Chapter 4

October 6th, 1997

It had been two days since she had arrived at the academy and the newly named Number Eight still couldn't remember anything. As she was still recovering from her injuries, Mr. Hargreeves had allowed a week for her to rest and get settled before joining the rest of the children in their training and educational studies. Dressed in her academy uniform Number Eight waited outside her bedroom door for Grace to come and collect her, Grace (although she insisted that she be called Mom) had promised her that she would give her a tour of her new home. With her head down Number Eight took to picking the scabs on her hands in an act of nervousness, Grace was still the only person she had spoken to since arriving. On that first day when Klaus arrived to take her down to dinner in the evening, she was so intimidated and taken back by the young boy's enthusiasm and talkative nature that she just allowed him to talk at her the entire walk down to the dining room. He was sweet and had a kind tone to his voice that she knew he meant to harm so she allowed a small smile to form on her face as he went on about the newest prank on his brother Luther or Number One as he had been labeled by his father, her smile was quickly reciprocated by Klaus but that smile was quickly wiped away when they both entered the dining room. Meals, Number Eight had already been warned about were always taken in complete silence but it was eerily haunting as she sat down at the table. Mr. Hargreeves had instructed her to sit in the chair between Number 5 and Number 7, across from her she recognised the young boy called Number 6, while they ate their meal she could feel all eyes on her, she felt so exposed that she only managed to eat half of the food on her plate, as she waited for the rest of the children to finish and for Mr. Hargreeves to dismiss them she couldn't help but notice something unusual.

Number Eight knew that she had a unique gift, it was one of the first words Mr. Hargreeves had addressed to her when he entered her hospital room the evening of October 1st, he seemed to know all about her gift: Emotion and Memory manipulation. She had the ability to sense a person's emotion, each emotion has a distinctive sensation to her so she was able to tell if someone was hiding what they really felt, the other aspect of her gift was that she was able to enter a person's mind and wander through their memories, watch them happen as if she was there in real-time. How Mr. Hargreeves knew all of this information about her had scared her but the man did not seem to be interested in her reaction to his knowledge of the child lying in the hospital bed before him, but interested more in helping her uncover the 'manipulation' aspect of her gift. What that would entail in her future, Number Eight was anxious to find out, but at that moment she focused on the emotions she sensed from the others seated at the table, or more specifically the lack of emotions from the head of the table. Now that she thought about it since she had been in the protection of Mr. Hargreeves she hadn't been able to sense as much from him, he had an indifferent look upon his face whenever she was in his presence, there was never any happiness or love, the only time she would ever sense any form of emotion from him they would be negative, but even that was muffled. The emotionless void he projected was louder than all of the other children's curiosity and boredom combined, it was as if there was a locked door keeping her out and she had no access to the key.

"Good morning Number 8, I hope you are ready and excited for your tour?"

Grace's cheery tone brought Number Eight out of her daydream and she immediately looked up to see the bright eyes and smiling face of the woman who had been so kind and welcoming to her.

"I am."

"I'm glad to hear it, now what would you like to see first, we have the many grand rooms to see is there anything of interest to you?"

"Is there anywhere that has books?"

Grace looked down at the small girl her smile growing wider than ever.

The room they stepped into moments later was bigger than any room Number Eight had ever been in, larger than any of the rooms at the hospital or the rooms she had been in since her arrival at the academy. The broad daylight did not reach the room, instead, it was the hanging lights above them that lit the two-tiered hall, antique leather bound booked stacked high on shelves that surrounded the room. Number Eight looked around in awe, for her the room had an aura that was as peaceful as nature, she felt as if she could drown in the ocean of tranquility. Walking over to the corner of the ground floor she let her hands skim over the spines of the books the titles excited her, she couldn't wait to read every single one. Picking up a random title from the shelf and starting to read, a smile formed on her face, that smile quickly disappeared when noises from above her made her jump back dropping the book she was holding. She looked up to see seven faces staring down at her, some giving her wide smiles, others didn't look quite so friendly and one just looked curiously down at her, his head tilted at an angle.

"Children, please return to your Latin, your father will not be pleased if half the work is completed." The voice belonged to Pogo, she remembered meeting the chimpanzee very briefly on her first day of the academy but it was enough to grow fond of the creature, she was not frightened of him in any way as she sensed he was harmless. The seven Hargreeves siblings slowly disappeared from the edge of the 2nd floor where Number Eight could only guess where the school room was located. The heavy sound of the library doors opening brought Number Eight back into her reality and she watched as Grace gestured for her to follow her back outside so that the rest of the tour could be completed. After class was complete Pogo dismissed the children, and they were allowed one hour's rest before dinner, Five watched on as the rest of his siblings ran out of the library with haste, desperate to get back to whatever it was they did in the comfort of their rooms. He was just about to blink away to his room when suddenly something caught his eye, a book spread out on the floor in the far left corner of the ground floor same place their new housemate had been an hour previous, curious he blinked over and picked up the book from the floor flicking through the pages skimming its contents. A small smirk formed on his face and without hesitation blinked away to his room.

—

Walking back to their shared apartment Seph couldn't help but feel a little guilty, she had been so angry after what Diego had said to her that she had hastily left the mansion without even leaving a message or note to say where she had gone. Vanya of course didn't need a note for she always knew where Seph went when she got too emotional or just needed time alone. Her painting studio. It was the only space Seph would allow the bottled-up emotions to spill out and let loose, she would let her art absorb everything she was feeling, take away all she felt until the weight was gone from her mind and she felt like she could breathe again. Diego's words had circulated in her head since she left the courtyard, of course, she was angry, he had loudly confirmed everything she had feared. She wasn't family, they all never thought of her as family, as for her lack of memory, there was always a part of her that thought maybe Reginald knew, after all, he knew about her powers as well as where to find her in that hospital all those years ago. Was it that ridiculous to believe that the old man was that sadistic that he would keep her former life a secret from her? As she was making her way up the stairs to the second floor she could hear Mrs. Kowalski in her apartment loudly calling out for her cat, this had made it the second time this month that cat had gone missing making it in total ten times so far that year. Sometimes Seph wished her powers were speaking to animals so she could finally find out what that cat's deal was, as she was just placing the key in the lock she heard Mrs. Kowalski call up to her, not even listening Seph rolled her eyes in frustration, opening the door at the same time as she yelled back

"I haven't seen him, Mrs. Kowalski, how the hell am I meant to know if Mr. Puddles is in my apartment, I've been at a fucking funeral all day! You know, you might want to consider getting a pet that doesn't fuck off every other week like I don't know a goldfish! But I have a feeling that the poor thing would rather drown itself than spend one week with you, you motherfu-" Her whole body froze when she turned around to face both Vanya and Five sitting on the sofa in front of her, Vanya seemed to be frozen in her task of what looked to be bandaging up Five's arm, a familiar smirk was forming on his face at the sight of the slightly intoxicated girl clogging to the door handle. The door was closed as quickly as it was opened and Seph couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed, that feeling quickly went away when she saw just how much Five was bleeding,

"What the hell, are you okay, what happened?"

"Like I was just telling Vanya, it's nothing."

"Bullshit. Vanya scoot over, let me dot it no offense but you know I'm better at this." It wasn't said as a jab, it was more like a blunt fact, in the middle of missions when the team (mainly Klaus) got wounded it ended up being Seph more than anyone else that patched them up on-site, and first aid became second nature to her, and looking at Vanya she seemed quite grateful for someone to take over as Seph soon found out the gash on Five's arm was very deep and clean, whatever blade had done it was sharp. After undoing the work Vanya had attempted Seph started to redo cleaning and bandaging Five's arm all the while staying silent, concentrating hard on her task. After a few seconds of silence Five shifted slightly as he began to speak up he was looking at Vanya but his words were directed at both of them.

"When I jumped forward and got stuck in the future, do you know what I found?"

"No."

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Seph now finished with her work leaned back in her seat and watched on silently as Five continued to speak, soon after her head began to hurt, but in this case, it wasn't due to any overwhelming emotions in the room. While at her art studio earlier that evening she had opened one of the big bottles of whiskey she kept there whenever she needed to get some 'inspiration', now she was regretting it, Five began to speak again and Seph couldn't help but notice just how calm he looked.

"As far I could tell, I was the last person alive. I never figured out what killed the human race, but… I did find something else. The date it happens."

There was no emotion on his face, in his voice, it was as if he had prepared for this moment, practiced those words, but Seph was not ready for his final statement.

"The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it."

The silence that followed though it was only half a second felt like an hour, it was as if the entire world had gone silent, Seph only tore herself away from staring at Five her face laced with fear when she heard Vanya quietly mutter,

'I'll pot on a pot of coffee.'

—

Run Boy Run

"I survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find. You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well, it's total bullshit."

"I can't even imagine."

Seph just sat in silence as Five told his story to the pair of them, of the day he left all those years ago, of the day she consistently had nightmares about. She sat there in-between Vanya and Five as he spoke about the moment he jumped too far forward and when he realised he was unable to jump back. Sensing the regret not only in his words but in his mind Seph was careful not to interrupt him she just sat and listened, this was something that he needed to say, to finally let go of the weight he had been carrying for years,

"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."

"We?" Looking over at Vanya, it was obvious that she too was curious as to who Five was referring to, he had mentioned a 'Delores' back in the kitchen just a couple of hours ago, was this the same person?

"You got anything stronger?"

Seph watched from the living room as Vanya poured a large glass of whatever cheap liquor they had in the cupboard, instead of going with them and risk making Five feel cornered she stayed where she was and cleared the table. Collecting the old bandage that Five had originally used to treat his wound as well as the rest of the first aid supplies Vanya had brought out and moved them off to the side, when she was finished she decided to take her own belongs that she had dumped at the door earlier and take them to her room. As she silently went about the apartment she could hear the conversation that was still going on in the kitchen,

"You think I'm crazy."

"No. It's just… it's a lot to take in."

"Exactly what don't you understand?"

"Why didn't you just time travel back?"

Seph had just reached her room when she winced at Vanya's question, it was innocent enough but Seph knew better, as she hung up her coat in her wardrobe she could hear Five's sarcasm loud and clear,

"Gee, wish I'd thought of that. Time travel is a crapshoot I went into the ice and never acron-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family, back to you, back to Seph."

Desperation, anger, pain she could feel all of it radiate off Five. She didn't realise it but Seph has started to cry, she had never heard Five like this before, taking small steps she slowly left her room trying to stay invisible as the conversation continued.

"If you grew old there, you know, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid?"

"I told you already. I must have got the equations wrong."

"I mean, Dad always used to say that time travel could mess up your mind. Maybe that's what happening?"

The sudden sound of the glass hitting the side made Seph flinch, trying quickly to wipe away the tears that were still forming on her face, the anger in Five was growing, "This was a mistake. You're too young, too naive to understand."

"No. Five…Five wait, wait." He was still heading for the door, even with Vanya begging him to stop, it was happening all over again. He was leaving. The memory stirred in her mind, of her, sitting on the staircase of the Umbrella Academy waiting for him to walk through the doors, for him to come back. Another memory stirred of being dragged back to her room at three in the morning by Pogo and Grace because she refused to move from the said staircase as she was scared that he would come home and not have a friendly face to welcome him home. But he never did, and she was scared that it was happening again.

"Five please."

She didn't think he would hear her, the words were so quiet but he paused at the door and looked at her, his eyes immediately softened with a small nod he stepped back slowly from the door. Taking this as a good sign Vanya spoke again,

"We haven't seen you in a long time and we don't want to lose you again. That's all. And you know it's getting late, and I have lessons early, and I need to sleep, and I'm sure you do too. Here, we'll talk in the morning again. Okay? I promise." Both Seph and Five watched from their places in the apartment as Vanya brought out the spare blanket leaving it on the side of the sofa for Five, as she headed past Seph to her room she quickly grasped Seph's hand giving it a quick squeeze with one final smile she turned back to see Five starting to walk back slowly towards the kitchen counter where the discarded bottle of drink was been left.

"Night."

"Night."

—

Once Vanya had closed her door the pair of them both stood in complete silence, fully aware that a couple of tears were still running down her face Seph quickly wiped her face with her sleeve and immediately started walking towards the sofa they had previously been sat,

'Hey, you can take my room. It's okay I'll take the couch, I prefer it most nights." Keeping her eyes down so that she didn't have to meet the curious gaze from Five Seph began to anxiously fidget and fiddle with her fingers, a small chuckle escaped her and she finally looked up to meet his eyes "Anyway I don't think I'm going to be sleeping much tonight, not after… you know."

Instead of saying anything Five just simply tilted his head, gave small smile then turned around to open back up the bottle of whiskey,

"I was actually going to finish this before I did anything else, join me." It wasn't a question, more of a statement as he was already pouring a large second glass for her, soon enough the pair of them sat back down as they previously were. The next few minutes were shared in comfortable silence, after a few sips of his drink Five cleared his voice bringing Seph's attention away from the drink she seemed to be more interested in staring at.

"You weren't in the house after the ashes ceremony, where did you go?"

Finally deciding now was a good time to finally stop staring at her glass Seph looked up, she had a feeling that he might ask where she went,

"Oh yeah, I um, needed some air." Hoping that he would be satisfied with her answer she gave him a small smirk, the response she got in instead was an annoying glare and a raised eyebrow so she quickly took a sip of her drink and continued, as she spoke she allowed her fingers to trace the indents on her whiskey glass.

"It's funny after I left the academy I tried to get into therapy, Vanya got me in touch with someone, she thought that it might help my anger issues."

For the first time in a long time she heard Five chuckle, it was low and quiet but it was genuine,

"Anger issues, you? I can't possibly see why Vanya thinks that." His laugh and smile were infectious and soon enough Seph was smiling wider than she had done in days, holding back her laughter as she was worried about waking Vanya up she simply shook her head and played along,

"Yeah, it's a real mystery. It's not like I have any history with that sort of thing." She knew that all the joking in the world wouldn't be enough to stir the conversation away from the original question so she sucked it up, took another sip of her drink, and carried on,

"I went to paint, I needed to vent out my shit on a canvas, that's what she told me to do, used to work for me as a kid turns out it still works."

"What did to paint?"

Now, this was the question she was waiting for, she chuckled so hard she snorted and gave Five a wicked smirk,

"Oh, it's beautiful, one of my best yet. It's me stabbing Diego in the dick with his own knife, with a satisfying smile on my face as I do it might I add."

"That I would like to see, have you named this masterpiece?"

"Yeah 'Diego Hargreeves: The Dickless Dickhead! Part 1 of the series: Karma's a Bitch!"

"Perfect." For a while they just smiled softly at each other and fell into another comfortable silence, it was like when they were kids back in the academy, the pair of them could sit with each other in either one of their rooms for hours without speaking a word to each other, they just appreciated the others company.

"But what he said, you know it's not true right." His words broke the silence and of course, Seph knew he was referring to what Diego had said, bringing her eyes back down to the whiskey glass she was still holding she closed her eyes and tried to keep her breath steady. With soft eyes, Five leaned forward and placed his hand on her forearm,

"And your memories, you'll get them back"

"I think you and I both know that's never going to happen. Now the bit about me being broken and a burden to the rest of you, well that was new I didn't even think that I might have to worry about that, looks like I'm going to be overthinking about that for a couple of weeks." Shaking off Five's hand she downed the rest of her drink in one easy movement, Five watched on with a hurt look on his face his next words were so quiet but just loud enough for Seph to hear him,

"You are and never were a burden not to me anyway."

Downing the rest of his own drink Five cleared his throat and looked on as Seph went back to tracing the lines on her glass, but the small smile that appeared on her lips after his words didn't go unnoticed,

"I knew it was you the second I fell into that courtyard, you looked just as I remembered."

With a tilted head Seph peered intently up at Five, "What are you talking about?" She watched as Five took a breath as if he was composing himself before speaking back up,

"There was a week, I can't remember how old I was. Over time the years all merged but I want to say I was in my early late 20s, early 30s. I got sick, I had a fever, I couldn't keep anything down, and I barely slept. I had a moment where I generally thought 'This is it, I am never going to get back to see you all again, no goodbyes no nothing.' But then I saw you."

"Come again?"

"I saw you in the middle of nowhere and you stayed with me until I got better then you disappeared."

"Five, you were sick, it must have been the fever and lack of sleep messing with your mind making you hallucinate -"

"I know, but that's not the worst part."

"What's the worst part?"

"That week was one of the only weeks I felt like myself again, for the first time in all those years I finally had the missing part of me back, I was so angry that you disappeared, that I was alone again. I got so desperate I tried to purposely make myself ill, just so I could see you again."

Shame. That was all she sensed from him and she was terrified,

"Five, no" But before she could even attempt to scold him for his stupidity he just laughed,

"It never worked. It was only one week I had with a version of you. Delores finally talked some sense into me so I stopped; carried on surviving, working on a way to come home."

Neither of them spoke for several minutes, Seph wanted to say something but how was she able to respond to such a confession. Any attempt of comforting him would just result in him pulling away, at least that's what he used to do as a kid, after 42 years would he still react the same? She didn't want to risk it. The silence was dragging on for too long and Five could see Seph's inner conflict, reaching over to the bottle he refilled both glasses making sure both of them were at least doubles; finally, the bottle was finished. Taking the glass in her hand Seph once again kept her eyes low but gave a chuckle

"Is this your way of trying to tell me that you missed me?"

"Well, I didn't want to be obvious... I lied to Vanya."

That last statement quickly made the smile that had formed on her face moments prior disappeared and a look of confusion washed over her face,

"Lied? What did you lie about?"

"I said I came here, to her, because she was the only one I could trust. In reality, I came here for you. I need your help. The world will end in 8 days unless we work out how to stop it, you are the only person on this earth that I know I can always rely on. I know I left you and I will forever hate myself for it but - there is no one else I would rather try to save the world with than you."

As she was listening to him Seph realised that this was the first time he had ever asked for her help, the first time any of the Hargreeves had asked for her help. She was never asked for her help by people, people just expected it of her, maybe it was because throughout her life in the academy she was always the person to offer her services, and soon enough it just became the norm. Was this what it felt like to feel needed, there was a small look of desperation in Five's eyes which was what convinced her that his whole story was true. Five never got scared, never asked for help never once had she ever seen him look desperate so this 'apocalypse' that he lived through, this event that started his life's mission to come home and stop it ever happening, was real. For the final time, she fidgeted with the glass before putting it down and meeting his eyes with a look of determination.

"So what's the plan?"