What had originally been an hours-long drive trudging through the back roads of the city, was easily cut down to a harried hour or so as Theodore carefully (as he could) flew back to the Umbrella Academy with Ven Allison tucked in close. Pushing himself as fast and far as he could possibly go, the Human Garde zoomed across the sky with a series of booms that shook the sky. He was like a one man thunderstorm; without the storm and without the thunder. In the back of his mind Theodore knew that without a doubt—despite his best hopes—that someone had to have at least noticed his arrival and would likely connect the dots. But in that moment he found that he didn't particularly care as he was far more worried for the woman grossly gurgling in his arms.
Not too long after they had crossed over the canopies of Central Park, Theodore found himself taking a wide swing into the academy's courtyard and bellowing for help from anyone inside. "A'VERA! A'DON! HELP!" Theodore bellowed as he floated above the flagstones with Ven Allison's feet just barely dragging against the ground. Mercifully A'vera Grace promptly arrived at the backdoor with a tray of baked cookies in her hands—one which swiftly crashed to the floor—and A'Don Pogo at her side.
"Master Theodore…?" A'Don Pogo breathed, eyes blown wide at the sight before him. Looking at the boy with new eyes, the ape wasn't quite sure if he was seeing Vanya's boy or an angel come to deliver their dearly departed.
"I—I don't think she's breathing!" Theodore panicked, breaking them from their stupors. "If we don't hurry, she's gonna die!"
A few short harried moments later the four of them found themselves stuffed into the academy's infirmary with Ven Allison strapped to a gurney and entangled in a series of wires and tubes to make sure that she was still breathing. It was only once she was (relatively) stable enough—with Theodore stood at the head of the bed, pinching the wound closed as much as possible—that A'Vera Grace then moved onto unravelling the impromptu bandage from around Ven Allison's neck and then quickly went about carefully cleaning up around the edges of the wound & picking out the knitwear fibres. It was at that point that all of his dons burst through the infirmary doors, each wearing various expressions of stressed panic and harried worry.
"BOYS!" A'Don Pogo scowled as the doors slammed up against the walls as they were opened with far too much force, making Theodore jump at the sudden noise. Luckily enough his hands remained slapped against Ven Allison's throat, staunching the blood as best he could despite this.
"How is she?!" Don Luther demanded, rushing forward to Ven Allison's bedside.
"Is she okay?!" Don Diego added, taking up the other side; whilst Don Fën and Don Klaus each scatted themselves around their sister.
"She's suffered a severe laceration to her larynx" A'Vera intoned factually—robotically—as she inserted the IV drip with practised hands. "One of you will have to give blood"
"I will!" All five Hargreeves boys chorused in tandem.
"I'm doing it!" Don Luther insisted, pushing his way to the front as he prepared to roll up his sleeve.
"I'm afraid that's not possible, my dear boy" A'Don Pogo gently denied as he handed the android a new pair of gloves to exchange for her current bloody & fuzzy ones. "You're blood is more compatible with mine"
"Hey! Don't sweat it, big guy!" Don Klaus piped up when he took notice of Don Luther's downtrodden expression and began petting his arm to bring the necessary veins to the surface. "I love needles—!"
"—Master Klaus, your blood is…how shall I say this?" A'Don Pogo interjected again, "Too…polluted"
"Move, I'll do it" Don Diego tried next as A'Don denied their second donor. At least until he saw the needle that A'Vera was prepping to insert into him and then his face quickly dropped a few shades, paling to the point of paper before he fell to the floor in a dead faint.
"Ooh! Geez!" Don Klaus hissed as he went to catch his brother, only to abort at the last minute.
"Hey, numb nuts! We're here to bleed for Ven Allison" Theodore exclaimed as he exchanged places with Don Fën and rolled up his sleeve (the one unbound by his cast), before presenting his arm to A'Vera."And you three are taking all the fun right out of it!"
"…Fun?" Don Fën scowled.
"Yeah" Theodore nodded, "Bleed and get a cookie"
"She's dying!"
"Oh for Lore's sake! Just give it here! And hook me up!" Theodore shoved his arm under A'Vera's nose, who then made quick work of swabbing down his arm and inserting said needle into him. "Tss!"
"Are you all right?" Don Klaus asked as Theodore hissed at the feeling of the needle shoved into his arm.
"Yeah" Theodore nodded, although his brows furrowed at the strange feeling of blood being drained out of him.
"Wait—!" Don Fën protested as he watched the viscous blue liquid filter from one to the other.
"What…?" Theodore asked as he warily eyed up his smallest don.
"What's your blood type?!"
"O negative" Theodore replied, leaning slightly back from his intense don. "Why?"
"O negative; that's—that's good, right?" Don Klaus nervously asked for clarification.
"Universal donor" Don Fën sighed in relief as Don Diego began to come around.
"And why is it blue?!" Don Luther demanded, far more intensely than was needed.
"…Cause of the loralite?" Theodore replied, although it sounded more like a question than an answer.
"The what now?"
"Loralite. All the Garde have it" Theodore shrugged, " 'Cause, y'know, we're not human. Well, not all the way"
"What?!" Don Luther cried, "Are you saying that there are other bits in there?!"
"Yeah…" Theodore drawled.
"That's kinda the point of alien blood, Luther" Don Diego replied as he shakily stood to his feet and quietly accepted Don Klaus' shoulder to lean on.
"Wha—! Then take it out—!" Don Luther exclaimed as he moved to rip out the needle.
"—Master Luther" A'Don Pogo (thankfully) intervened before the man could even cross the room. Still, Theodore shuffled back a pace or two from his tallest don with a look of fear dwelling in his eyes. "It's fine. Your father discovered that when loralite comes in contact with the human anatomy, it helps to heal you faster"
"…Oh"
"Wait—!" Theodore piped up, turning to his a'don with confusion pinching at his brow. "How did A'Doro figure that out?"
"Well, how did you?" A'Don retorted in kind.
"Ah…" Theodore sheepishly scratched at his cheek, as he recalled the time that Doro had gone to slap a plaster on one of his grazed knees, only to find that the blue blood had dribbled from one hand to the other, and healed the woodworking cuts which had littered his hands from years of work. "…Lucky guess?"
"What…?" This time Don Luther turned back to Theodore with his own brow furrowed so low in confusion and puzzlement that it formed a single shelf across his narrowed eyes.
"Don't look at me!" Theodore waved his free hand in surrender, "It's in me, but I don't know what it all does!"
"How can you not know what it does?" Don Fën asked, eyes narrowed in calculation. "It's your blood!"
"Do you know every last little thing about how your own body works?" Theodore retorted in kind as he started to feel a little woozy from all the blood loss.
"Humphf!"
Some time later, when A'Vera Grace had deemed Ven Allison suitably supplied with blood and Theodore was feeling far more woozy than ever before, the Human Garde found himself sat on a nearby infirmary bed in the adjoining room where Ven Allison still lay on the gurney in the surgery room. There, Theodore sat with his head tilted back just so, so that she could swab his empty socket and make sure that is was throughly clean before she gave him a new eye patch to cover the hole. His last one had come off in the harried flight back to the academy and was now likely tangled in some telephone wire or outreaching tree branch.
Humming absently to the tune of Teddy Bears' Picnic, the boy could only watch & listen to his dons as they bickered with each other over what to do next as his tongue danced towards the ridiculously long straw which had been stabbed into the juice box at his side. This one was his fifth and the plate of cookies at his side invitingly called his name, promising to be full of chocolate chippy goodness when he finally got around to eating them; y'know, if Don Klaus didn't eat them all first. Next to him, Don Klaus seemed to be quite enjoying the pleasant little tune as his feet tapped along to the childish nursery rhyme on the linoleum flooring.
"Ya having fun there, Teddy Bear?" Don Klaus smiled as he eventually tucked his tapping feet up under him where he sat next to the boy on the bed. Theodore just spared him a rather loopy grin as he watched his don help himself to another cookie despite the put-out pout on the boy's lips.
"…The bastard that nearly killed our sister is still out there!" Don Diego raged as he paced back and forth across the room. "With Vanya. We need to go after him!"
"Vanya is not important" Don Fën huffed in frustration.
"Hey!" Don Diego glared furiously at his brother as he spun sharply on his heel to face him.
"Grrrr!" In tandem, Theodore pinned his smallest don with a narrow-eyed glare (as much as possible) and a low growl rumbled from his throat, reverberating from his chest, in warning.
"Easy, Teddy—!" Don Diego held up a soothing hand to the boy in the hopes of calming him, before he turned to his brother. "And need I remind you, that's your sister that you're talking about! A little heartless, even for you, Five"
"I'm not saying that I don't care about her" Don Fën chastised him as he spared a wary glance over at Theodore who was now fitting the new eye patch around his head. "But if the apocalypse happens today, then she dies along the other seven billion of us! Harold Jenkins is the first priority—"
"—Wait, wait, wait! Wasn't she on that missive too? Y'know, 'Protect Harold Jenkins AND Vanya Hargreeves?" Don Klaus raised his hand in question, waving it about in the air above his head.
"Yes. But no one's seen hide nor hair of her for four days" Don Fën grit out through clenched teeth. "For all we know, she's already dead!"
"GRRR!" This time when Theodore growled threateningly, items within the room rattled as the floor beneath them tremble just enough to send Don Fën stumbling back a pace or two.
"Easy, Teddy, easy!" Don Diego tried again, placing himself between the irate boy and his brother. "He didn't mean it! Did you, Five?"
"Actually—" Don Fën began.
"—Did you, Five?"
"…No"
Thankfully that seemed to be enough to assuage any of Theodore's concerns as the room quickly settled back to its original state (save for a few things that had been knocked over in the impromptu quake) and Theodore ceased his growling. Although that didn't mean he thought Don Fën was off of the hook because he continued to glare at his smallest uncle, even as he picked and nibbled at the leftover cookies that Don Klaus had oh so kindly left behind.
"Whey! But that still doesn't answer the 'Vanya' question!" Don Klaus piped up again as he idly kicked his feet in boredom.
"Well, we all saw that new temper of hers" Don Fën shrugged as he shoved his hands in his pockets, And she seemed to have it out for Allison in particular, so whose to say?"
"Wait, wait, wait—! Are you suggesting that Vanya tried to kill Allison? Vanya? Our little sister? Y'know, the one that was worried about Luther wanting to be astronaut because of the space worms that would crawl out of his nose? Remember, that one?" Don Klaus exclaimed as he jumped to his feet in agitation. "But to kill her own sister? That's pretty far-fetched, even for you, Five!"
"Well…" Don Diego winced.
"Well, what?" Don Fën puzzled.
"It's…it's not as far-fetched as you might think…"
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Uh…"
"It means that the only likely reason Vera might've done…that" Theodore interjected, explaining what Don Diego seemed to be having trouble to do so. "Is if Ven tried to threaten either myself or Doro"
"Why would that matter?" Don Fën puzzled as he swung around to face the boy.
"Because: a) Lorics are extremely territorial—like burn the world, territorial—and b) Lorics mate for life. Y'know, like penguins"
"Penguins?"
"Uh huh"
"So, y'all are like that lil' claymation penguin?" Don Klaus grinned giddily as his mind wandered.
"…Oh, please don't start calling me 'Pingu!" Theodore begged as he quickly connected the dots. It seemed the both of them had watched the cartoon at some point (Theodore as a child and Klaus when he was stoned).
"Too late!" Don Klaus chirped, suddenly all sunshine and rainbows again.
"Ugh!" Theodore collapsed back on the bed with a roll of his eyes.
"If they—the Lorics, that is—mate for life" Don Fën mused aloud, "Then what happens if you choose wrong?"
"Then you're stuck" Theodore shrugged noncommittally. "Hence, y'know, my mass-murdering doro"
"So, we've got a territorial and mass-murdering ticking time bomb on our hands?" Don Fën sighed heavily as he raked a tired hand through his hair and down his face. "Perfect"
"Perfect? How is any of this perfect?" Don Klaus exclaimed, "We still need to find them!"
"Agreed" Don Fën nodded shortly, "Let's go"
"Go? Go where?" Don Diego scoffed, "In case you've forgotten, Jenkins' house is ash, the cabin was clearly abandoned and now we have no idea where they might be! Face it! The only clue we still have left is your ridiculous eye!"
"Speaking of eyes" Don Fën turned to Theodore with an expectant air about him as he plucked the glass eye from his pocket and chucked it at the boy, "Theodore"
"Hm?" Theodore propped himself up onto his elbows just in time to see the projectile flying at him. "Oh, geez!"
Quickly hopping upright, the boy fumbled with the eye for a moment as it rebounded off of his forehead and landed in his palms as he resituated himself once more. His head ached a little from the impact and he wouldn't be surprised if it bruised later because of it. Don Fën had a good arm, even if he wasn't aiming to hit that hard. "What's this for?" Theodore asked, inspecting the eye.
"I need to check something" Don Fën replied, "That eye of yours, when'd you lose it, again?"
"Uh" Theodore blinked at the strange line of questioning, "When I was seven years old, why?"
"Just curious"
"Mm" Theodore was getting annoyed with Don Fën's frustratingly vague answers, but the recent blood loss was still making him a little loopy and carefree.
"Actually, y'know, Vanya never really said" Don Diego hummed in thought. "How did you lose that eye?"
"Ah, y'know" Theodore rolled the dirty glass eye around in his hands, "Vera & Doro were arguing about something—one of his notebooks, I think—and it got kinda outta hand. I went to intervene and ended up getting hit in the eye. Vera threw Doro through the wall and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital. The docs said it was too damaged to keep, so they took it out. Didn't get the new eye 'til a couple of months later though, when Vera sold all those books"
This week just seemed to be going to Hell in a hand basket as far as Five was concerned. Coming back home to stop the apocalypse, reuniting with his family that were the same & different all at the same time and meeting the next generation. He had quickly found out just how much the world had changed in the time he had been gone as he dealt with all these new hiccups that had cropped up as he tracked down the one lead that had become almost like talisman for him in the years that he had been gone. Not to mention his father's death and the burgeoning thesis that his nephew, his sister and her baby daddy may very well be the reason the world ended in the first place. It was almost too much for one person to bare.
"Huh" Theodore hummed as he inspected the glass eye in his hand, twisting it this way and that to better see if anything was familiar about it.
"What?" Five perked up. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what peeked the interest of his nephew, regarding the eye in his hand.
"It's weird" Theodore replied, still not looking up from the eye, "This one looks like mine—like exactly like mine—it's even got the little scratch in the back where Mr Puddles tried to eat it"
"Mr Puddles?" Klaus puzzled, brows pinched together in confusion.
"Mrs K's cat" Theodore said.
"Who?"
"It's his neighbour-slash-babysitter" Diego explained.
"Oh"
"…Let's see" Five piped up, nodding to the eye and his nephew.
"See what?" Theodore puzzled, finally sparing his uncle a look.
"I think what Fivey here" Klaus grinned as he slung his arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. Even though Five struggled to get free, he didn't totally mind the contact; it grounded him, reminding him that they were real, that this was all real. "Is trying to say is: put it on!"
"I'm not putting this thing in my head!" Theodore refused as his face scrunched up in a disgruntled & disgusted expression. "At least not without disinfecting it first. Lore! This thing is gross!"
"As opposed to your one?" Diego cocked a brow at the boy.
"Eh…" Theodore nodded his head in acquiesce before spitting on the glass eye to scrub off as much of the muck as he could. Once deemed relatively clean, Theodore pulled off his new eye patch and shoved the glass eye into his socket with practised hands before he turned to face his uncles. "Happy?"
"…Same pupil size, same eye colour" Five moved closer to inspect Theodore's eyes—both real and fake—with a sort of excitement that warred with the apprehension at being so close to one of the possible apocalyptic triggers.
"Yeah, but loads of kids have brown eyes like that" Diego brushed off his concerns as he watched his smallest brother practically buzz in his shoes. "That doesn't mean anything"
"No?" Five scoffed, cocking a disbelieving brow at his brother before turning back to his nephew. "Theodore? What's the serial number for your eye?"
"Uh…SH1 4150QK76450" Theodore replied, easily listing off the serial number with ease. "Why?"
"…" Five stopped at that. It was one thing to suspect that Theodore was involved with doomsday, but it was another thing entirely to confirm it.
"Don? Hello? Fën?" Theodore waved his hand in front of his uncle's wide-eyed, open-mouthed and unblinking stare. It was really starting to unnerve him. "I think he's broken"
"Understatement of the century!" Klaus cackled, clapping his hands in glee.
Striding across the room, Diego quickly grabbed Five by his elbow and dragged him aside, so that he could talk to his brother without further upsetting their nephew. "Five, what the actual hell are you going on about, huh? What's with all these questions?" Diego hissed.
"Don't you see, Diego?" Five retorted as he was manhandled aside and pulled from his stupor. "The eye that I've been carrying around for years; it's finally found its home!"
"And you expect us to believe that Theodore is going to end the world? A twelve year old?"
"…He did blow up that school of his" Klaus helpfully interjected as he skipped over to join the hushed conversation.
"See?" Five gestured to Klaus in agreement.
"Yes. Thank you, Klaus" Diego grit out through clenched teeth. "But a school is on thing, the whole freaking world is another!"
"Here's a crazy idea—crazy—Why don't we just ask him?" Klaus proposed before turning to the boy on the bed despite his brothers' protests. "Hey, Ted!"
"Hm?" Theodore hummed as he worked on pulling the old eye from his head and retied the eye patch around the empty socket once more.
"Why'd you blow up that school?"
"…I, uh, panicked" Theodore replied shamefully as he quickly ducked his head so that he could hide behind his curls.
"See?" Klaus swung back around, "So we just gotta make sure the kid's not gonna blow his top and we'll be fine"
"So what?" Diego hissed, "You wanna dose him like Dad did to Vanya? Is that what you're saying? You wanna lock him up too? Cause I've got news for you—!"
"—If that's what it takes" Five replied shortly as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Five!" Klaus gasped in shock, not quite able to believe that his brother would go that far.
"It's one life versus billions!" Five argued, unable to see how his brothers couldn't grasp this simple fact. "Whatever happens in the next few days somehow involves Theodore and his parents; so as long as they never meet and we keep him docile, things'll be fine and dandy!"
"…" Diego sighed dispassionately as he drew himself up to his full height, squaring his shoulders as he did so.
"What?" Five hissed, narrowing his eyes at his brother in a glare.
"Nothing" Diego replied with forced nonchalance. "I just can't believe its taken you 58 years to finally turn into Dad"
"I am nothing like the old man!" Five refuted angrily.
"Oh really?" Diego sneered, crossing his arms. "Then enlighten me, how is dosing your nephew and locking him away isn't something that Dad would do? Something that he hasn't already done?"
"…He's got a point there" Klaus piped up.
"Klaus, you're not helping" Five dismissed him.
"And neither are you, Five!" Diego steamrolled on, "And when Vanya finds out what you did, I'm not gonna stop her. In fact, I'll help. And you? You're gonna wish you never came back!"