Wanda took her seat at the large dining table, admiring the grand setting. A steaming bowl of stew sat at the center, with many other foods supplementing the table. She hungrily eyed the cranberry jelly, but minded her manners as she waited for the others to arrive.

However, this was highly unusual. Pepper, very much the career woman despite being pregnant, rarely had time to make such a meal. And when she'd been called by Friday to come sit at the table, she'd been confused. Most of the time they ate where they chose - in front of the tv, at the table, or in their rooms. Dinner was rarely such a formal occasion.

Pepper came in, taking a seat next to where she expected Tony would put himself.

"Pep," she asked, brow furrowed, "What is with all this?" She gestured to all the food in front of her.

Pepper only rolled her eyes. "Tony adopted more kids."

She wasn't sure she wanted to know what that meant.

More of the Avengers filed into the room, Bucky taking a seat next to hers and Sam on his right side. Steve took the place to her left.

"This is different," Sam commented. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

Loki entered then, straightening at the presentation. "What is with all of…"

Peter was patting the chair next to him. "Mr. Loki! Come sit by me."

The God was still eyeing the feast, looking between it and Tony with suspicion. Still, he complied with the Spider-boy's request.

Pepper noted his confusion, echoing the answer she'd given Wanda a minute ago. "Tony adopted more kids."

She wondered when she would get the full story to that, or when she would get to meet said kids. And that's when she noticed it: seven additional seats at the table. Interesting.

And then a sizeable group of children came walking into the dining room. Five of them, to be exact. The entire table went quiet, except Tony, who stood. "Kids! Sit, sit."

Wanda watched them as they looked around the room uneasily. She supposed it would be uneasy, walking into a room to dine with both the original Avengers and the New Initiative. She sat back in her seat, resisting the urge to look in their minds.

Ben walked into the dining room hesitantly, hoping his discomfort wasn't too obvious. But looking around at his brothers, he could see that they felt similarly. The room fell completely silent as they walked in, with the exception of Tony standing up to loudly greet them.

He briefly made eye contact with a girl who looked to be in her late teens, twenty at most. She had long brown hair, and her eyes seemed to penetrate deep into his soul. Actually, most of the people at the table were equally intimidating. His eyes averted quickly.

His brothers sat down, and he habitually moved to lean against the wall behind Klaus' chair.

Five was looking at him, brow raised. "Ben!" he hissed.

Ben's eyes widened, "Oh, fuck!" He jumped at his own voice as it echoed in the room. Ben shuffled to an open seat, flushing red with embarrassment.

"Um, are you okay?" the blonde man from before asked.

Ben refused to make eye contact, instead staring down at the red tablecloth. Klaus laughed at him. "Dude, did you just forget you were alive?"

"Klaus," Five was facepalming.

"What? You said to be honest." Klaus defended.

"It's true," Diego nodded. "You did say that."

Five groaned. "Okay, but maybe ease them into it a bit slower?"

Tony clapped his hands together, causing them all to turn. In their bickering, they had forgotten about the others in the room. "Okay, well, I think we should have some introductions first. I'm Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, AKA genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Over there we have Spangles," he pointed to blondie.

"Tony," blondie warned.

"Sorry, Steve Rogers. Captain America, the man frozen for seventy years. And then there's Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow."

A woman with long red hair with the ends bleached waved at them.

"Bruce Banner," the doctor from earlier smiled. "We've already met, but with any luck you guys won't have to meet the other guy."

Tony nodded. "And over there you have Clint. The archer."

Clint frowned at his less-than-cool introduction. "The best archer."

"Quiet, Katniss." Tony retorted.

Luther asked, "So you guys are… The Avengers?"

"We're the founding Avengers," Steve explained. "We're semi-retired now. We formed what is now the New Avengers Initiative. That consists of the others you see here: Scott Lang, Wanda Maximoff, Loki Odinson, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Ava Starr, and Peter Parker."

They all waved in turn.

"Where are the girls?" Tony asked them.

"Allison wanted to stay with Vanya," Diego replied for them.

Tony nodded, thinking. "So the unconscious one was Vanya, correct? And the other girl was Allison. Care to introduce the rest of you?"

"Luther," Luther puffed his chest out proudly.

"I'm Klaus," he said. "And this is Ben." Ben waved sheepishly, still embarrassed.

"Diego."

"And Five. I'm the one who brought us here, but not on purpose."

The one who'd been identified as Scott Lang raised his hand for a second, before asking, "Your name is Five?"

"Long story," Five shrugged.

A woman, Ava, spoke in a thick accent, "What did you mean by him 'forgetting he was alive?'" Her question was directed at Klaus.

"Longer story," Klaus smirked.

"And why did you need to travel through a portal?" Natasha inquired. "Running from something? Someone?"

Diego laughed. "I really don't think we have time for that story right now."

Silence for a few moments.

"So, you have abilities, I presume?" Loki spoke.

Ben spent a bit longer than he should have staring at the man, Loki. He bore the same name as the trickster god he'd read about in Norse mythology. He let himself wonder if there could be any connection, but shook it off. Of course not.

Klaus giggled. "I see dead people," he quoted The Sixth Sense.

"Do you, now?" Bruce leaned forward, interested.

"Yep," Klaus nodded. "Oh, speaking of… Anyone got any drugs? Some good old fashioned herbal healing, if you know what I mean?"

"Klaus, you're thirteen," Diego hissed at him.

"Oh shit," Klaus scratched where his goatee used to be. He glared jealously at Tony's facial hair. Just another cruel reminder of the de-aging process. "You're right, you're right. My bad. Maybe we'll start with some light beer, or..?"

"Do not give him anything!" Five demanded.

Klaus growled at his brother. Yes, growled.

"Back to Loki's surprisingly relevant question, what do you guys do?" Natasha guided them back on track.

Jesus, Ben thought. They really were like children.

Five spoke for them. "Luther's strong, Diego throws knives, Allison is very persuasive, Klaus told you his, I jump through space and time, Ben summons monsters, and Vanya doesn't have powers." He finished his explanation very punctually.

They all gathered what he'd just said. "How did this come to be?" Bruce asked curiously. "Learned, exposed to radiation, something else…"

"We were all born on the same day under some rather unusual circumstances," Luther explained.

"I think we get to ask some questions, now." Five clasped his hands on the table.

"Shoot, kid," Clint offered.

"Here's something important," Klaus interrupted. "How's the moon here? Sturdy, right?"

Everyone stared weirdly at him, causing Five to kick him under the table. "I'll ask the questions," he flashed an obviously fake smile, looking very out of place on his features. "What's your protocol for random children appearing in front of your building?"

Tony and Steve exchanged glances. "This is a first, actually," Tony admitted.

"We don't intend to lock you away or anything, if that's what you're wondering." Steve was quick to ease them. "You're our guests."

Five nodded appreciatively. "Thanks. Now-"

"What's your name?" Klaus was saying into empty space.

The whole group turned to him. "Who's he talking to?" Peter audibly whispered.

"Ignore my brother," Five tried to get back to the conversation. This was a regular occurrence, Klaus just randomly talking to or staring at someone who wasn't there. Ghosts.

"I'm gonna call you Ghostie, otherwise it just gets way too confusing," he made a face and some vague hand gestures. "No, Ghostie. I am not going to say that!"

Tony's face was contorted in confusion. He looked to Five, asking, "Is he a little…" He whistled in a way that clearly meant, "crazy?"

"Fine, fine! If you insist." Klaus was still continuing his conversation. He turned to Clint, across the table. "Ghostie wants me to tell you that you're an old man. Which I told him was rude, but…"

"What?" Wanda said, looking at him strangely.

Klaus shrunk under her gaze. And the stares of everyone else at the table, for that matter. "Was it something I said?"

"They want to know who you're talking to, dumbass." Ben rolled his eyes, the most vocal he'd been so far. His other brothers looked at him, surprised, but Klaus was used to this kind of attitude from him.

"He said his name was Pietro. Ring any bells to anyone here?"

Wanda and Clint exchanged a meaningful look, as the others watched with curious eyes. The Umbrella Academy sat, confused.

"Pietro was my twin," Wanda finally said. "Is- is he here?"

Klaus smirked. "You didn't see that coming." He turned back to the unseen person, saying quieter, "You're right - that is a cool line."

Wanda's heart skipped a beat when the boy, Klaus, insulted Clint using Pietro's old jab. "Pietro was my twin. Is- is he here?" Her mouth felt dry, her heart racing as she waited for the reply with bated breath.

Her suspicions were confirmed when he delivered her lost brother's trademark line. She released her breath shakily. "P-Pietro?" she asked to the empty space Klaus had just been conversing with.

Of course, there was no response. What did she expect? She turned her gaze downwards.

Klaus spoke up, his voice sympathetic. "He's here," he reassured her. "You can tell him something if you want."

Her eyes watered. It seemed that with all that had happened since Ultron she'd never really had time to grieve him. She'd taken the initial loss and put her anger and grief into training to be an Avenger. And then she'd gotten sucked into the whole ordeal with the Sokovia Accords, and it was safe to say that being on the run from the government didn't leave too much time to have feelings. And when she did start feeling too much, she had Vision to distract her.

Then Thanos had come and wiped out fifty percent of everyone. She thought as she dusted that maybe she would be reunited with both him and her lost lover, but her dying wish went unfulfilled as she woke up in the orangey abyss that was the soul stone.

"I don't know what to say," she admitted quietly. She was all too aware of all of her teammates watching her intently.

"Hold up," Sam said. "Not that I don't want to believe it, but how do we know this kid is telling the truth? Maybe he's just been watching us, or seen the footage from Sokovia."

Wanda looked down at her hands. She really, really wanted to believe that her brother was still here with her and that he'd always been there, but logically she knew that it was a relevant question.

Natasha, never too quick to trust someone, agreed. "Sam's got a point. How do we know?"

Wanda took a breath, hoping that she would get the answer she wanted. "Piet, do you see the bigger picture?"

The Klaus boy looked back at the space, face slightly wrinkled in confusion but he nodded. He turned back to Wanda. "He says no," he answered. "But he's got a little picture, whatever that means. Says he looks at it every day."

She couldn't help tearing up. "He's here," she voiced to the others. "He's really here."

Steve squeezed her hand. "Is there anything you want to tell him?"

She shook her head. "I- I don't know. I miss him. Every day."

Clint cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I treated you like some punk. You kinda were, but you were also a great kid. I wish things had gone down differently."

Klaus nodded, "He apologizes for calling you old."

One of the other kids, Ben, suddenly looked up. Most of the new kids had been silent through this whole thing, allowing them to have their moment. "Klaus, can you summon him?"

Klaus' eyes lit up, but then a look of doubt crossed his face. He shrugged.

"Oh my god, are you high?" Diego groaned.

"No!" Klaus defended. "You guys have been with me the whole time!"

"Then why not?" Five asked.

"I don't know how I do it! That time in the theater was- was a fluke! I can't just do it on command," Klaus objected to his siblings but turned to Wanda with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

She shook her head, not wanting him to feel guilty. "No, no. Don't apologize - you've done more than enough already." She suddenly got an idea, and a bad one, but it would be worth it. "Could I- could I look in your head, please? Just to see him?"

Klaus' nose scrunched. "Huh?"

"I can see inside people's minds," she quickly explained. "I promise not to be too invasive, just-"

Five, realizing the implications of that, stood abruptly. "No," he stated firmly. He glared distrustfully at Wanda.

Her eyes widened. "That's fine; that's okay," she rushed out. "I didn't mean to upset anybody. I'm sorry."

"Five?" Luther warned, and Wanda noticed that he was gripping his fork a little too tightly. He seemed to realize this, too, as he dropped it with a clink.

The boy sat back down.

The rest of dinner was a quieter affair, her eyes wandering to that one corner of the room every once in a while. She helped Bruce clean up the table after the meal as everyone dispersed, the kids presumably going back to their room.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked her softly when they were alone, touching her arm.

She blinked tearfully, not making eye contact. "Yeah," she lied.

Allison sat at her sister's bedside, enjoying the quiet. The last week hadn't had too many quiet moments, and despite the fact that they were stuck in another universe, it felt like a relief.

She watched Vanya lay there, taking in every inch of her youthful face. When they were this age she had always thought of her sister as this burden, the odd one out. Like she'd said: she hadn't been a very good sister through it all. But she'd always thought that Vanya was fine. She excelled at the violin, throwing her heart into it. Little did she know that it was an instrument for focusing her pain long before she had discovered her powers. She thought Vanya was happy, but she wasn't. Those were fake smiles masking her pain and sadness, because hiding behind a smile was easier than fighting to express how she was feeling, and she couldn't fight because she was numb all the time from the drugs. It all made sense now, and Allison felt horrible.

"Hey, Friday?" she asked in a whisper, half expecting it not to work.

She managed to not jump as the voice answered readily despite having been dormant for some time now. "Yes, miss?"

"Could you play some violin music?"

"Of course," Friday replied. Soon Vivaldi was wafting into the room from the speakers.

Allison smiled at the music. It reminded her of evenings spent in her room, playing with her makeup or having long talks with Luther. Every night without fail Vanya would be playing the violin, and the sound traveled through the whole house when she did.

Her smile quickly faded as she remembered the way she'd treated Vanya. Of course, she'd been a kid, and kids didn't tend to find classical music very interesting. She'd made cruel comments to her. "Violin is boring," she'd sneered. When she'd had a long day and just wanted to sleep, she'd scream in the direction of her sister's room, "Shut up, Vanya!" And she did.

She'd once said, "Can't you play cool music?"

She'd been going through a Backstreet Boys phase at the time, and her favorite song was 'I Want It That Way.' Vanya had gone through the trouble of buying the cd and learning it all by ear, as the song had no sheet music for the violin. The day Vanya had decided to play it for her as a surprise she'd been having a hard day after one-on-one training with Dad that left her exhausted. She might've said something snarky in response to the performance, but Five had cornered her beforehand.

He threatened that if she didn't at least act like she liked Vanya's performance that he would burn her favorite boa.

So she'd played nice, and when she clapped at the end and told Vanya how good it was (she truthfully had liked it), Vanya got a huge grin on her face. A big, huge grin that looked so much more real than any other smile she'd bore her whole life. Allison made a vow to put that grin on her face as often as possible.

And she did keep up with her promise, until a few months later when Five disappeared. And then Ben died. And it was like everyone completely forgot about Vanya. Until she wrote that book, and they all called her up to be jerks.

She was pulled from her reminiscing by Vanya stirring beside her. She sat up straight, nudging her sister. "Vanya," she whispered.

Vanya slowly opened her eyes, sitting up. She looked around the strange room in confusion, taking in both the surroundings and the fact that they had obviously gotten smaller. "Where are we?"

Allison gave her a comforting smile. "I think it's best that I let Five explain that one. He brought us here after…" Her voice trailed off, not sure if Vanya wanted to hear the words she was about to say yet.

Vanya seemed to suddenly remember everything. She looked at Allison with a horrified expression. "Allison, I- I caused the-" she started sobbing uncontrollably, unable to finish.

Allison only wrapped her in a hug, rocking her back and forth while murmuring sweet nothings.

Peter Parker sat on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was staying at the Avengers compound for a few more weeks until school started up again. Then he would move back home with Aunt May, but of course still come to the compound a few days a week for Avengers training. And tinkering with Tony. And on the days he didn't come he would be out patrolling. But for now, May had thought that it would be best if he stayed with people who understood what he'd gone through. After all, dying in space was a pretty unique experience that would permanently scar anyone.

He had been dealing with the whole ordeal pretty well if he did say so himself. He borrowed Tony's method of keeping busy in the lab (though thankfully not his other, less healthy coping techniques).

He wondered about the new kids. He'd only gotten the bare minimum details about them. They seemed really interesting. Despite being typical siblings, they seemed too mature for their age. He couldn't help but get the feeling that they were older than him when talking to them, but obviously, they weren't.

He scrambled for his phone. He definitely needed to tell Shuri about the new superpowered kids living in the tower. And Ned and MJ, but he should probably ask Tony before divulging private Avengers information to his friends. He would still totally tell Ned anyways though, but it would have to be top secret.

P: Shuri! You'll never guess what happened.

A few moments later, his phone dinged. S: You found video evidence of T'Challa saying he's more of a dog person?

P: No…

S: Then tell me!

P: Some kids just fell out of a portal outside the compound - and they have powers! ϟϟϟ

S: NO WAY

P: Ya! They call themselves the Umbrella Academy!

S: When do I get to meet them?!

P: IDK, but you should come over again soon!

S: Definitely! What are their powers?

Peter thought, trying to remember what they all were. P: Strength, knife throwing, persuasion, living ouija board, teleportation, monster summoning, and the last girl has no powers

S: COOL

He began to type a text back, but stopped as the typing symbol popped up.

S: no powers my ass

P: That's what they said.

S: I bet twenty bucks she actually has powers

P: You're on!

They texted back and forth for a little while longer, him telling her everything he knew and her ending with promising to come and visit soon.