The next day, Five and Rachel spent most of the day shopping. She insisted that she wanted to be adequately dressed for the meeting with their father. She picked out a few more outfits than were necessary for the evening. She was particularly excited about a cropped button-down jacket that tied at on the left side, but that was for a normal day. For the dinner, she chose a light blue dress with pockets on the front skirt. She also got a pair of white keds to go along with the dress.

At the designated time, Five and Rachel found themselves standing in front of a large building. The sign on it read Southland Life. Inside, the entrance held a crisscrossing staircase. The walls had quite the artistic feel to it. There were drawings of random things and on top of that some painted art.

As they walked up the stairs, Rachel squeezed the hand that was in hers.

"Don't be nervous. I'm here."

Five stopped on the stair and watched as she kept moving to stand level with him.

"I still hate when you do that," he said, trying to smile but failing.

She patted his cheek with her free hand.

"Just breathe, my love."

Five exhaled through his nose with some degree of protest but letting her tug him along up the stairs. On the second floor was a hallway with elevator doors. He ended up taking her advice as they waited for the lift. The doors opened soon enough. Five hit the button for the correct floor and sighed. Just as the doors were closing, a hand stopped the elevator.

"Wait up."

Diego appeared in the reopening door. Rachel and Five were soon making room, moving farther and farther to their right as the rest of the Hargreeves siblings all joined them in the elevator.

"Good. We're all here," Five smirked.

Rachel could sense that all of her companions were nervous. They had only gone up a couple of floors when a guilty feeling struck Luther, who stood front and center of them all. Rachel frowned, but soon the entire elevator could tell the reason. The elevator began to smell like death.

"Luther!" Klaus scolded.

"Oh, my God," Vanya's quiet voice protested.

Everyone covered their noses except Diego, who found it oddly funny, and Klaus, who had probably smelled worse in his life. Everyone's nervousness turned to disgust at Luther.

"Sorry, I'm nervous," he announced.

As soon as the elevator opened on the correct floor, everyone abandoned the enclosed space quickly.

"Nasty," Allison commented from behind Rachel and Five.

"You must be joking," Five muttered.

"None of that," Klaus stumbled out.

Finally, out in air they could breathe again, they took in the sights before them. A sign confronted them in yellow letters reading "Tiki Lounge." The entire floor was decorated to match. It was as if they were in a tiki hut. Just below the area to the elevator, there were a few dining tables. There was a large one in the center with just enough seats for everyone, containing the largest fruit bowl Rachel believed she ever encountered. Soft island music sounded through the room. A full bar stood across the room from them, which Klaus made a beeline for. It seemed that they arrived before Reginald Hargreeves.

"All right, when Dad gets here, I'll do the talking, okay?" Five told them.

He was the first to reach the table. Everyone moved to stand around it at their own pace.

"I've got a few questions for him myself," Diego piped up.

"Hey, we don't wanna scare him off, alright? He might be able to help us stop doomsday, get us home."

"No, we need to figure out why he's planning to kill the president," Diego insisted, reminding them of his only concern.

"This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile."

Rachel was about to scold them both, but Vanya spoke up.

"Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking. Yeah?"

Five leaned his hands on the table and scoffed as the girl grabbed an object of a dining table nearby.

"Here, whoever has got this conch shell gets to talk."

Rachel let out an uncontrolled laugh that got her glares from the other Hargreeves.

"I'm sorry, its just about time someone tried this with you all."

"Vanya, we don't have time for a debate, okay?" Five countered.

Allison trotted down the steps and took the conch from Vanya's hand.

"Maybe I should lead. We all know I'm a much better public speaker than the rest of you."

The boys all filled with annoyance at her suggestion except Luther who just took a seat at the table. Rachel followed his example, not being a part of the debate. She had nothing she needed to say to their father.

"Okay, Daddy's girl."

"Oooh, jealous, Number Two?"

Diego started moving around the table toward his sister.

"Hey, no more numbers. No more bullshit. We're Team Zero."

Rachel put an arm over the back of her chair and looked up at him.

"You know zero is a number, right? You just labelled all of yourselves as zero."

"Your included, Miss Sass. We're all Team Zero.""

Rachel put her hands up, indicating she was not pushing the issue further. Luther cleared his throat.

"Uh, Diego," he smiled," You don't have the conch."

Diego gestured for his brother to wait before taking the conch from Allison. He then proceeded to chuck in across the restaurant. There was a sharp sound as it shattered against the wall.

"Classic," Allison sighed.

It was then that double doors at the side of the room burst open and Reginald Hargreeves came marching in. Rachel felt the anxiety in the room spike and the noise die down. All eyes were on the man who invited them all here. He came in carrying a stack of files and a book. He barely looked at them as he moved to a seat none of them had occupied and slowly sat down. Most of his children followed suit.

"Not only have you burglarized my lab," he started, undoing the buttons of his suit jacket sleeves," set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have on numerous occasions, called me…"

It was at this point that Klaus returned with his cocktail to sit down.

"Hey, Pop. How's it hangin'?"

"…'Dad.'"

Rachel herself felt slightly nervous at the man's intense demeanor. He was as infuriatingly complicated to read as usual. Exceptionally calm, but confused and curious. He was also quite perturbed. She reached a hand to Five's knee. His hand landed on hers and squeezed tightly. He was currently working up the nerve to engage with the man.

"My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB, certainly not MI5, so…who are you?"

He looked around the table as they all stared back at him. Of all the blustering before, even those who said they would speak found themselves speechless before the man.

"We're your children," Five finally told him," From the future."

Reginald Hagreeves frown deepened, making Five feel rather stupid. Rachel pushed a bit of confidence at him and he ended up continuing.

"In 1989, you adopted us all, minus one," he nodded toward Rachel, "and trained us to fight against the end of the world. Called us the Umbrella Academy."

Klaus raised his martini glass at that. Reginald looked around at them, still having a hard time believing what he was being told.

"Why on earth would I adopt six-"

"Seven," Allison corrected, from Rachel's left, "One of us isn't here."

"Dead," Diego added, looking at his lap, "One of us is dead."

The feeling around the room included sadness among the siblings now. Klaus suddenly turned in his seat, looking behind him with irritation.

"Yeah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Enough of that now."

The group stared at him. Klaus turned, realizing everyone was staring. He gestured for everyone to continue.

"Regardless," Reginald started," what would possess me to adopt seven, and train eight, ill-mannered malcontents."

Five leaned forward onto the table, taking his hand from Rachel's, to lace his fingers in front of him on the table.

"We have special abilities."

"Special?" his interest piqued," In what sense?"

"In the superpower sense," Luther responded.

Reginald turned to his biggest son.

"Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence."

Discomfort ran through everyone at the table.

"Show me."

Allison made a face as she stirred her drink.

"Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden."

"We're not circus animals, okay?" Luther told his father," We're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement."

Without warning, Diego threw one of his knives which turned halfway across the table to whip around Reginald and slam into a tiki poll behind him. Reginald opened a notebook he brought with him and started writing in it. Everyone leaned forward.

"What are you writing?" Diego asked.

"You are zero for two, young man," Reginald said to him.

Allison spluttered into her drink, while Rachel wished she had followed Klaus's lead and gotten herself a drink. Things were about to get wild. Diego jumped up to run at his father, but Five spatial jumped in front of him to keep him back.

"Stop!" he scolded him.

"Now that is interesting," Reginald commented.

Five sighed from his now standing position.

"All right, uh, quick rundown. Luther: super strength. Klaus can commune with the dead. Rachel can read and manipulate emotions. Allison can rumor anyone to do anything."

As he spoke, Five and Diego made their way back to their seats.

"Except she never uses it," Diego commented.

Allison looked up from her straw and smiled at her brother.

"I heard a rumor you punched yourself in the face."

Diego's eyes went white, a signature sign of Allison's power, before he punched himself as she suggested. He cried out in pain, clutching his face. Rachel grimaced at the spike of pain, despite the amusement across the rest of the table. Five gestured to his father as if to say, "There you go."

"Damn it!" he cursed.

"And you?" Reginald asked, turning to Vanya.

Luther reached out and put a hand on Vanya's.

"Uhh, maybe we don't take Vanya for a test run," he suggested.

"Oh, yeah, that's probably not a good idea," Klaus agreed.

"Yeah."

"It's fine."

Those words came from Vanya, which caused those around the table to stare.

"I can handle it," she added, lifting her hands away from Luther and reaching for a fork.

"Handle it?" Allison questioned," Last time you handled it, you definitely blew up the moon."

Everyone started talking at once, trying to stop her, but Vanya was wholly sure. Rachel lifted the edge of the orange tablecloth as if it could defend her. Vanya struck her glass with the fork, sending out a sound wave that caused the very large fruit bowl at the center of the table to explode, sending fruit bits in every direction. That done with, everyone picked fruit off their clothes and hair. Reginald cleaned and put his monocle back on, as Vanya had knocked it off. The girl was extremely pleased with herself.

"That was impressive," Luther admitted.

Diego suddenly stood up.

"Look, we know that you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president."

Five sighed, displeased that he ended up bringing that up.

"You were recently hospitalized, isn't that correct?" Reginald questioned," You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute paranoia."

"Am I?" Diego demanded, getting angry again.

Rachel felt a defensiveness rise in Reginald that he was masking with confidence. The girl frowned, looking between the two. Diego pulled a picture out of his pocket, presumably the one of Reginald on the grassy knoll and pushed it toward his father.

"Explain this. That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's gonna get shot."

The older man took the photo and looked at it.

"Well…" he started, concern flaring up, "I suppose you've solved it. You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot. Is that what you want to hear?"

Diego's confidence retreated quickly.

"You fancy yourself a do-gooder?" he went on, "The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy. This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head."

His words slowly pounded Diego back into his seat. Anger was rippling through Reginald. He suddenly glanced at Rachel. Seeming to realize her intense gaze meant she was reading his emotions; he became completely calm again. Her fists clenched under the table. Rachel could feel the crushing blow to Diego's ego, confidence, and his heart. Rage built up in her. She turned to her left and right rapidly, trying to shake it off.

"You're wr…wrong," Diego stuttered, just like he had all those years ago, a tear trailing down his cheek.

The table was quiet as Rachel took deep breaths. She felt something like her anxiety attacks but far more focused. She just wished their father could feel the pain and suffering he put all of them through. The girl clutched at her dress. With a sharp shake of her head, she shook the feeling off. It lingered in the background, not leaving as she had hoped.

"Look, forget about the president," Five sighed," We have catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it."

"War?" Reginald scoffed, having recovered himself," Men will always be at war with each other."

"No, this isn't just some war," Five contradicted," I'm talking about a doomsday. The end of the world."

"Well…" the man paused for a beat," you're the special ones, aren't you? Why don't you band together and do something about it?"

Five stared at his father, stricken. The entire table was falling into despair at this man's words. Just as always. Rachel glared back up at Reginald. Once again, he was hurting the people she cared about because he could not stop being a horribly unfeeling man. She was taken by surprise as Reginald went rigid as a board and she could tell he felt pain. He looked right at her. Rachel tried to shake it off, but for some reason she was stuck. The anger and hurt her friends were feeling filled her body and, like a direct line, stabbed straight into Reginald. The girl began to panic from being able to release him, afraid she would kill him, when she was distracted by Klaus grunting, his hands trust up into the air as his entire body shuddered. Their father breathed a sigh of relief from the pain as he turned to look at Klaus. No one else at the table seemed to notice the moment Rachel and Reginald had, which she was grateful for, but scared her. Five reached out and took Rachel's hand as she breathed carefully, trying not to have anxiety over what she just did.

"It's just Klaus," he told her, trying to be comforting.

"It's not that," she hissed," I think I almost tried to kill your dad."

Five's eyebrows lifted as he glanced at her and then at his father. He squeezed her hand.

"It's okay. You didn't and your feelings are valid. We can talk later."

The two turned back to see Klaus still wiggling in his seat.

"Is he having a seizure?" Allison questioned.

"Overdosing probably," Diego suggested, unconcerned.

Luther looked at the others around the table.

"Should we do something?"

Rachel, calmer now, and growing more concerned about Klaus's prolonged shaking, was confused. She felt the oddest emotion from Klaus. It was almost like the emotion was there and then gone, but the feeling was resistance.

"Klaus!" Five hissed, noting that Reginald was highly unimpressed with the display, "Now is not the time. What are you doing?"

"I'm-" he whispered.

"Out with it, boy," their father demanded.

"Ben!" he gasped out before passing out on the floor, shuddering. Reginald look at him with distaste before looking back to the table.

"Well," he said, picking up his notebook and files," thank you for coming."

He stood up.

"I've seen about enough.

"No, I…" Luther tried to stop him.

As Reginald practically started making his escape by stepping over Klaus, Luther slammed his fists into the table, rattling the silverware. He then ripped open his shirt to reveal his torso, which was that of an ape.

"Look at what you did to me," he yelled.

Allison almost spit out her drink. Rachel lost all emotion except universal shock from her and everyone else.

"Look at it!"

Five cringed and turned away.

"Oh, shit. Why?"

Vanya was just stunned. Reginald looked before turning and pointing at Five.

"You in the culottes. A word, in private?"

Rachel leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling as Five got up and followed Reginald to the bar. Allison raised her hand to the barkeep.

"Check, please."

Once paying the bill, everyone exited onto the elevator except for Rachel, who milled about by the still messy dining table. She glanced across the way, seeing Five and Reginald sitting at the bar. She was glad that they seemed to be having a much calmer, serious discussion than the fiasco that occurred. As the two men stood up from the bar, Rachel moved over to meet them at the bar.

"Mr. Hargreeves…I wanted to apologize. I…only recently learned I can make people feel with my power, not just read feelings. I swear I wasn't actively trying to hurt you when I…I have never done that before. When I tried to stop, it…it was like I got stuck. Again, I'm so sorry."

The man held a hand up to her.

"No need to explain, your husband covered that for you. To control emotions, you need to accept them, do you not? If you tried to reject the emotions, of course you had no control."

Rachel just stared at him in surprise. It was a rather insightful statement that he made while also stunning her at the reference of Five as her husband.

"I…see. Thank you for the tip. I will certainly take that into account."

With a stiff nod, he departed from the room, leaving Rachel and Five with the bartender. Five motioned for them to go to the elevator. As they walked, Five put his hands in his pockets.

"I told him we were married. I figured it might make us seem more on equal footing, considering we're older but don't look it."

"Well…just short of a ring and a ceremony, we're all but married. I'm the only one who knows you have an inferiority complex over your father just like the others, but I will never tell them. Even I do to some degree…"

Five gave her a smile and kissed the side of her head.

"You okay after the whole…inflicting pain debacle?"

Rachel sighed and leaned her head on Five's shoulder.

"If anything, it just proved I'm as screwed up as the rest of you. I need to get a handle on that. I think I'll actually take your dad's advice. Speaking of which, was he helpful?"

Five shook his head.

"Not in the way I had hoped. Unfortunately, we have only one option left to us."

The elevator door dinged open and the two stepped in. As it closed, Rachel put her hand on Five's arm.

"I don't like relying on her, Five."

"Nor do I…"

He looked down at her.

"But…if it gets us all home…I need to do it."

"We'll do it. I'll help."

Five shook his head. Before he could say no, Rachel dug her fingers into his arm harder.

"I want to do this with you. I know you always take on the kills and the guilt to spare me. It isn't fair that you have to do this when you don't want to. So, you won't be alone. Not this time. We're a team, okay?"

The elevator reached the first floor, so Rachel let go of his arm so he could walk forward. After stepping out, he looked back at Rachel. He held out his hand to her.

"Okay."

She took his hand and he tugged her to him, pulling her into a kiss. After a moment, he pulled back and gave her his fake smile.

"Let's go make a deal with that demon."