiting for her return. Reagan meant what she said about helping him. She'd be there for him every step of the way, but what if she wasn't enough? Not telling their other siblings could be a mistake that they'd pay the ultimate sacrifice for.

"Diego?"

"Yeah?"

"I need you to do something for me that might seem a little odd and I need you to not ask why," Reagan said.

Her brother hesitated for a moment before sighing. "Okay. What is it?"

"I need you to tell me everything's going to be okay, that we'll get through this and everything will be fine in the end." Reagan waited to see if he'd actually say it back to her and swallowed the lump in throat after a few seconds of silence had passed. "Diego?"

"Everything's going to be okay, Reg." He inhaled slowly. "We'll get through this and everything will be fine in the end."

She placed a hand over her chest, taking a few deep breaths as she let his words sink in. "Thank you, Diego."

"I'm not going to ask why you wanted me to say that, Reg. I just need you to know that I love you and I will always be a phone call away if you need me, okay?"

Reagan nodded as she leaned back against the wall, taking a calming breath. "I love you, too, Diego."

Ending the call, she slid her phone back into her pocket and opened the door. The sight of a group of armed assailants surrounding her brother stopped Reagan cold in her tracks as she stepped out of the bathroom. Five looked up at her the same time the armed men fixed their attention on her. Her brother used the distraction to jump behind the man standing beside him and stab him in the neck with a knife.

"Reagan!" Five shouted in warning, but she didn't need him to tell her that she was in danger.

Without a second look, she sprinted for the counter and launched herself over it. She landed gracelessly on the other side just as a spray of bullets hit the wall above her. Reagan got on her hands and knees and began crawling toward where the silverware was kept. She could hear her brother getting the gunmen's attention, which was followed by another wave of gunfire.

Grabbing one of the steak knives, she turned it over in her hand and stood from behind the counter. She cocked her arm and aimed her first knife at the man standing closest to her. Even though she aimed for his neck and ended up hitting him in the leg, she was just happy she hit him.

Reagan reminded herself to thank Diego for the knife throwing lessons he'd given her a few years back and jumped over the counter again. She landed on her feet this time, but quickly dropped low and kicked the same assailant's feet out from under him. Once he was on the floor next to her, she yanked the knife from his leg and stabbed it into his neck. Luckily, the rest of his friends were distracted by shooting aimlessly at the opposite wall to notice what she'd done.

When the gunfire died down, Reagan knew she'd be their next target, so she grabbed the knife out of the man's neck and slid under the closest table. She stayed there until the next person stepped in front of her. Focusing only on them, she brought the first image she could think of to the front of her mind: her bedroom at the Academy. She did the exercise her father had taught her and pushed the dream onto the attacker standing before her.

She knew it had worked when the man glanced around and lowered his gun to his side. "What the—"

Ignoring the continuous sound of gunfire going on beyond the dream, Reagan reached forward and jammed the knife into his ankle. She slid out from under the table when he doubled over, almost falling to the ground. Getting up on one knee, she pulled her elbow forward and jerked it back to hit his shin. The pain made him drop and Reagan shot to her feet, kneeing him in the face as she did. She grabbed the gun off the floor and fired a single, clean shot to the back of his head before tossing the weapon aside.

Reagan whirled around to see her brother trick the last two standing attackers into shooting each other by jumping out from between them at the last second. He appeared a moment later in the same spot he'd jumped from, earning a quiet sigh of relief from his sister.

She winced when she tried to wipe her hands on her pants. Turning them over, she couldn't see any wounds underneath the layer of blood already staining her palms. Reagan pulled them closer to her face, tilting them toward the light. It was only then that she could see the tiny pieces of glass embedded in her hands. At some point, she must have crawled over glass, but her adrenaline stopped from noticing before. She whirled around when the sound of a soft snap reached her ears. Five was standing over one of the attackers and she didn't have to see it to know he'd just broke the man's neck.

"Jesus Christ, Five."

He threw up his arms when he looked at her. "What? If any of them are left alive, they'll come after us."

Reagan gestured to the two men she'd just killed. "Yeah, I got that. I just wasn't expecting you to get that."

"Nice work," Five said as he jerked a thumb toward the bodies after surveying them.

His sister let out a harsh breath. "You're lucky I have a rule against slapping kids."

"Not a kid," Five reminded her, but held up a hand when she took a threatening step toward him. "But I am stuck in a kid's body."

"That's what I thought," Regan grumbled as they went back to the counter. She put a napkin in the cup of water that the stranger they'd been sitting with had left behind and used it to clean the blood off her hands.

"Shit."

She glanced over at her brother to see him rolling up a sleeve. "What?"

"I gotta get this tracker out of my arm."

Looking back at her hands, she began picking the shards of glass out of the shallow cuts. "How are you going to do that?"

"Like this," Five said, making her turn her head to look at him. She gasped when she saw him drag a knife up his arm and shove his fingers into the wound.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Getting the tracker out just like I said."

Reagan turned away. "Yeah, I kn—You know what? Forget I asked."

"Already forgotten," her brother said. "We have to leave now if we want to be gone by the time the cops get here."

"Here." Reagan leaned over and gestured to his arm. He gave it to her willingly and she wrapped a napkin over his open wound. She pulled his sleeve down to keep the makeshift bandage in place and stood from her seat. "Let's get out of here. Being convicted for murder isn't on my agenda for today."

They walked out to the car and Reagan agreed to let him drive again since she could barely close her hands let alone grab a steering wheel. She had the patience to wait until they were a few blocks from the donut shop to try asking her brother anything about the men who just tried to kill him.

"So…"

"Are you okay?"

Reagan cocked eyebrow. "What?"

"Are. You. Okay." Five glanced at her for a moment before returning his attention back to the road. "I know that was a lot to handle back there and you did kill two people."

"You killed more," Reagan reminded him.

He clenched the steering wheel tighter. "Yeah, but that was…"

"Your job," his sister said, pulling the words out of the air above his head. "Like I said before, it's really hard to keep things from me, Five."

"Yeah, I'm starting to remember that."

"How about I start, then?" Reagan offered, angling in her seat to face him. "Physically, other than a couple cuts on my hands I'm perfectly fine. Mentally, I'm solid. Emotionally, I'm pissed that I had to kill those guys when I've gone the last ten years without getting any blood on my hands, but I'm glad I did it because it helped us make it out of there alive."

Five nodded as he mulled over what she'd said. "Vanya was right. You becoming a psychologist really did make you more confrontational."

"She's damn right it did," Reagan said. She gestured toward him. "Now, it's your turn and don't leave anything out this time. I'll know if you do."

With a sigh, her brother squared his scrawny shoulders. "I guess I should start at the beginning…or, rather, the end."