Episode Two: Run Boy Run
Part Two.
I don't own the Umbrella Academy.
Percy didn't let Five drive, but he didn't protest. Vanya had been right about one thing—he was exhausted, considering he had just taxed himself about an hour ago with his rapid spatial-jumps. Percy glanced over at him, mouth already open to ask a question, but found him curled up in the passenger seat, sleeping. A small smile of amusement found its way to her lips as she turned back to face the road. Five might've told her that they needed to find out where the eye was manufactured, but right now, he needed to sleep, and Percy could figure it out. Because she was sure that it was going to be a long eight days.
Well, now that she thought about it, it was more like seven days.
As she waited for a red light to turn green, she thought about how her older sister (despite the fact that they had been born on the same day, and in the same hour, the Hargreeves children had always thought of themselves as being born in the order of their numbers—except in the case of Vanya and Percy, because Percy had always seen Vanya as an older sister simply because Percy had met the Hargreeves much later) had brushed off Five's concerns and words, and Percy understood why Five must've been so frustrated. Still, she did understand Vanya too—her brother was trying to tell her that the world was going to end in eight days? Honestly, if Percy didn't know Five as well as she did, she would've thought him insane too.
Except... she did think he was a bit insane—just not in the way Vanya did. Because there was something off about Five—like he was now more dangerous, darker, more ruthless. The scene in the diner had been enough evidence of that. Although she did have to admit—she had brutally murdered the men alongside him with no trace of regret. Sometimes, she wondered how she could've been so casual about taking someone's life, but it was just how her life went—how all of the Hargreeves' siblings' lives went. Their father had trained them to be rid of those pesky little emotions that could get in the way of their missions. Unfortunately, that had only led to Percy developing almost an on-and-off switch for her emotions—she could suppress them and keep her face emotionless—and she almost always kept them off. Until now.
Now, what you're thinking is that perhaps it was because of Five that Percy was beginning to change. While Five's appearance was certainly a factor in Percy's reconnection with her emotions, it wasn't just him. It was her entire family. Because being with all of them again, and seeing their pain, just like hers, seeing their trauma, because they were all still little kids, weren't they? They didn't understand the world, not really, and they never would. They never grew up as normal kids. They spent their childhoods, all the way to their adulthood, learning how to fight, how to kill, how to be the most dangerous people on the planet. And they would never fit into the world.
And being with her family made her break. The cool demeanor she always kept couldn't still stand when she was with her family. Because they knew her best, knew what she had gone through the best—after all, hadn't they all experienced the same abuse? And if she couldn't be herself around them, if she couldn't let herself feel around them... then they weren't her family. She couldn't call them her family. And if she couldn't, then their father won. And if there was anything that Percy vowed to never let happen, it was letting their father win.
She glanced over at Five again, an amused quirk upon her lips. He looked so innocent, so much like a child that she could almost believe that behind that mask wasn't a ruthless killer that would do anything to get what he wanted. He had said he was fifty-eight too—and it was strange, hearing a thirteen-year-old kid say, with malice and insistence in his voice, that he was really almost a senior citizen. But perhaps it wasn't as strange as it could've been to Percy. After all, she was nearing thirty in a thirteen-year-old body too. She couldn't judge.
Five suddenly turned over in his sleep and muttered something under his breath, too low for Percy to make out, but she imagined that it had to do with murder, or the apocalypse, or something. Whenever Five talked in his sleep, it was usually because he was obsessed with something (once, he had snuck into her room when they were eleven and he had been sleep-muttering equations into her ear at three in the morning and no matter how much Percy prodded him, he wouldn't stop), and his latest obsession seemed to be saving the world, considering that he was ready to treat Vanya with such distaste in order to get what he wanted.
A smile (though it was unamused) flitted across her face when she realized that if the apocalypse was happening in eight (or seven) days, that meant the Hargreeves siblings would probably have to stop the threat. How annoying. She had thought she had left the hero-ing life behind... but then again, she had just used her powers in the diner to help Five kill a bunch of mercenaries... and then she realized she still had no idea why someone sent people to kill Five. She had completely forgotten to ask, but it wasn't like she wanted to wake him up to do so. No, she could just ask him later... although she still couldn't believe she was stupid enough to have forgotten to.
"Five," she whispered ten minutes later, having just parked the car in front of her house. "Five, wake up." The boy just groaned and turned over in his sleep, still muttering under his breath, gaining a small smile of amusement from Percy as she prodded him again. "Five, if you don't wake up, I'm gonna... well, I'm gonna have to think of a threat, but it's gonna be something bad; I can guarantee that."
"Percy," Five mumbled, eyes still closed, his voice heavy with sleep, "if you're gonna threaten me, you have to learn how to do it properly. I can't take you seriously when you sound like you're about to laugh."
"Oh, sorry Mr. I-can-threaten-people-perfectly," Percy said sarcastically. "I'll be sure to work on my threatening skills in the future. Okay, I've got one. If you don't get up in the next ten seconds, I'll force you to sleep in the car. How's that?"
Needless to say, Five forced himself up ten seconds later, still groggy, forcing himself to rely on Percy for support as the two of them staggered into her home. Getting Five up the stairs was the trickiest bit, as he seemed like he was content on just falling asleep on her on the spot, and Percy had to literally drag him up the stairs in order to make sure he got in. She had never found any trouble with her stairs until that point, and she silently cursed herself for not having brought the keys for her downstairs floor so they didn't need to suffer the stairs.
It might've been strange that Percy, who looked thirteen years old, was able to own a house, but the explanation for that was simple—when Percy had moved out, she may or may not have secretly asked Grace and Pogo if she could borrow some money to be able to actually live a life outside the Academy. While she knew that the rest of her siblings either didn't leave or they didn't want any reminder of the hellhole they had once lived in (hence why some of them did okay in their own lives while others... not so much), Percy had just sucked up her pride and asked anyway, because she knew that if she didn't and she just suffered throughout the rest of her life because she wasn't willing to ask for something Grace and Pogo would give her without question, she would regret it for the rest of her life.
Still, just because Percy had a house (because she hadn't wanted to buy an extremely expensive one anyway and had just instead bought a smaller one that was still a very good size) didn't mean that all her troubles were gone. After dropping a small fortune on a place to live, she still had to rely on her own work to be able to buy stuff like furniture, and food, and even pay the bills and stuff like that. That was why she still did have a job—not a very good once, because honestly, Percy wasn't sure if she had the will to drag herself out of bed for a demanding job. At least, though, with her salary being so low, she didn't have to pay that many taxes, and she had recently considered renting out the downstairs of her house to help ease the financial burden on herself.
When they stepped into Percy's room, however, the girl winced. She had never really cared about the lack of furniture in her house—all she really needed was a bed, anyway, and everything else in the house was just decorative at that point—but for some reason, letting Five see that all she had in her house was a secondhand couch, a plug-in stove and oven, a mini refrigerator, and a bed, was kind of embarrassing. In total, Percy had spent about a thousand dollars in furniture—everything she had gotten was secondhand and ordered off the internet for the cheapest prices possible—and she had thought that it had been such a good deal when buying it, but now that she was actually letting someone see her measly possessions, she privately thought that maybe she could've bought more stuff.
Percy couldn't imagine that Five would've wanted to sleep at the Academy, though. Everyone, even Luther (although he didn't know it) hated the Academy, and Percy, personally, would've rather died than stay another night in the cursed mansion, and she had a feeling that Five felt the same way. Thankfully, Five was too tired and out of it to even notice that despite the fact that it was a three-bedroom house, only one of the rooms actually had stuff in it, and that one bedroom that had stuff in it only had a measly twin bed, a closet that had about five outfits, a fold-able table that looked absolutely tacky, and a small bookshelf to hold the books that Percy held dear to her heart.
She let him collapse onto the bed and, lips twitching, she pulled the covers over him, and he snuggled into her touch. Asleep, Five looked like a child again—looked thirteen, the age he did look. His frown gone, his eyebrow furrows smoothed over, his face relaxed... Percy was honestly a bit jealous. She wasn't sure when the last time she had had such a good night's sleep was—honestly, it had been so long ago that she didn't even remember. Sometimes, if she were lucky, her nightmares wouldn't be too severe, or they wouldn't last very long, but that was about the best they got.
Then she turned around and quietly tip-toed to her closet, grabbing her giant coat. She didn't have another blanket, and she sure as hell wasn't going to force Five to sleep with a jacket. Besides, the coat was warm—it was the most expensive piece of clothing she owned—and tossing it over herself would pretty much basically be a blanket. Closing the door silently from behind her, Percy slowly walked toward her living room and sank down in her couch, sighing slightly.
She couldn't believe that she had finally seen Five after seventeen years. It all seemed like a hazy dream. How was it even possible that Five had come back? Why had he decided to come back now, of all times? Percy was sure that these were questions even Five himself couldn't answer—as they both knew, Time was a fickle little thing that would twist and wrap the very rules it created just to screw with anyone who decided to mess with its laws or play with its rules. There was no such thing as mastering time—even Percy, who had control only over a certain aspect of it and had had it her entire life and had practiced with it daily, could hardly say she was a master. Honestly, she couldn't even say she was an amateur. There was just no learning how to manipulate time perfectly.
But these thoughts could be reserved for another day. Percy yawned, kicking back onto the couch and draping the coat over herself, closing her eyes, a soft mile on her face. It wasn't the perfect end to the perfect day—no, not by a long shot, with Luther accusing them of all murdering their dad, discovering the world was going to end in eight (or seven) days, and Percy using her powers on people who weren't herself—but it was a good enough ending to a good enough day... and that was good enough for her.
For the first time in quite a long time, Percy didn't dream.
Until she was rudely awoken by a loud banging noise seven hours later.
She shot up, hands out, ready to deal with whatever foolish burglar had decided to steal his way into her house... until she found herself face to face with a rather stunned-looking Five who was holding his hands up in surrender. It was clear he had just woken up too, his hair sticking all over the place, and there was still a sleepy look in his eyes, but all of that faded as his eyes focused on Percy's hands, which were crackling with red energy. As soon as the girl realized that it was only Five, however, she sighed and fell back onto the couch, closing her eyes.
Then she realized it was Five and her eyes snapped open again and she leapt to her feet, pulling him into a fierce hug so suddenly that Five couldn't even stop her in time (Five didn't really like hugs, not even from Percy). In fact, he was so stunned that he didn't react for the first few moments while Percy clung onto him, reminding herself that Five was back and he hadn't left and if he left again she was going to kill him. Then there was a faint popping sound and Five disappeared, leaving Percy to stumble forward while Five reappeared a few feet away, scowling at her.
She offered him a sheepish grin, remembering his uncomfortableness with affection a little too late, and said, "Sorry about that. Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready to leave."
As she made her way to the bathroom, she heard Five call, "You have five!"
She could almost hear his smirk at his own joke, making her roll her eyes. Five had always used that joke when they were younger; Percy had tried to retaliate using her name at the time, Seven, but it just didn't work as well as Five did. See, if Percy had been the one to yell, "You have seven!" it just wouldn't have sounded right. Anyway, when they were younger, Five used that joke on everybody (but especially on Percy and Vanya), which had driven the two girls insane, because Five's sense of humor was just weird.
Ten minutes later, the two of them were back in Percy's car, Five insisting that they had to get coffee before they went to figure out where the eye was from, but Percy put her foot down. Yesterday, they had gotten a poor woman's shop shot up simply because they were there, all because of Five's insistence for coffee, and Percy hadn't even been able to eat her doughnut. Five, of course, just sulked in the passenger seat and reluctantly told her the company which manufactured the eye, and after she typed in the address, they were off. Speaking of which...
"Five?" Percy asked, not taking her eyes off the road. "Remember the mercenaries that nearly murdered us yesterday? Why were they trying to kill you?"
Even before the question had even finished leaving Percy's lips, Five had already stiffened, which she saw out of the corner of her eye. It took him a while to finally reluctantly say, "After a few decades in the apocalypse, I... I was recruited by this organization called... the Temps Commission. Basically, they make sure everything that is supposed to happen... happens. And I signed a contract with them, I was supposed to work with them for about five years, but then... I kind of ran away." He chuckled humorlessly. "Now I'm trying to stop the apocalypse, but the Commission is insistent that it happens. So they're pissed at me for both abandoning my job and for trying to fuck up the timeline."
"Ah," was the only thing Percy could think of saying, because what did one say in response to something like that anyway? Honestly, though, it wasn't like she was surprised. The Umbrella Academy was kind of known for pissing people off, and, no offense to Five, but his personality wasn't the most charming either. Especially now, when he was stuck in a thirteen-year-old's body when he was actually fifty-eight, so Percy kind of understood his frustration. To be fair, it was her own fault for still looking thirteen, but she did understand what it was like to see people who were technically younger than her just belittling her like she was a child. Especially with the rest of their siblings treating Five like he was actually his age and completely off his rocker.
Five clearly wasn't in the mood to talk, glaring out the window, and definitely not exactly happy that she had brought up that topic, so Percy decided that staying out of his hair was probably the best thing she could do at the moment. Even with her, Five had his limits, and she knew exactly what they were. Besides, she had her own limits too, and Five had always respected them before. It was the least she could do for him.
As she drove, however, she couldn't help but think about what he had been saying. An organization, which controlled the time itself, probably quite successfully—which Percy nor Five had ever been able to do—was on the hunt for Five, and, if she was going to be helping him, she was probably on that list too. Her knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. Just one break was too much to ask for, wasn't it? Not only did she now have to worry about stopping the apocalypse, she also had to worry about not getting shot in the next seven days. Oh, and the weird, confusing feeling she had for Five too, but that wasn't exactly the most important thing at the moment.
The assassins yesterday had been trained, too. Oh, goody. She just loved being tracked down by dangerous assassins and having to fight them off whenever. She suspected that they probably knew her every move too—perhaps not, but if they were clever and successful enough to start an organization that managed all of time, they would also probably be able to track people through it too, or else they would be terrible assassins. And how many had there been yesterday? Six? Seven? Eight? Percy hadn't been counting. It was kind of hard to, with at least half a dozen people (probably more) shooting you and trying to murder you.
At any rate, it was clear that that had only been a small force sent to force Five back to... wherever or whenever the Commission was. Nobody ever sent out an elite force just to take care of someone the first time. No, those men had only been the tip of the iceberg, and they had already been a bit hard for Percy to beat. To be fair, she was kinda out of practice, but she had also trained in combat daily from the ages of seven to seventeen, so there was that. It was probably a little humiliating that she had to resort to her powers so quickly when, back in her prime, she would've been able to kick all their asses without even breaking a sweat.
At long last, after a very tense half hour drive, the two of them arrived in front of a giant, glass building. Percy wasn't sure if they were tracking down a doctor or an eye manufacturer at that point, but in all honesty, she also didn't really care. She just had to help Five—that was her main priority—and besides, that seemed like such a small detail. If whoever was inside that building could give them the information they needed, she honestly didn't care if they were a bear or human at that point. Just so long as they had the right information.
The elevator ride was awkward too. For such an expensive looking building, it moved awfully slowly. The two not-so-teenage teenagers took to their own back corners, just missing each others' glances. Percy's hands clenched and unclenched from her sides as she begun humming a quiet song under her breath, trying desperately to take her mind of the situation at hand (the last time she and Five had gotten into a fight was roughly seventeen years ago, and forty five for him, so it was a strange feeling), but she was still uncomfortably aware of him next to her.
Now that she thought about it, why were they fighting anyway? Percy seriously couldn't remember anymore. Ah, right. She had accidentally poked at one of his more closed off secrets and he had felt the need to answer, but clearly he hadn't been happy about answering and how he was pissed, but she still wasn't sure who or what he was angry at. Perhaps her, perhaps the Commission, perhaps the world—maybe even Vanya for not having believed him when he had just sacrificed his life... kind of... for her, or maybe he was even angry with all of that.
Suddenly, from beside her, Five sighed deeply and crossed the distance between them, standing right next to her, making Percy blink in surprise, and he, a little bit apologetically although she wasn't sure, said, "I hate it when we're like this. I'm... sorry." The words looked like they tasted bitter upon his lips. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. I'm just... I've got a lot on my plate right now."
"I shouldn't have asked," was her soft reply. "I'm sorry too."
But he just shook his head. "No, you have nothing to apologize for. You had a right to know, considering they were shooting at you." Then he reached out to absentmindedly brush a stray piece of hair out of her face, missing the way her breath caught. "But I promise you, they won't hurt you. I'd kill them before they could get to you. I swear."
A small smile of amusement flickered over her lips. Five had a strange way of showing affection for someone, and this was a perfect example of it. He didn't compliment anyone (except for Vanya, and god knows that Vanya needed more compliments), he didn't show any physical affection (not really, but sometimes he slipped up and did), because, in all honesty, he didn't know how to. But what he did know was that he would always love his family, no matter how much of a shitshow that family was, and promising to protect them to the best of his abilities was one of the only ways he knew how to show them that he cared.
And perhaps Percy was a bit insane for thinking that what Five had said was affectionate (he had said he'd murder someone for even trying to hurt her) but she was used to his extreme and violent ways, and also, she was a member of the Umbrella Academy. Killing people didn't really make her that queasy anymore... although out of all her siblings, she was still the one that felt bad when killing someone.
When the elevator doors finally dinged, the two of them stepped out side by side, the tension between them vanishing. The office, for some strange reason, had two statues beside the receptionist's desk, which amused Percy to no end. That was mainly because the statues were buck naked, and who even though, hey, you know what'll really cheer this place up? Two statues of naked men! The rest of the office looked quite nice though—marble and glass, the entire floor relying on sunlight instead of electricity in the daytime. It almost made Percy wish she had gotten a house like this... until she realized that there'd probably be no privacy unless she bought extremely big curtains and that would cost a lot of money.
"Uh, can I help you?"
Percy glanced up at the same time Five did, and the latter, glancing down at the eye clutched tightly in his fist for a moment, raised it for the man to see and said, "We need to know who this belongs to."
"Where did you get that?"
"What do you care?" Five snapped back.
The doctor looked a bit taken aback by Five's harsh tone, so Percy lightly and subtly kicked him in the shins and said, as politely as she could, "We found it... at a playground, actually." She shrugged. "Uh, must have just... popped out." The doctor nodded, but she wasn't sure if he believed her or not. Either way, she forged on, "I wanna return it to its rightful owner."
"Oh... what a thoughtful young woman," the receptionist said, causing the three of them to glance at her for a second.
"Yeah, look up the name for me, will ya?" Five asked with a forced smile that surprisingly looked a little bit natural, and honestly, Percy was shocked that he was actually acting kind of polite considering how stressed he had been about this eye just twelve hours before.
"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," the doctor interrupted, and Five's smile fell off his face. "That means I can't tell you—"
"Yeah, I know what it means," Five said in exasperation.
"But I'll tell you what I can do. I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just..."
As he reached for the eye, Five moved his hand back slightly and said through gritted teeth, "Yeah, you're not touching this eye."
"Now, you listen here, young man—"
Before the doctor could finish, Five, clearly fed up with everything, literally lunged for him and grabbed the folds of his coat, yanking the older man toward him, and snapped, "No! You listen to me, asshole. I've come a long way for this, through some shit your pea brain couldn't even comprehend, so just give me the information I need, and I'll be on my merry way. And if you call me 'young man' one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall."
If Percy thought he had been angry in the car, or annoyed in the elevator ride up here, then he was positively raging now. Even at the pubescent age of thirteen, Five still managed to look threatening, and his tone of voice made sure that the doctor knew he wasn't playing around. Percy just sighed. She had hoped that Five would be able to control himself and not go around threatening people when they actually needed that person's help, but clearly, Five's temper was through the roof at the moment. None of them understood the danger they were all in, but it wasn't like they could tell them either, and that frustrated Five to no end.
"Oh, dear," the receptionist said.
"Call security," the doctor whispered, clearly realizing that Five actually meant what he said he was going to do.
The woman picked up the phone and began to dial a number. "Yeah."
Five glared at the doctor one last time before shoving him back, knowing already that it was a hopeless case. They had to get out of there before security came, or else the two would have to show off their powers and they seriously didn't want to do that. It was better if they kept quiet and their head down low, or else they might make newspapers again and that was the last thing they needed with assassins on their trail and quietly trying to figure out how to stop the apocalypse.
As Five turned away angrily, Percy, in an effort to diffuse the situation, called, "Lovely meeting you two!" before Five marched back and grabbed her hand to drag her away with him.
As the two of them stood in the stupidly slow elevator again, Five muttered, "I can't do this," and then, suddenly, the two of them blinked onto the ground floor. Once again, completely unprepared for the jump, Percy staggered away from Five, feeling queasy, the floor swaying beneath her feet. Thankfully, she hadn't eaten breakfast or else that would've been all over the floor. She had to place her hand against the wall and take a couple of deep breaths with her eyes closed to be able to clear the ringing and dizziness in her head.
"Sorry," Five mumbled. "I keep forgetting—"
"'S okay," she said, although it clearly wasn't okay. "Just... remember to tell me next time, okay?"
Five nodded.
"So, where are we going now?" This time, Percy made sure to ask in a soft, gentle voice, and was careful to avoid anything that might set him off. "You've always got a plan."
"We," Five said after a few seconds, "are going to need help from Klaus."
"Klaus?" Percy asked, unsure of if she had heard correctly.
Five nodded, a grim look upon his face. "Klaus."
This chapter came so late and it's also ridiculously short and I don't like it that much, but this is the best I can do for now.
Also, if you guys couldn't tell, my updating schedule is horrible because while I did love the idea of this story when I first started writing it, it's starting to become a little much for me to write, probably because I'm not as into the Umbrella Academy fandom as I used to be. I'll probably have to take a long break before moving onto season 2, but going back on topic, I felt bad about making you guys wait so long for this chapter, so I just thought that I should post it.
I don't know when my next chapter is coming out, but hopefully sooner than expected?
SnowWolf22: I realized that I had completely forgotten to reply to your comment in the last chapter, but thank you so much! I do think that Five is a little OOC, but it is a fanfiction after all, isn't it? Also, I've been drawing on my own experiences in order to try and depict Percy's depression, though I'm not exactly sure if I've written it out to be so accurate because mine has never been so extreme before, but yes, part of the reason as to why I wrote it was because it fit into the darker themes of the show. I probably will continue writing, but updates will just be slower than before.
GayFroggy: First off, I love your name. Secondly, I can't type out your username in full because Fanfiction won't let me do that, so my apologies. Thirdly, while I can't say that I agree or disagree because everybody is a reader, I will thank you for reminding people that if you don't like my story... you don't necessarily have to read it? I know that I personally have clicked out of a lot of fanfictions before because of something, and even though I felt bad about doing so... I mean, I'm not gonna force you to read my book. Also, I'm going to assume that you might've liked my book (correct me if I'm wrong) so thank you!
Isabelnecessaryonabicycle: Thank you so much! I have big plans for Percy, but it just takes so long to get to that part, but I hope you keep reading!