I never thought I'd be able to say that I've felt my life being drained away. Then again, I never thought I'd be able to say I can control lightning, either. Nothing about my life had been normal, not by any sort of means. I'd never been able to use the same mile-markers as every other kid out there, so all of us resorted to our own. We would secretly celebrate late at night in the kitchen when one of us finally mastered our powers; we'd snuck out to get donuts for the first time after our first mission at that bank; we all had silently raised a glass, within isolation, when the first one of us had the guts to walk out of the Academy and never look back.

I'd never appreciated any of it, not even for a second. I always looked back at my adolescence with nothing but disdain. I'm not sure anyone loved growing up all the time, but I had truly and thoroughly despised the way I had been raised. My father never cared for us, not for one second, and it left each of us with uniquely shaped scars. We'd never fully learned how to adjust and be normal, and we'd never learned how to deal. The only times we all could say that we were genuinely happy was when we were all together, whether we'd actually admit it or not.

For a moment, I didn't feel bad for Vanya. She'd been raised in the same household, with the same situations the rest of us had. She wasn't any different from the rest of us, so what gave her the right to throw a tantrum like this and be excused for it, rather than punished? Why did the rest of us suffer nights without food, time without our other siblings, or the entrapment of our own mental prisons we'd built for ourselves, while Vanya was given an instrument through which she could channel everything instead?

But her upbringing hadn't been the same as our other siblings. None of us had it hammered into our heads that there was nothing special about us. Technically speaking, the seven of us that trained together had nothing special about us, either. We were surrounded by other kids that had powers, so we couldn't really stand out. Vanya, however, had always been told she was ordinary. That dreaded word struck so much disdain into anyone who had the misfortune of adapting the label. She'd been excluded, pushed aside, name-called, and glared at more times in her life than any one child should have, yet she still managed to pick herself up, walk out the doors, find someone to talk things out with, and start more of a normal life than any of the rest of us.

The others could make their arguments otherwise, but Vanya was the strongest out of all of us.

Of course, when it comes to powers and this situation, that certainly was a disadvantage.

I leaned against the wall, sparing another glance at Five, silently trying to warn him that if he died, I'd kill him. He seemed to pick up on what I was saying and shot me an unamused glare in return. Normally, I would have marched over there and started to scold him, but there wasn't time for that right now. Besides, if this was the last time I'd ever see my brother, I didn't want my last words with him to be angry. So I softened my expression a little bit, which caused a tiny smile to light up his face.

I waited patiently for Luther's cue, my eyes bouncing between him, Five, and Vanya now. The waves of energy around her grew stronger and bigger, pulsating more intensely as time went on. The longer we waited, the less time we had to pull this off, and Luther should have known that. Why he was waiting so long was beyond me.

Thankfully, just a few seconds later, I saw him move a little, indicating to the rest of us that we needed to do the same.

"Now!" he shouted, bringing all of us out of our hiding places.

Klaus, Diego, Five, Luther, and I all rushed onto the stage, hoping she'd get distracted by those of us in the front, so that the others could maybe get a shot through. Like Five said, only one of us needed to get to her while she was occupied with the others, and we could pull this off.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Instead, without even a second of hesitation, Vanya swung her bow out, capturing all of us in a wave of energy that lifted the five of us off the ground. I cried out as a terrible pain shot through my chest, unlike any of the episodes I'd had before. Next to this, all those times I pushed myself to the brink of death felt like nothing.

The energy attached to my chest, feeling as though something had been stabbed through it, and someone was taunting me by suspending me. The sensation started in my fingers and toes, just like any other time I had started to lose consciousness, but this was far greater. It felt as though something with sharp teeth was slowly eating away at them, biting off little pieces in hopes to make me suffer for as long as possible. After a bit, the feeling began to pick up speed, until my entire body felt as though the flesh should have been falling away. To my mind, it seemed as though I were getting older within a matter of seconds, with those middle years all completely glossed over. I could feel something within me moving outwards into the beam of energy, as though it were being sucked out by a vacuum.

For a moment, I mustered up enough strength to spare a glance at my brothers, but just as soon as I had done it, I regretted my decision. Their skin was withering away, wrinkling and tightening against their skulls to the point where I could just see the outline. I'm sure I looked no better, but that didn't stop the horror of my brothers' conditions from setting in.

I managed to turn my head back toward Vanya, my eyes threatening to close and all the will I had to fight this officially leaving my body. Somehow, I noticed Allison standing just behind her, a gun raised and pointed straight at the back of Vanya's head. Where she'd gotten that, I had no idea, but right now, that didn't matter. I only had a tiny sliver of my mind left with me, but I used all the energy I had to hope Allison would do the right thing here. I didn't want Vanya to get hurt, not in a million years, but we were dangerously close to the end of the world at this point, and if she didn't pull that trigger in just the right way, it would all be over.

In a split second, Allison moved the gun from behind Vanya's head to right beside her ear. She'd stopped playing her violin the moment she caught the five of us, so thankfully that would make all of this a little easier. Careful with where she aimed the bullet, Allison pulled the trigger, causing a loud bang to go off that disrupted the sounds around Vanya and broke her free from her trance. My brothers and I were dropped onto the stage, unable to move at first, and Vanya fell back as Allison reached out for her, gently lowering her to the ground. A large beam shot out from her chest and into the night sky, but the world was still turning.

Once I got my strength back and managed to breathe normally, I picked myself up off the wooden ground and rushed to Five's side, helping him off the ground before pulling him into a tight hug. I felt the impact of Klaus slamming himself against my back and sighed, content with the small moment we were having.

"Are you okay?" I asked Five, resting my hands on his shoulders and squeezing.

"I'm fine. Just a little… disoriented."

With that taken care of, all of us rushed to Vanya and Allison, eyes wide as we searched the former for any signs of life. If her chest was moving with breaths, they were too small to see, and I didn't dare get too close, out of fear we would ignite something just after stopping one problem.

"Is she alive?" Luther whispered, barely able to find his voice after what just happened. After a few seconds, Allison nodded, tears brimming in her eyes. "Yeah?"

"Oh, thank God," I muttered before pushing myself back up. My eyes wandered around the theater, taking in all the damage that had been done. Nothing had fallen down, but there definitely would need to be a lot of repairs. Shards of broken glass were scattered across the ground, having rained down from the skylight when Allison re-directed Vanya's shot.

The moment my eyes went a little more upward, my heart stopped. The moon that had once stood shining above the Earth was now crumbling to pieces, the large chunks that came off it now hurtling toward us. They weren't just small pieces that would cause a little boom in some remote part of the world, either. They were large, big enough to take out an entire continent.

Big enough to end the world.

"Uh, guys? You see that big moon rock hurtling toward us?" My brothers stood and made their way to my side, gawking up at the sky.

"That's not good…"

The relief and victory I had felt just moments before drained away, replaced with horror and disappointment. We thought we had done it, only to be presented with the disappointing reality: the apocalypse was coming anyways, whether we liked it or not.

"So, this is it, huh? So much for…" Klaus sighed, "saving the world." I reached over and squeezed his arm, trying to bring both of us some sort of comfort. Klaus reached up and placed his hand over mine, as though finding some sort of stability in the gesture. With his other hand, he removed the dog tags that hung around his neck and began to play with them. It hit me, what he was thinking, and I started to cry a little.

"If only Sir Reginald could see us right now, huh?" Diego scoffed. "The Umbrella Academy. A total failure." My brow crinkled as I directed my gaze in his direction.

"Were we ever a success?" He shrugged a little, seeming to agree with my point.

"At least we're together at the end," Luther pointed out. "As a family." He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I smiled up at him. For the first time in my life, I felt safe around him.

"This doesn't have to be the end." All of us turned to look at Five, confused.

"What?" I questioned, looking down at him. "What are you saying, Five?"

"I think I have a way outta here. But you gotta trust me on this." I immediately started nodding, not even taking a second to hesitate.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Diego mumbled.

"No," Luther added.

"Well, then, we might as well accept our fate, because in less than a minute, we're gonna be vaporized."

"What's your idea, then?" Diego demanded, clearly not expecting it to be something that would work.

"We use my ability to time travel. But this time, I'll take you with me."

"Can you do that?" I had to admit, I didn't think he quite had enough strength to bring all seven of us.

"I don't know. I've never tried it before." Despite that, I knew we had to at least try. We weren't the only ones at risk here, we were putting the entire world in danger if we didn't attempt at fix this.

"What's the worst that can happen?" I asked, looking around at my other three brothers.

"You're looking at it. A 58-year-old man inside a child's body, so there's that." I widened my eyes a little, as though begging the others to give in. After a moment, Diego threw up his hands a little, but I saw the smile on his face.

"Oh, what the hell? I'm in."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm in."

"Me too." We'd gotten Luther to give in. This really was the end of the world. "Allison?" Everyone looked back at her, and she nodded. "What about Ben?"

"Great, yeah, he's in." I broke away from the rest of the group, moving to a place where I couldn't hit any of them.

"There's no way you're gonna have enough power to take all eight of us through at once, kid. I'll charge myself up, we've just gotta make sure we get the timing right." Five nodded.

"Okay, great. Luther, grab Vanya." I watched my siblings all crowd together as Luther scooped up Vanya, who remained unconscious.

"Wait, should we be taking her? I mean, if she's the cause of the apocalypse. Isn't that like taking the bomb with us?"

"The apocalypse will always happen. And Vanya will always be the cause, unless we can take her back and fix her," Five explained.

With that, my brother and I nodded at each other, and I began to turn, making sure to go fast so I could get as many in as possible before we had to go back. I'd still ended up under the cover of the portal Five was creating, and the more I turned, the stranger I began to feel. The world suddenly got a lot bigger, as though I was shrinking, and at one point, as I turned, the hair that struck my face turned a dark red, rather than its natural brown. I tried to spot my siblings as I turned, to make sure I wouldn't get dizzy, and I noticed they were going through the same thing. All of us looked just like we had when we were thirteen again.

"It's working!" Luther shouted over the crackles of electricity coming from the portal.

"Hold on! It's gonna get messy!" Five warned.

I turned a few more times, slipping again as my feet gave out under me. These shoes really weren't meant for trying to dance.

"Mina! Now!"

I lunged forward and slammed my hands onto Five's arm. Just as I did, I felt myself being sucked upwards, and I closed my eyes, not daring to try and look. Whenever I opened my eyes again, I knew what my first question would be:

When are we?

To Be Continued in "You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2"