Then
A small deer stood on the meadow, leisurely grazing and chewing his food. It seemingly had no care in the world, other than eating. It was a warm, pleasant day and no sound other than birds chirping in the trees surrounding the meadow could be heard. This pleasantness was suddenly interrupted by a sharp whoosh and a fist-sized stone hit the deer right between its eyes. It slumped to the ground, having been knocked out. A blonde girl on the cusp to womanhood emerged from her hiding spot between a bush and some tall grass, hollering and raising her fist to the sky in triumph. Elizabeth stepped onto the meadow with a smile on her face.
For hours now had she been stalking her prey, careful to always go against the wind and waiting for the perfect opening to strike. She was slowly getting tired. But this deer was just too good an opportunity to give up. If she caught that animal they would have food for weeks. Funny how, just a few years back, this would have been impossible for her; especially only armed with a slingshot and a knife. In the beginning it had been Five who had done everything, her only passively sitting around. But thanks to the years of rigorous training he had put her through she was quite capable now. Five had held true to his word and thought her everything about survival that he knew of. What he didn't know they had both learned from books. Over time they had both become experts in their own rights and now had a real chance of long-term survival.
Elizabeth went over to the unconscious deer, kneeling down and putting her hands together. Closing her eyes she prayed "thank you for sacrificing yourself so that Five and I can survive another couple weeks. It will not be in vain." She promised. Then she took her knife and sliced through the animals throat. A last, shocked gasp from it and it was dead. Killing animals was something she had never liked - she had even considered going vegetarian before the apocalypse - but she had come to accept that this was part of her life now if they wanted to survive. Meat meant food, what they desperately needed, and they were never cruel, delivering the killing blow as swiftly and efficiently as possible so that the animal didn't needlessly suffer.
As she contemplated if it would be easier to take apart the deer now and carry it to their camp in pieces or try pulling it after her in it's whole she suddenly heard a branch crack behind her. The girl straightened up her upper body, though she remained on her knees, and looked behind her. There was nothing and after a few moments of her intently staring into the forest she returned to the deer. Only to suddenly get knocked into from the left side.
Five was suddenly above her, his legs kneeling on both sides of her hip and his hands were holding her own over her head, pushing them into the grass. Five looked down at her with shiny eyes, a small smirk on his lips. He had grown again and now was quite a bit taller than her; his dark hair was long and disheveled and his cheeks and chin in a short and still a bit uneven beard - he was not yet a man, but also not a child anymore. "So… what are you going to do?" He asked, his grin widening and making her heart race. Not because she was afraid - she knew Five would rather hurt himself than earnestly try to hurt her - but because this smirk did something to her. She felt something deep in her belly clench.
This ambush was nothing new. After Five had finished with teaching her the basics he had told her everything else was mostly reacting to situations and trying to guess your opponents moves - especially while fighting. So he had started this game of attacking her whenever he thought she wasn't keeping attention to him, seeing how she reacted to his attacks and explaining what she had done right and wrong afterwards. Five was honestly not a bad teacher.
She tried to pull her right hand holding her bloody knife from his grip, but he only strengthened his hold. "Ah-ah." He drawled with a slightly mocking tone. His eyes wandered to her hand - exactly as she wanted. "Any amateur would have seen you holding the knife. Try to find another-" his speech was cut short when he felt her legs wrap around his own, first forcing them to spread even more, making him loose his balance, and then throwing all of her - although meager - body weight against him. It only took a moment and then it was Elizabeth kneeling over Five. Stunned he looked up at her. And as always, his breath hitched a bit.
Considering what they had gone through until now - the constant fight for survival, food shortage and lack of proper hygiene - Elizabeth was slowly, but gradually, growing into a beautiful woman. In his eyes, anyway. With every day he found it harder to resist the crush he was still harboring for her. And he hated himself for it because he knew that he had lost any right or chance to be with her.
Or did he?
What he didn't know was that, for some time now, something in Elizabeth had changed as well. She didn't hate him anymore. In fact, she had come to like him. Very much at that. Maybe even more than was right and healthy. She didn't know if it was really because of him himself or only because he was the only member of the opposite sex she would see for, probably, forever. And maybe it were just the raging hormones pumping through her body thanks to puberty. But as she stared down at Five something in her snapped and she gave into these still foreign feelings of passion and want.
She leaned down and put her lips on Fives.
Said boy was stunned beyond belief now. To say that this was his dreams come true would be an understatement. But still, he felt strange that it was happening now and he was unsure how to react. Should he reciprocate or shove her away? Elizabeth let go of his hands, using one to steady herself on the grass and putting the other one on his cheek. Urging him with her mouth to follow her movements. He did. And for one moment everything was right and perfect; his head empty.
Then the guilt came back in full force.
From one moment to another Five had suddenly vanished from beneath her. Looking around her in confusion she finally found him at the edge of the forest, stomping into it with big, angry steps. He seemingly had blinked himself there. She sighed and got up.
.
.
Now
Elizabeth took her time to explain to Luther how exactly she and Five had landed in an post-apocalyptic world, how it was an accident, a bit about how they had survived and every day for 45 years had tried to come back and prevent said apocalypse; what culminated with finally making it back here. The part about The Commission she left out for the time being. It felt kind of strange to talk so long with Luther, who had been pretty hostile towards her for the most part since their arrival; but he listened patiently, without interrupting her even once. When she had finished her story another day had already dawned, though Five was still sleeping peacefully, his back facing them, the alcohol having knocked him out completely.
Luther swallowed when she had finished, not sure if and what he should believe from the story this girl, his "sister in law" apparently, had just told him. "When's it supposed to happen?" He asked cautiously. "This… 'apocalypse'." Elizabeth averted her gaze. "I can't tell you the exact hour of the day, but… from what we could gather throughout our journey through the wasteland we have four days left." The mans face fell. "Why didn't you say something sooner? We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing!" The blonde sighed and then threw the sleeping boy next to her a glance. "That's exactly what I wanted to do. But Five was against it. I'm sorry I didn't try harder to persuade him to change his mind, but he can be stubborn as a mule as you surely know. We had things to do, no time to waste on arguing." She moved her gaze back to Luther, who just looked at her. "And for the record: you already tried." The man frowned. "What do you mean?"
Elizabeth had to think back to one of the very few moments she had seen her husband truly broken and devastated: when they had found the ruins of his house and the corpses of his siblings; older, but he could clearly recognize everyone of them; scattered in between the rubble. All but Vanya had laid there and what had happened to said woman they had never been able to find out, though they assumed that she had died there, too. "We found all of you… or what was left of you, at least. Your bodies." She clarified when the man looked questioningly at her. Luthers eyes widened. "We die?" The girl nodded slightly and Luther had to look away from her, trying to process this terrifying revelation. "You were together, obviously trying to stop whoever it was that ends the world." His gaze flew back to her. "Wait, how do you know about that?" Elizabeth looked down at her hands on her lap, nervously playing with her fingers. "Five has a glass eye in his possession. He found it the day we landed in the apocalypse… it was clutched in your dead hand." She swallowed. "You must have ripped it out of their head right before you were killed." He cocked a brow. "Whose head?" She shrugged lightly. "Like I said, we don't know."
Luther breathed out. "Well, surely there is a serial number or something on it… maybe we could try-", "we tried that route already." The girl interrupted him, then looked down at the sleeping boy, remembering his break down the day before. "That seemingly didn't work out." Both people were quiet for several moments, the only noise in the room being Fives silent snores. Then the door was violently thrown open. Elizabeth threw her husband a worried glance, but he slept on; still in a deep, alcohol induced sleep.
"Piece of shit." Diego growled while coming in and she and Luther stood up. "Do you have any idea what you just did?" The assassin screamed while stomping towards her and she got in a defensive stance - though that was seemingly not necessary, because Luther caught his raging brother just before he could reach her. "Nope, let me - Get your ape hands off me!" Diego raged, though that only made his brother hoist him into the air. "I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down." He deadpanned while doing so. Elizabeth pulled up both of her eyebrows, a bit surprised that Luther was protecting her. She would have bet her money that he would calmly watch her get ripped apart by Diego before, the way he had treated her until now. The assassin struggled for a moment, then stopped. "Fine." He sighed and Luther let him down again. "Now, wanna tell us what you're talkin' about?" The bigger man asked.
Diego gave her and the still sleeping Five a scathing look. "Our brother and his little 'wife' have been pretty busy since they got back. They were in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the academy, looking for them." He aggressively pointed at the pair. Elizabeth sighed deeply. It was time to finally come clean, she guessed. "Yes. That's true. And I'm sorry that you only get to know it now. Five didn't want to involve you if at all possible." Diego panted heavily. "Well, I'm as involved as it gets now. They just killed my friend." Her face fell into wide eyed shock. "What… Oh my- I'm so sorry, Diego. That was never-" she put a hand to her mouth, averting her gaze. The girl felt ashamed and devastated. Another live that had been wasted, but this time they could have prevented it… if only she had spoken up sooner, even if it had made Five angry at her. "I don't know what to say." She croaked out after a while, the men just staring down at her. She didn't know it, but in this one moment she truly looked like a scared, little girl - and that somewhat dulled their anger and rage.
Luther turned to her. "Who are they, Elizabeth?" The girl looked up at the use of her name by him. It was the first time he had used it in a totally normal, non-hostile way. It was his way of giving her an olive branch, she guessed. And that made her speak. "They work for our former employer." She explained. "A woman called The Handler." She looked at Diego. "She sent them… to stop us. Then, as soon as your friend got in their way…" Again, she averted her gaze. "Everyone who gets in between a field agent and their mission is fair game."Diego leaned forward slightly. "And now they're my fair game." He growled. "And I'm gonna see to it they pay." Elizabeth made a step forward. "Diego, don't." She pleaded. "I know you have powers; but they've killed people far more dangerous than you!" Said man calmly continued his way. "Yeah, we'll see about that." He slammed the door shut behind him. The girl flinched.
"Former employer?" Luther muttered, looking down at her. "What's this really about, Elizabeth? And don't give me any of this 'It's none of your business' crap from Five, all right?" He demanded. "You said you wanted to tell us; so do it now." The blonde looked up at him with huge brown eyes. Then she sighed and sat back down on the cot Five was still sleeping on. "It's a long story." She muttered and Luther sat down as well.
.
.
It, again, took quite some time to explain to Luther what The Commission was, how they had gotten into and what exactly they had been doing for it. The missions they had gone to, the things they had done. How Five, still, had been searching for a way back, always staring into Vanyas book where he had written every formula he had ever thought about. And the one day he had finally done it: he had found the solution and brought them back, even if they were young again. When she had ended her story the sun was already coming out. Five was, seemingly, still sleeping on the cot Elizabeth was sitting on as well.
"So you were hitmen?" Luther asked and she nodded, taking a swig from the coffee Luther had gotten them when they'd taken a small break. He looked at the floor. "Uh... I mean, you had a code, right?" He asked then. "You didn't kill just anybody." Elizabeth shook her head and sighed. "No code. Everyone who is at risk of messing with the time line is open for killing." The big man looked at her in shock. "What about innocent people?" The girl avoided his gaze. She knew what he meant and she did regret most of the deaths they had caused... but still. "It was the only way." She mumbled. "But that's murder!" Luther hissed and she jerked. Yes. That's what they were, when it came down to it. Murderers.
"Jesus, Luther, grow up." Five suddenly spoke from his laying position, his face to the wall, before sitting up next to her on the bed. How long had he been awake and listening in, Elizabeth wondered. The boy looked disheveled from sleep, his eyes still a bit bleary. In any other situation Elizabeth would have thought that extremely cute. But not now. He glared at his brother with a still slightly sleepy, but strong gaze. "We're not kids anymore. There is no such thing as good guys or bad guys. There's just people, goin' about their lives." He explained and Elizabeth flinched, so he took her hand. "But when the world ends, all those people die." he continued in a quieter voice. "Including our family." Luther just stared at them open mouthed, so Five sighed. "Time changes everything." And in that moment, Luther thought, his "younger" brother looked exactly the age he was, allegedly, supposed to be.
.
.
After that serious talk they went their separate ways; Luther for a walk 'to think', and the couple back to the academy. They were silent on their walk back, what suited Elizabeth just fine, to be honest. She felt exhausted again, though at this point she really didn't know anymore if it was physical or just emotional. They went into to the house and right up to the bedrooms, when Elizabeth suddenly stopped, letting go of Fives hand when he tried to pull her with him. When he looked back at her in irritation she was staring into Klaus' open room. Then he noticed the wet, bloody footprints on the tiled floor; the bloody handprints on the edges of the bathtub he could see through the open door. Klaus groaned as he put on some clothes.
Elizabeth knocked softly on his door, a worried expression on her face. As far as she knew something had been up with Klaus this night and she hoped that it had nothing to do with their pursuers; Hazel and Cha Cha. Because then he definitely didn't have a nice night. "Klaus?" She asked with a soft voice. "Everything okay?" The man turned around, a shirt in his hands. Spotting the blonde girl in his door he mumbled "yeah, I just… Long night." He looked down at his shirt and Five stepped next to his wife. "More than one, from the looks of it." Klaus put on the shirt and simply said "yeah." The necklace he was wearing clinked and Five observed "Don't remember the dog tags." The man pulled his shirt over them, hiding them from sight. "Yeah, they belonged to a friend." The boy looked at his arm. "How about that new tattoo?" Klaus looked at it. "You know, I don't totally remember even getting it." He joked, making a movement with his hand. "Like I said, it was a long night."
He sat down on his bed and the blonde stepped up do him, sitting down as well. "Klaus," she softly, carefully spoke up; lightly touching his arm. "Where - when have you been?" The man looked questioningly down at her. "What are you talking about?" Five stepped up as well. "You know, we can recognize the symptoms, Klaus." He frowned. "Symptoms of what?" Five huffed. "The jet lag.", "Full body itch." Elizabeth chimed in, remembering Klaus scratching his upper body while putting on his shirt. Klaus sighed, putting his hands on his head, and Five continued "headache that feels like someone shoved a box of cotton up into your nose and through your brain." Elizabeth lightly squeezed his arm. "Klaus… please tell us about it. Don't keep it bottled in." She coaxed. "We know fully well how overwhelming time travel can be."
Klaus stared into her warm brown eyes for a moment, wondering how a girl so young could seem so motherly. Like she really cared about him, though not in a romantic way. It felt strange, but not necessarily bad. After everything he had been through in Vietnam it actually felt… really good. He sighed, looking down to his hands. "Your pals, when they broke into the house and they couldn't find you, they took me hostage instead." Elizabeths made a horrified face and Five simply stated "and in return, you stole their briefcase." Klaus nodded. "Yeah. I thought there was money in it, or I could pawn it, you know, whatever." He sighed again. "And then I opened it." Five paced the room. "And the next thing you knew, you were… where? Or should I say when?"
"What difference does it make?" Klaus muttered tiredly and Five gasped in disbelief. "What diff- uh -", "how long were you gone?" His wife interrupted him, making Klaus look at her. "Almost a year." Her eyes widened in shock. "A year?" Five made a step towards him. "Do you know what this means?" Klaus sniggered. "Yeah, I'm ten months older now." The boy impatiently shook his head. "No, this isn't any sort of joke, Klaus. Hazel and Cha Cha will do whatever they can to get the briefcase." He looked around the room. "Where is it now?" Klaus confessed "gone. I destroyed it. Poof." His brother stared at him in disbelief. "What the hell were you thinking?" He raged. Now Klaus got a little angry as well. "What do you care?" Five blew out a loud breath. "What do I care? I needed it, you moron, so Liz and me could get back! We could start over!"
"Five!" Elizabeth interrupted him angrily. "He gets it now. What's done is done. Let him be." Klaus suddenly stood up, making his way out of the room. "Where are you going?" His brother demanded to know. "Interrogation is over." Klaus simply stated. "Just… leave." Elizabeth sprang up and followed him. "Klaus…wait!" She pleaded. Five stared darkly after them - but then an idea popped into his head and he immediately grabbed a pen and piece of paper lying on Klaus' night stand.
"Klaus!" Elizabeth yelped, grabbing his arm when she finally caught up to him on the gallery. The man whipped around, giving her a dark gaze that seemed out of place on his face. "What." He quipped. "I destroyed it. I'm sorry if you needed it, but-" he was interrupted when the girl suddenly threw her arms around him; drawing him into a strong, warm embrace. "I'm sorry." Came her muffled voice from her face pressed into his chest. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that." The girl didn't even know what exactly he had gone through… but whatever it was, she could clearly see that it had shaken him deeply.
The man looked down at her in slight disbelief, unsure how he should react. His family had never been a loving one, so hugs were no regular occurrence, never had been. But then tears shot into his eyes with so sudden intensity that he could barely stop himself from letting out a sob. As he shook from the force it took him not to dissolve into tears before the short girl embracing him thoughts of Dave suddenly zipped into his head again. And after all, tears escaped his eyes. He had lost the love of his life… had seen him die, in fact. Unable to do anything, to safe him. Slowly he let his head sink down on the girls shoulder… and then, hesitantly put his arms around her. Elizabeth could hear him sniffle lightly and she put a hand on his head, softly stroking his hair. And for the first time in what felt like forever Klaus allowed himself to break down in the arms of someone that wasn't a lover.
A bit ahead, where Pogo was working on Grace, the chimpanzee watched them in slight surprise and wonder. Then he smiled sadly. If only Elizabeth had been able to join the family a bit earlier… maybe there could have been a different outcome for at least some of the children. Then he continued his work, pretending to not having noticed anything when Klaus descended the stairs some time later.
Yes, you saw right, I updated the story after almost a year. I currently have my Umbrella Academy mojo again. I hope that it stays long enough again to at least finally finish with the first season. I also re-read my story to remember the key points I have revealed so far and was actually shocked how badly written it is in parts. Awkward sentence building, bad grammar and, sometimes, wrong words altogether. Though the word thing comes from writing on my cellphone. Yeah, I mostly write on my cellphone, because it's always on hand; and, you know, autocorrect. I sometimes don't notice when it happens and it takes several re-reads to notice what is actually wrong, haha. I guess I should edit the story a bit at some point. I'm amazed I got so many compliments for my writing, when I actually want to blush how bad some parts are.
In this chapter there is a bit of a bonding moment between Klaus and Elizabeth. But before anyone gets their hopes - or fears - up, it's in no way romantic. It's really just Elizabeth comforting Klaus because she noticed that he isn't feeling well. There will, at no point, be a love triangle between Five, Elizabeth and any of the family members. Just platonic family love.
Also, thanks to the people who wrote to me after my last update and tried to cheer me up. I never really got around to answer them, but I really appreciate it. Really, thank you so much.
Xoxo Lulu