It's time to return to the mansion, dear readers. Alexei has been avoiding it for too long, as well as avoiding his dear siblings. What will happen when a funeral forces this group of damaged individuals to examine their traumas and try to reconcile after so much time apart? Let's find out!

As always, I want to thank people for reading this fic. I'm trying to make this a more consistent thing, so I am pumping these out as quickly as I can. I'm going to try to write for the others as well as writing for Alexei. Hopefully, I'm not too out of character. I will also be pulling certain pieces of dialogue from the show for this chapter and any chapters onwards.

Now I must commence the disclaiming so that I do not get sued and sent to prison.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Umbrella Academy or its characters. These rights belong to Gerard Way and Netflix.

Chapter 2

On the outside, the Hargreeves mansion was a pristine institution that was the home of the world's premium fighting force. On the inside though, it was a hub brimming with broken dreams and lots of pain. A puppy could go in cute and cuddly, then come out a snarling beast bent on murdering everything that comes in contact with it. This house, with its large interior, stood as a reminder of all the bad that we experienced. It is because of this house that 8 formerly inseparable kids drifted apart and would never see each other again. Except for 2 of them, of course.

I hadn't thought about this sinister house since Vanya and I left, coming to a mutual twin agreement like we always did. We moved into an apartment for a little while after we moved out. We managed to get an apartment with two bedrooms that connected through the bathroom. Sadly, things soured very quickly. We argued about the whole power situation and I moved out. If I remember correctly, I accidentally blew out the power and stormed out in anger.

Since then, I've moved out, gotten married to my husband, and become a college professor. Vanya decided to write an autobiography about her life as a member of the Umbrella Academy. She pretty much smeared everyone except me, Five, and Ben. I'd have to say that it was a very interesting read. It was so interesting that I even assigned it to my students. I can only imagine how angry the others were, especially Luther.

Now I'm driving to her apartment complex, about to take us both back to the mansion so we can attend the funeral of a man that we couldn't care less about. What does it look like? Is it as neat as I left it? Will she even be happy to see me?

As if to answer my question, I see her smiling at me solemnly on the porch wearing long black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. I am wearing a basic long-sleeved dress shirt with black pants, a black suit jacket, and my classiest dress shoes. I've always been told that dressing up for the occasion is important, no matter the venue.

I get out of the car and she gives me a huge embrace. "Hey, Alex. I've missed you," she says, trying not to cry. It's kinda hard to explain it but I cry too. It hadn't been that long, but I missed my sister.

"I'm so sorry that we fought V. I didn't mean a word of it," I said back, meaning every single word.

With that out of the way, we both got in the car and began our descent into the madness that would no doubt ensue.

"Are we the first ones here?" I asked, confused. The mansion was empty as if we were the only people who came. Granted, we took came in through a more conventional entrance to avoid the others at Vanya's behest.

Just then we saw an African American woman standing in the foyer. This was our sister Allison. She was a very beautiful woman and I could see why she made a name for herself as a movie star. Although, the way she did it wasn't very authentic. But that's a situation I won't get into with her.

"Not quite," she said. "Everyone else is around here somewhere."

Feeling in the spirit of hugging my second favorite sister, I rushed her like a wild animal. "It's so good to see you, Alli," I exclaimed with the exuberance of a schoolgirl. I really was happy to see her.

"It's good to see you too, Alexei," she said back just as happy. "And you too, Vanya," she added tentatively, motioning to hug her. Vanya just gave a half-hearted wave. I could tell that she was a little anxious because of the autobiography.

"I'm honestly surprised you both came," she said jokingly. "The others and I placed bets on whether you would. Well, the betting was more divided on whether you both would come, whether only one of you come, or whether neither of you would."

I quirked an eyebrow, interested in this "bet." "Who won the bet?" I asked inquisitively, hoping that it was her.

"It was Klaus," she said with a chuckle. Of course, Klaus would be the one who voted on us both being here. He lived for causing chaos.

Soon another individual strolled into the main room with the rest of us, a sour look on his face. This man was Hispanic, had z sort of shaved head with a little hair jutting up, and a scar over his left eye. This man was Diego, another sibling who spent his days gallivanting around acting like a vigilante according to the news. This lifestyle choice showed in his funeral attire. He wore an all-black Kevlar jumpsuit as if he was in the middle of fighting some bad guy before coming here.

"I'm surprised that you decided to show your face at all," he said, obviously directing his venom at Vanya. He locked eyes with me and dropped his sour look just a fraction, giving me a curt nod.

"Come on, Diego. I'm sure she feels bad about it," I said coming straight to my twin's defense. It was like we were kids and Vanya was getting yelled at for doing nothing whatsoever. I can understand why he'd be mad at her, but it's not as serious.

"Eat shit, Diego," Allison exclaimed, just as angry at him as I was.

Diego actually raised his eyebrows. Of course, it was only a little, but still. "I can understand him defending her, but you?" he said in Allison's direction. "How can you be defending her after what she did?"

At that moment, I got even angrier.

"And how can you do something like this at Dad's funeral? Today is supposed to be a day for all of us to mourn. Including Vanya."

"Well, she was never included in any other way, now was she?" he said with as much venom as he could muster.

Allison's face falls. Vanya looks like she's about to cry her eyes out. At that moment, the lights in the house start to flicker wildly. It's a good thing that the old man finally decided to use reinforced light bulbs. The amount of times I've blown them is kind of an issue, but it's not as serious as it used to be.

I just leave the room, going upstairs and not even wanting to look Diego in the eye. Things weren't always good between us, but he wasn't usually this much of an asshole.

Feeling bored out of my mind, I go into Dad's master bedroom. I've only ever been in there one time, but it was such a long time ago that I've forgotten. I am then shocked by the sight of a massive, very broad-shouldered man. At least I think it's a man. I can't really be sure. For some reason, this man-thing is rummaging through Dad's stuff.

"Who are you?" I asked aloud. The man-thing startled and turned around, his small head wearing a look of shock.

"Alexei?" the weird man asked, using my name as if it knew who I was. "It's me, Luther."

Did it say its name was Luther? What the heck happened to him? What did Reginald do while we were gone?

Just as I was going to probe this bizarre man who was apparently my brother, another brother who I was still angry at walked right into the room.

"If you guys are looking for the will, you're wasting your time," he states, glances between the both of us, making sure to scowl at Luther.

"Diego," Luther responds simply, glaring back at Diego.

The tension in the room is so thick, if it was fog, you wouldn't be able to see through it.

"What do you want, Diego?" I question. Diego just saunters deeper into the room and stands in front of Luther, completely ignoring me.

"But you're not looking for the will, are you Luther? You're looking for something else," he surmises, touching Luther's overcoat in an annoying manner. "Nice monkey suit," he says with an evil smirk. "It really hides all of this," he adds, waving his other hand as if he's showing Luther off. Luther responds to this by smacking Diego's hand away with a harder glare. These two have been going at it for years. I'm pretty used to it, but it's still irritating.

Diego just walks past and plops down in Dad's favorite armchair with one leg thrown over the side of it.

"What do you want?" Luther prods, echoing my earlier question.

"I'm just saving you some time," he responds, handing Luther a crumpled up piece of paper.

"What is that?" we both ask, Luther more annoyed and me intrigued.

"It's Dad's autopsy report," Diego said, showing us the paper in question. It looked like it was a normal heart attack that killed him, but why is Luther so worried about heart failure?

"First off, how the heck did you get that and secondly, why are you so nosy?" I asked them both, directing the first question at Diego and the latter half at Luther. This whole thing is starting to smell fishy, and not in the fishy kinda way.

"I used my exemplary skills of breaking and entering to break into the coroner's office last night," Diego explained with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Of course he broke into the coroner's office with his skills.

"The point is, Dad's death was caused by boring, old heart failure," he told me and especially Luther.

"Do you think I don't know that?"

"If you knew that, why would you still be in here looking around like something happened?" Diego questioned, obviously trying to ruffle Luther's numerous feathers. Luther didn't even dignify that with an actual response.

"To be fair, it doesn't really look like the room has been ransacked," I offered to them both, taking an even closer look around the room. Although, whatever forensic evidence present would've been trampled by Luther's stocky frame.

Luther proceeded to launch into a tirade about the monocle Dad always used to wear, Diego pressed even more about that subject, Luther got even angrier, and I just left the room. The tension was finally starting to blind me. There have been too many moments where Number 1 tried to keep 2 from throttling the hell outta 3.

It's another day in the Umbrella Academy and I cannot wait to get out of here. With all the craziness of being a superhero stacked on top of being a preteen, I'm honestly surprised I've kept it together this long. With Five missing and Dad betting more snippy than usual, he's paid more attention to me.

Being Number 1 has made some things easier and has made things more annoying. For some reason, Dad expects me to establish my "dominance" over the team whenever a crisis starts to form. This includes conflicts between Luther and Diego, or Number 2 and Number 3 as our father loves to remind me.

Today, the two of them have gotten into an argument about Diego's knives. Apparently, Diego's knives went missing and Luther was the only person seen in proximity to Diego's room. Because of this, Diego has been threatening Luther with bodily harm for three hours.

I honestly wish I'd just stayed in the library but I guess the Number 1 in me kind of felt like I had to, so that what I did.

Following the source of the screaming that was starting to reach high pitched levels, I found Diego and Luther fighting. Not training-fighting, but actual fighting. Diego was going as below the belt with his strikes, poking and prodding spots on Luther's body that would've taken out the regular human. Luckily Luther wasn't the regular human. If he was using his super strength, Diego would be toast, but he's just throwing "light" blows.

"Can you guys stop fighting now?" I asked over the commotion. Diego just looked at me and said, "When he gives my stuff back, I might consider it."

Luther seemed to start getting more and more annoyed by that. "I've told you a thousand times that I don't have your stupid butter knives."

At that remark, Diego gave Luther a swift kick to the jaw.

"If I don't stop them, Luther is gonna raise hell," I thought to myself. "I haven't needed to do this in a long time."

I began rubbing my hands together to generate enough energy. Just as Luther was about to throw what would be the biggest punch I'd seen him throw outside of missions, I aimed my fingertips directly at the two of them and fired.

The shock reached its target, Diego falling unconscious and Luther mildly shocked. With that whole situation over and done, Luther and I decided to just go on the hunt for the knives ourselves, after dragging our sleeping brother to his bed.

It turned out that Klaus stole them the night before and said absolutely nothing. At this, I shocked the heck out of Klaus when no one was looking. It's hard being Number 1.

The next area I decided to visit was the library. For some really weird reason, I felt super compelled to go in there. I suppose it was because Vanya, Five, and I always used to hide out in there. Speaking of my sister, she was in here as well looking for something.

"Whatcha looking for?" I asked her very loudly. She didn't even flinch.

She found what she was looking for and showed it to me. It was a copy of "Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Eight" by Vanya Hargreeves. Of all the books in here, I never would've expected it to be here. I wonder if Reginald read it or not?

"Welcome home, Miss Vanya and Mister Alexei," a familiar voice said. This voice belongs to Pogo, our our manpanzee, so to speak. He's a chimpanzee that can not only walk on to hind legs, but can also speak like a human man. He does whatever Reginald tells him, so he's pretty much the butler, but he also supervises our training and is pretty much a better father than Reginald ever was. He also loves a fan of tweed jackets.

"Pogo!" Vanya and I exclaim excitedly, kneel down to give the monkey man a huge twin hug, which he gingerly reciprocates.

"It's so good to see you both," he tells us. We sit there for a couple more seconds and then we both stand.

Vanya shows Pogo the book and he smiles sadly. "Did he ever read it?" Vanya suddenly asks, with a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Pogo, obviously not wanting to bring down her mood, tried to let her down gently. "As far as I know, he didn't. Your father wasn't a man who disclosed things like that."

I felt terrible. Of course he wouldn't read it. He never paid much attention to her anyway, even when she started excelling in violin playing. The only people he really ever payed attention to were either Luther or me.

Vanya's face hardened and she put the book back on the shelf. She then took Pogo's hand and started walking out of the library with me in tow.

Walking down the corridor led us right to Five's portrait, making us all pause. It was a large painting depicting our brother in his glory.

A handful of years ago, Five disappeared. He and I were pretty inseparable by certain standards. We butt heads sometimes, but that was only when we argued over which one of us was right about something. I'd say that we were almost as close as Vanya and I.

"How long has it been?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Twenty-two years, seven months and sixteen days," he recited. "Your father asked me to keep track."

"Vanya and I used to leave his favorite snacks in the hallway in front of his door, just in case he would come back," I explained.

Pogo looked devastated at that. "Your father always went on about feeling Five's presence, believing that he was out there somewhere. He never gave up hope."

Vanya and I just said nothing. The silence was loud but it said one thing: Look where all that hope put him.

Well, that's Chapter 2. As you guys can see, we've finally made it to a small part of the trauma that we all know is buried deep. We've also gotten to the other members of the academy. I obviously pulled dialogue from the show, but I tried to adlib as much as I could. I even added a little memory blurb outta the blue. There'll probably be more of those in the future, so look out for 'em.

I hope that I've kept everyone as in character as possible so far. The next chapter will start from Allison's perspective so I hope I'll do well with that.

Remember to rate and review. Your praise is greatly appreciated.

With this chapter finished, this is EclipsaLover2003 signing off.