25 March 2019

Grumbling snores echoed down the halls and bounced throughout the apartment's walls as Five—sleepy & confused—tried to wriggle free of his sister's tight grip. The only reason he knew that he'd fallen asleep was because he woke up in a bed that was far too soft for his liking and staring at a ceiling that was clearly either that of the ceiling of his childhood bedroom in the Umbrella Academy, nor was it the polluted sky framed by the rubble of the apocalypse or even the bland plastered ceiling of the Temps Commission barracks.

The last thing Five could remember was Blinking into Vanya's apartment after that fiasco at Griddy's to explain to her about the approaching apocalypse and get her feedback, only to find himself suddenly knee-deep in shit. Vanya—who had wrapped her arms around his chest, intertwined her legs with his and buried her face into his hair—barely even twitched, save for the unimpressed grumble, as Five was finally able to wiggle free of her viper-like grip.

"What the hell…?" Five grumbled, pausing to stare in the wall-mounted mirror. There he found himself, not in the Umbrella Academy uniform, but some sort of amalgamation of tie dye & cartoonic faces that he did not remember putting on. This was the closest he'd looked to be being a thirteen year old since returning to the past, but he couldn't deny that the clothes were much comfier than the academy's uniform. Tabling that thought for now, Five moved to snoop around the muted living space and find out more about his youngest sister in the years gone by.

Vanya's bedroom—much like her childhood one in the academy—was mostly bare save for the faded bed spread with mismatched sheets and a mattress that enveloped you. There was the antique dresser/drawers that lay tucked away behind the door at an awkward angle. An adjoining door led to the only bathroom in the place (where Five found a cup of brightly-coloured toothbrushes and a shower full of soaps & hair products). A few items of clothing (including his uniform) had been haphazardly thrown about the place, owing to his sister's laziness or proclivity to wearing certain garments.

Five found the usual other things one might find in an apartment such as this: a dusty space heater leant against one wall, a lumpy couch with matching armchair laid in front of the sooty fireplace and the bay window where he had been stuffed into the night before. There was the rickety kitchen table which looked like it had seen better days and an old typewriter sat beneath a wall-mounted noticeboard littered with notes about this & that. There was the tiled bathroom and old rotary phone which he would've missed if he was anybody else. But it was the smaller touches that let him know just who lived there. From Vanya's beloved violin (and music stand) in one corner of the room, to the multitude of framed family photos & mementos that littered the walls and the mantelpiece.

The next room (the first door down the hall), he discovered belonged to that of his newly introduced nephew who was currently buried beneath a multitude of blankets, save for a single leg which hung out from beneath the covers at precarious angle. Wild brown curls poked out from the top of the blankets and gentle snores accompanied the line of drool already painting his pillow. Compared to his mother, Theodore's room held far more personality than the entire apartment. From the busy desk piled high with books—school and personal alike—to the dusty cupboards beneath his bed that were littered in paint, scribbles and scratches. There was the strange chest he had inherited, taking pride of place on the shelf above his head and a cork board noticeboard which sat close by & was littered with sticky notes. Five couldn't make heads or tails of the circular writings even if he itched to do so. It was just another mystery to add to the ever growing list.

But what captured Five's attention the most, was the wall to the left where it was littered in various images. There was the usual things like band posters & art flyers, a selection of photos with Theodore with his friends and family mementos pertaining to the Umbrella Academy, his biological family & Vanya throughout the years. He could pick out the images of his siblings amongst all of them, even the fuzzy photocopies and nonsensical drawings. Mementos such as the cleanly cutouts from magazines/newspapers or torn pages, posters ripped right from telephones poles and yellowed movie stubs.

There was a waterlogged business card belonging to Diego's private investigatory business, plus an old boxing poster which showcased the former hero going up against some no-name meathead. For Luther, there was the article about Spaceboy going to live on the moon as Earth's protector; which showcased a bright & shiny image of the blonde dressed in his spacesuit as he stood next to Pogo. There were numerous yellowed postcards from around the world and plastered with barely readable chicken scratch, belonged to Klaus. They must've been from the few years after he had left the academy and before he had made a routine of overdosing & freeloading from rehab centres.

In the case of Allison, her mementos consisted of old movie stubs & highly photoshopped posters (these were few and far between). But most of all, there were the numerous childishly written penpal letters between the two cousins. Claire's handwriting was big & loopy whilst Theodore's (as seen by the sticky notes dotted about the place) was slanted & scribbled, making it somewhat hard to read. As for his biological family (on Vanya's side), there were old alien articles and one or two photos of, who he assumed, must've been his grandparents.

Huh. Five's gaze flickered between his sleeping nephew and the pièce de résistance of the collection (said collection having grown since the last time his mother had shown him the books on his family). It was a large image of a shoddily photoshopped family collage photo of all of them. A spacebound Luther stood proudly next to a young (& alive) icing-smothered Ben from one of their numerous donut runs. There were a portly woman (pictured elsewhere) with her throngs of cats and a gangly teen in an outrageous sweater, as he hugged his nephew & both boys smiled brightly at the camera.

Allison, clearly cut from a magazine, alongside Claire and Diego (who looked like a drowned, but happy, rat) who smiled at the camera with a mischievous grin & a water balloon poised in hand. Both a young Five and Klaus were stood together—clearly taken from an Umbrella Academy article—in their school uniforms, next to a modern day Vanya who smiled broadly at the camera with her violin in hand. And at the bottom of the image sat a giant cartoonic cake which read: HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, THEODORE!"

BEEP~BEEP! BEEP~BEEP! BEEP~BEEP!

The sound of the alarm clock blaring throughout the small apartment shook Five from his stupor, just as a low groan echoed out from the blankets before him. A tired arm slid out from beneath the warm layers and absently batted about the floating shelf until it eventually found the infernal device and hit snooze, before retreating back under. (Father would have never allowed them to fall back asleep after the alarm roused them).

Blinking back into the other room, Five silently seated himself at the breakfast table and settled himself into one of the few chairs there; awaiting the moment that Vanya stepped out of the bathroom. After 45 years of isolation, he was more than ready to play a prank on his youngest sister, just as he had done time & time again when they were kids. Bonus points, if he got Theodore too. Five knew that he should've probably left already to begin his mission of stopping the impending apocalypse, but he had some questions that needed answering and he had yet to actually explain what was going on, as he'd promised to do last night before shit had hit the fan. Mercifully, he didn't have to wait for very long but it was hard to keep the anticipatory grin off of his face.

KA~LICK!

"Morning~" Five greeted, taking great pleasure in the way Vanya jumped at his sudden reappearance.

"Lore!" Vanya swore, hand over heart as she found herself suddenly very much awake. "Oh, Five, I thought you'd left…"

Again…Five silently ended, not needing his sister to finish that thought. Guilt pricked at his heart as he watched her bustle about the small kitchen, pulling out coffee grounds for the plunger and loading up the toaster with several slices of bread. Going through the motions, Vanya set the kettle to boil, pulled two violin novelty mugs (gifts from violinist students) and set to work pouring the deliciously dark liquid once it was ready. A great longing pulled at his heartstrings as he watched complete such domestic actions; actions she'd likely mastered after years of practise. Alone.

"…You've got questions" It wasn't a question. Vanya leant back against the kitchen counter after having gifted Five with a mug of black coffee. Her own steaming mug was clasped tightly between her hands.

"Mm" Five hummed around the rim of his coffee mug as he took a good long gulp, drinking in the way the scalding liquid burned as it went down.

"Well, out with it then"

Straight to it, then…Five sighed, "What was all that shit last night? And what the hell is a LANE?"

"…You were gone a long time, Five" Vanya sighed tiredly, setting her mug down to brace herself against the edge of the counter. "Things change"

"Well, obviously" He rolled his eyes. "But that still doesn't explain anything!"

"What do you know?"

"Something about an alien invasion?"

"Alright" Vanya sighed again, this time pushing herself forward so that she could drag out the chair across from him and sit down. He could sense that this was going to be a heavy topic; likely just as heavy as his own. "Cliffnotes then…"

"…Vanya?" He prompted when she had fallen silent.

"Earth used to have a sister planet called Lorien—that's where my mother and Father comes from—there's been a lot of back & forth over the millenniums, until about, mm…the 50s? When their neighbouring planet, Mogadore, invades; it's bad, most fight and others flee. Those who make it to Earth go into hiding" Vanya barely glanced up from the table, finding the wooden grains very interesting as she retold her (family's) history. "Jump forward a few decades & the Mogadorians are on Earth, hunting the Lorics—specifically the Council Ennead, but they don't care either way. Anyways, the secret war lasts for about, uh, sixty-odd years? Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, so the war reaches its climax in 2011, which is where the 'alien invasion' thing comes into play. The Entity within the Earth's core is awakened and every childish descendant of a Human-Loric coupling is granted superpowers; or as it was called, the 'LANE Pandemic' Questions?"

"Um…" Five blinked, "What's—what's a LANE?"

"It stands for Legacy-Augmented Native Earthlings" Vanya finally met his gaze. "It's the government's name for Human Garde; for those children"

"…Like Theodore" He realised.

"Like Teddy" She nodded solemnly.

"What's Dad got to do with it? Besides the whole…Loric…thing?"

"Father actually coped a lot of flak for it" Vanya chuckled sardonically. "Y'know, with the whole 'Man on the Moon' thing, because he'd been spouting the Umbrella Academy's intention to be the world's last saviour for years. And of course, when they weren't there during the invasion; well, loads of people thought he should've sent someone up there before the invasion, 'stead of after it"

"Luther still went up there though"

"Yeah, but I suspect that had more to do with getting him out of the house after the official disbandment of the academy. Outta sight, outta mind, y'know?"

"So what's up with the alien mafia, then?"

"The Keepers?"

"Mmhm"

"Their like the not-so-secret police force that rounds up superpowered kids and sends them off to one of the 'rehab' centres in the middle of nowhere"

"Rehab centres?" Five quirked at the quotation marks around those two words.

"Oh y'know, they're just your average backwater facilities that poke kids full of holes and augment Mogadorians into super soldiers" She replied sarcastically as she rose to retrieve the slices of toast that had popped up. In the background, Theodore finally seemed to be rousing as evident by the grunts & thumps that echoed from his room.

"…How do you know all this?" He eyed the bare edges of her birthmark where it peered out from beneath the sleeve of her shirt.

"I have my sources" She murmured vaguely, back turned to him.

"So what's this got to do with you? With us? The Academy?"

"Are you kidding me? It's got everything to do with us!" She spun around to face him. "Garde or not; if you're superpowered, then you're dead. If you're under 18 years old, you'll be shipped off to one of the centres to be poked & prodded until you die. If you're over 18 years old, you'll be killed on site"

"How can you be so sure?"

"It is the law"

"How—how could someone pass that?!"

"People are scared; they fear what they don't know. It's been eight years since everything hit the fan and neighbours are still watching neighbours; friends still tattle on friends. These days, everyone is watching everyone"

So on top of all my other shit. Five chewed at his lower lip in thought, I now had THIS shit to deal with too. Joy.