Annie POV

The City

'Funkytown' by Lipps Inc. plays

Dad and I had just cleared the first floor of the memorial hospital, high-fiving each other as we rode up a floor in the elevator. Wielding an army of five or six of Genghis Khan's dead old samurais, they stood in the elevator with us, glowing blue ghosts gripping their swords ready for the next floor. We held them up, directing them like army generals at the head of the battle.

The elevator dinged, letting us know we'd arrived on the second floor. Dad looked at me, smirking, and I returned the look.

'Ready to go, diva cup?'

'Born ready, dad.'

And we stepped out of the elevator, right as Quinn broke in through one of the windows in the waiting room, landing upright in the shards of glass with a grin on her face. I ran to her, but not before dad could stop me.

'Annie, sunglasses!', he shouted to me, tossing the pink sparkly pair to me. I nodded to him as I put them on, watching him don his yellow pair, and then nodded to Quinn, dispersing.

Roman stood against a wall, relaxed as he spoke to one of the shooters.

'You know, I would really just love it if you shot yourself in the face.'

And the guy obeyed mechanically, causing more screeches from the innocent bystanders, hospital patients and nurses running around frantically trying to escape.

'Gong ji!', I shouted to the samurais behind me, pushing my palms forward, sending them off to attack a group of shooters in front of us. They ran with a battle cry, holding their swords, and ripped through several of them.

'Annie, where have you been?', Kai yelled to me as he passed by, running with a stream of water he seemingly had taken from the bathroom sinks.

He directed the water full power, shooting the stream into a shooter's nostrils like a fire hydrant and drowning him instantly, choking as his lungs were forcibly stuffed with water.

'Clearing the first level via ancient samurai, while you played in the sink.', I said back sarcastically, directing a couple more of them forward with my palms. I held them steady as they fought through the crowds. Kai shook his head at me and rolled his eyes as he brought the water back out, crouching down and patting the drowned man on the chest.

I looked over to my right, where Joan helped a group of terrified patients out the escape exit, down a flight of stairs. A shooter approached, and the shot a blaze of fire from her palms right at him before he could even get close, toasting his face to a crisp. She smiled, pleased with herself.

'Oh, you wanna' go, bud? You wanna' dance? Yeah. Let's dance.', I heard Quinn say to my left, where she sparred with one of the men. Knocking the gun out of his hands with a single punch like it was child's play, she laughed at his lack of strength. This was just too easy for her. She delivered a vomit inducing blow to his groin, then a right hook, then reached right out and snapped his neck with a flick of the wrist.

Kai and Roman ran up to me, breathing heavily.

'Third floor?', Kai, asked, hands on his hips.

I laughed and nodded, smiling at him. Roman looked over at him with a twinge of jealousy, but tried to hide it. I gave him a confused look, and his expression instantly changed.

Dad came behind me, tapping me on the shoulder as we all ran for the elevator this time.

'Wanna' stick with samurais, or try a new flavor?', he asked, straightening his sunglasses.

I thought for a moment, putting my finger to my chin.

'Hmmm, I could go for some crusaders.'

'Medieval! I like it!'

We rode up a level, listening to the cheery elevator music as the most of us were splattered in blood and out of breath.

The ding came, and the doors opened, revealing that we weren't fighting this battle alone. No, we had some excellent help on our side.

Roman ran to his mom, who was quickly approaching a group of four men.

'It'd really be great if you dropped your gun, buddy.'

He did so.

'And I heard a rumor that you all did the same thing.', Allison said, both her and her son delivering punches to their faces after they obeyed them. Quinn jumped up behind them, snapping a couple necks, breaking a few femurs, the usual.

Five popped into the middle of the room, holding Dolores' hand as they both held guns in their hands. He gave her a kiss on the forehead, and then it was open season, bullets flying everywhere into the necks of men and the crevices in the walls.

Diego walked up behind me, patting me on the back.

'Do your thing, kiddo.'

'God save the holy lands!', I shouted out, bringing forth four armored men on horseback and sending them forth.

Kai ran through, the walls vibrating until the pipes broke loose, spraying their contents around the room. He quickly tamed the waters, using streams of them like bullets to shoot out the eyes of a couple men.

Joan ran up to us all after a few more moments of open fire, her hands still smoking.

'This floor's clear, and I got all the patients out and down, they should be safe now.', she said, clapping her hands together to get the smoke to cease.

'Okay, fourth floor, let's go.'

The elevator dinged and the doors opened as I finished that statement.

Vanya came walking out, eyes still glowing.

'Yeah, you don't have to worry about that. Or the rest of the building, really.', she said, dusting herself off.

Joan and I looked at each other in amazement, laughing.

'Is the place still standing?', I said looking up at the ceiling, knowing for a fact that every shooter in any floor above us was dead now. And quite possibly a nurse or two. But there are always casualties.

As we all came to the realization that there were no more men to fight off, we slowly congregated at the nurse's station.

'It's done, grab on.', Five said, holding his hands out. We all linked together, bracing ourselves.

And he spatial jumped us outside to the front of the hospital, all of us standing confidently as we were met by crowds of news crews, police officers, and fire fighters. They shot a hose at a small burning patch near one of the windows on the second floor, and Joan looked up.

'Oops...', she said, cringing and then laughing.

I shrugged. 'It happens.'

The flurry came forward to us, holding up too many microphones and asking too many questions for us to even decipher. Five stood at the front of us, still holding Dolores' hand.

'Who are you? How did you do it? What are your names? Are you the Umbrella Academy?', questions shot at us from all angles as sirens stilled blared and camera flashes were abundant.

'No, not the Umbrella Academy, anymore.', he answered them, speaking for us all.

'What then? No more Umbrella Academy? Are you associated with them?', more questions came at us.

'We're the Hargreeves Society, and we're here to protect you from harm.'

We'd been home from the hospital job for several hours now, and I sat on the roof above the courtyard in the rain, looking down at the gathering below me.

I couldn't join in. I couldn't handle that.

I looked down at them, all holding up black umbrellas, dressed in the color as well. My aunt Dolores clung to Five, all of them huddled in a circle around the coffin, little Lewis walking up and placing a bundle of flowers on top of it.

I looked away, blinking back tears, my stomach burning with guilt. The rain wetted my hair, running all over my body, but I seriously couldn't care less in this moment.

They covered up the casket, and Luther and Quinn picked it up, loading it into the back of the hearse as Dolores watched, sobbing, burying her face into Five's chest.

I couldn't watch. No, I wished I was blind. I stuck my fingers in my ears and put my head between my knees.

The group walked in slowly as Quinn and Luther closed the trunk, Quinn walking close at her dad's side and him patting her firmly on the back. I sat still in the rain, watching the hearse drive away from my restricted angle of my head between my knees. My own hot breath pushed up against my face, not able to escape.

I heard footsteps coming up behind me, sloshing through the gathered rain puddles.

'Joan, I really don't feel like talking, right now.', I said, not looking up.

'Yeah. I know.', a voice said, but it wasn't Joan's. Roman had sat down beside me, not minding the rain. We were silent for a few minutes as we sat there, staring down into the courtyard through the rain.

'It's not your fault, Annie. It was an accident.', he said as he reached for my hand. I shook my head as my shoulders heaved, trying not to cry hard. I shook my head, swallowing tightly. There was a huge lump in my throat, a pit in my stomach, the feeling permeating my entire body. Guilt.

'It all happened so fast, Ro. And before I could stop myself, he was dead.', I said, a tear running down my face as I shook my head. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to himself.

'It was quick, Annie.', he whispered.

'I loved him, Ro.'

'I loved him too, An.', he said, grabbing a piece of my hair with the hand that was wrapped around my shoulder. 'But wishing can't bring him back.'

'He didn't deserve this. He was too good. I'm a monster.'

'We're all monsters, then. You've got the best heart out of all of us.'

'There's one exception.', I said, corner smiling at him.

We looked at each other, and then I nestled closer to him, burying my face in his chest. And we stayed there like that for a long while, letting the rain wash over us as my brain flashed through with images of his death, how I'd lost control, how with a single touch I'd sucked the life out of his poor twelve year old body. How he'd fallen limp, how I'd fallen down beside him. How I hadn't remembered anything for the next twenty four hours after that. And how when I'd woken up and dad explained what happened, I'd tried desperately to revive him, but it hadn't worked. How I'd sobbed over his body for hours, unable to accept the situation.

Roman held my hand tight, and then pulled an umbrella out from his right side, putting it over us. I shivered, the rain contact on us ceasing. I breathed out onto his chest.

And after a few more excruciating minutes of replaying the memories over in my brain, I fell asleep sitting there with him, drifting off into blissful unconsciousness.