In one hand, Five balanced the leather notebook while his thumb held the page. He glanced back and forth from the board to the book, trying to copy the equation and chemical composition while thinking about its solubility, dosage, and toxicity. He felt this brain's synapses explode and a small headache starting.
With this alien material, everything had to be right and certain, no risks could be taken. The old man did say he was limited by the science of his time and here, outside of time, he had all the resources he needed. As he madly scribbled, he was already doing the math and spotted a few errors right away and thought to adjust them later. He soon realized he needed the board space that he had filled earlier and hastily grabbed another pen to copy his time travel equation on the journal and asked Viktor to erase the rest of the board as he continued with his new equation. Five had to consider the possibility that their Durango wasn't 100% the same, chemically, as they may have mutated differently.
Viktor finished wiping the board clean and took a step back satisfied. He and Klaus soon felt a growl in their stomach and decided to visit the Diner once again. Luther and Allison said they'd join later, and Diego gave them a shake of his head, only to return to the box to look at the alien metal. Diego wondered if he could manipulate this metal. Once when he was a kid, he had thrown an ancient vase across the room that was trapped inside a case. He could feel the clay contained iron and gold on the design. He felt the metals in the earth and sometimes smelled it in the air when somebody gushed blood. However, since he drank the Marigold, metal had felt like stored energy waiting to be used and he felt it like a magnet. He placed a small piece of scrap metal and swore he felt the strange metal vibrating underneath his palm and focused on lifting it off the table.
As Viktor and Klaus trudged out the door and shut it behind them, they greeted Brisket Five and placed an order for two sandwiches. They sat down on the bar and Server Five poured coffee and set down the mug. Viktor asked for sugar and Server Five looked offended, and refused to acknowledge the question, only to walk away shaking his head. Brisket Five silently pulled two sugar packets, slid them over to Viktor and smiled. "Oh. Thank you. The coffee is a little too dark for me," and looked away sheepishly.
Once the two sandwiches arrived, they decided to move to a table, away from the loud grinding slicer. It seemed to be peak Five hour, and they felt the room buzz. With nowhere to sit, they asked a Five who was sitting alone at the far table, if they could. The Five looked confused at his siblings and softened when he understood, "Please, go ahead." This Five was wearing a suit and tie with the jacket folded next to him over the back of the chair. He had his sleeves rolled up and was fiddling with a fountain pen. It was engraved but neither Viktor nor Klaus could make out what it said. There was a small number 05 tattooed on his wrist and above sat a crest of a fox. There was a newspaper folded into quarters with the crossword facing up and 30% of the page had been filled.
Viktor and Klaus awkwardly took a bite out of their sandwich and glanced at each other at the pure absurdity of their situation. They stopped chewing their sandwich to look at Five when he finally spoke up.
"What is an eight-letter word for 'the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule'? Noun. First letter 'A'." He tapped the pen and stared at the puzzle. Klaus choked a bit and quickly chewed to swallow the sandwich and eagerly answered, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I know this." He wiped the crumbs off his mouth and smiled at Five. "It's adomania. I learned that at a rave in '08." He wiggled his eyebrows at Five who scowled at him. He hesitated and wondered about the chances Klaus would be right but wrote it down anyway. Number 22 down had been completed and Five checked it off.
Viktor could finally make out the engraving that was gilded and wrote in cursive, 'Cursum perficio.' Viktor figured it was Latin but didn't pretend to know its meaning.
As Five twirled the pen, he glanced at the words and remembered when he first found it. It was on Lila's desk when he first met her. He had quietly taken it when she wasn't looking and pretended he didn't see it when she asked a few days later. He should have known then, there was no chance of escaping her grasp. He remembered how he rolled his eyes that she would own a pen that read 'My journey is over.'
"Um... Five?" Viktor chimed in, "Can I ask a question?" and hesitantly asked while touching his eyebrow self-consciously.
"Sure. Shoot." Five looked up and got a good look at them both for the first time since they sat down.
"Can I ask what happened to your world? Did we try to save that one too?" Viktor searched Five's eyes for the truth and found it so guarded it scared him.
"No, you didn't even get close. I was working for the Commission when I saw the world end. I saw you guys through the monitor fighting before Ben swallowed the world whole. I read the report and my God, Dad sure did a number on you guys after I got lost in the apocalypse. By the time, I realized I should have been there it was too late. Lila caught me trying to kill The Handler and stabbed my arm." He curled up his sleeve up to his shoulder and showed them a large red scar that stretched down his arm. He smiled at the memory. "Once I was in The Commission prisons, Lila freed me, and I convinced her to go with me. We were hopping through time for a while, but she left. She went back to The Handler." He took a pause, "She left when I told her I loved her." He swallowed the pang in his chest and tried to keep his composure. Viktor studied his face closely. His eyes were light years away, recalling the past, and he was still twirling the pen on his index finger. "She took the briefcase and left me stranded in 1982, so I blipped and ended up in the subways. I guess I scared her." He looked bitter now, like a haunting ghost with unfulfilled wishes.
"So, when I saw you guys walk in, I was honestly fine. It had already been half a century since I'd seen you in person, but Lila was the first person I met after jumping to our apocalypse. She was the family I chose since she was the one who recruited me for the Commission. But you know, nothing works out as we planned it, right?" Viktor felt so pained for this version of Five. He'd been so alone and so abandoned, his heart ached for this Five. Klaus gawped at his story and wanted to let out a small curse to this Lila but restrained his tongue.
"But when she walked in with you guys, I swear I stopped breathing for a moment." He gripped his pen tight, "I thought it was her and I thought she found me again. I thought she came to finish the job. I thought... She'd come to spare me..." His brows furrowed and Viktor felt a piece of this Five opening up to them. Viktor saw how much he hated the ending of his own story and wished he could rewrite it for him. "Then I saw a Five attached by her hands, and I knew she wasn't mine." He smiled through the pain and hoped it wasn't too obvious. "I'm just glad she loves me in another timeline." He returned the burning eyes of Viktor and smiled. Viktor could tell it wasn't real and a forced one, the same smile his Five would flash at his dad. He returned to his crossword like nothing had happened as if he hadn't told the saddest version of Five. Soon, Viktor realized why he was the only Five that sat alone, in the corner.
Five pulled out a small flask from the pocket of his coat and poured it into his coffee. "Any other questions?" he asked, rhetorically. He nudged towards both of them and they shook their heads immediately. Awkwardness landed on them like a brick wall and soon returned to their food. Five hummed the melody to 'Dream a Little Dream' as he continued solving his puzzle, scribbling the answer down as he remembered, while Viktor and Klaus finished their meal. With empty plates in hand, they thanked Five for the seat and the story and walked towards the bar. Before Klaus could get away from the table, he slid into the seat next to Five and hugged him. The crossword crinkled underneath the tight fist of Five while being unable to breathe or react. It had been so long since he had been hugged, hell-since he'd been touched-he wanted to jump out of his skin. When Klaus finally let go, he gave a knowing and satisfied look to Five and caught up with Viktor. Viktor smiled at Klaus, commending his actions.
When they entered the library, full and satisfied, they saw Diego focusing so hard, that veins were pulsing against his forehead. He was still fiddling with the alien metal and managed to make a Mobius strip. Allison and Luther were reading the journal in detail, using their fingers to skim through the lines. Five was still working on the chemical composition and adjusting it, tapping along the board with a broken, short chalk, barely hanging on. It didn't take long for him to angrily throw it across the room, huffed, and grabbed another. Lila laughed, watching him, as she sat on the loveseat, her legs swung across the other and played with a knife she'd pulled from the wall. It swirled between her fingers and didn't treat it like a weapon that could easily cut her. It took another hour before he spoke up again.
Five broke away from the board, and asked Lila "Can you ask Brisket Five where we can find a lab? Or maybe look through the map." He furrowed his eyebrows again as he returned with his chalk. She happily obliged, finally with something important to do.
She looked at the map closely for anything that jumped at her. Through the yarn and complex map, she felt like she couldn't comprehend a single manic letter on the wall. She asked the nearby family member for clues and when she came up empty, she decided to venture out to the Diner. She leaned over the closed door and asked the busy Max, "Do you know where we could find a lab? Somewhere with access to the Marigold or the Durango? Is there even such a place?" She suddenly realized that through the many world-ending events, a lab like that may not have survived.
Max looked at her puzzled and tilted his head like a puppy. He shook his head and repeated the question for Server Five. He considered it for a second and shook his head. As he picked up the tray full of food, he suddenly stopped and turned with a look of realization and silently pointed at a Five with black-framed glasses. "Maybe Doc would know." which earned an eager nod from Max. He said, "Yeah, for sure he would. We call him Doc because he is the only one with a PhD around here. I think he graduated when he turned 15 before he got sent to the future." He ushered Lila in his direction.
Doc had a simple grey tie over his black shirt. Instead of a suit jacket, he had a black leather jacket with metals strung over the collar and sleeves that hung over the chair. He had wild hair that shot up over his head in every which way, but it suited him. He had bags under his eyes that were accentuated by the black soot that covered over his face, creating an inversion of the goggles he must have been wearing. Despite the bags, he had crazy manic eyes that her Five usually wore when he finally knew he was right. Or right before he told her wanted to do more than kiss. He had his sleeves scrunched up and stapled, so it'd stay up and had now taken off his glasses to close it and set it on the table. He looked up and saw Lila for the first time.
"Woah, Lila! Good to see you!" He got up and went to hug her. This was such a wild version of Five, she staggered back but slowly accepted the hug. It was hard to say no to Five, and now knew it applied to every version of him. As she wrapped her hands around his back, she felt half the room stare at them. She felt the prickle on the back of her head and tried to pull away faster than he did.
Server Five stopped in his tracks and took a second to adjust his eyes. For a second, he felt like he was watching his memory, live in front of him. Like envisioning an out-of-body experience, it was hard not to see himself hugging Lila again. He was sent back to their first dance as she swayed in their courtyard. He remembered their first dance at their wedding. He remembered her laugh when the Lila in front of him threw her head back in laughter when she laughed at Doc's hair. He felt her presence vibrate through him and the wall dizzy around him. With the clatter of the door opening, he was back, numb, and continued with his work before his brain caught up with his heart.
Corner Five roughly opened the flask and drank it straight from the spout. He dribbled a little bit out of his pulled lips, and he watched Lila shine underneath the warm lights. He felt the bitterness rise within him, but with the buzz of the coffee and the alcohol he felt traveling down his throat, he couldn't help but watch how Lila could have loved him. Or in another version, he saw how they could have been friends, a real and good friend. He took solace in the fact that he was connected to Lila in every possible way, as enemies, as friends, as lovers, and as a stranger, throughout the broken multiverse. In every version of him, Lila had been a catalyst for Five, changing him and making him feel at home. He took another swig when he realized, he was the only one that may never feel that.
"I'm pretty sure you're not my version of Lila, but it's crazy that you're here." Doc said as he pulled out a chair for her. "You and I used to be lab partners all throughout Uni you know. We even wrote a paper together!" Doc said excitedly. "We were the only ones under the age of 18 in Uni, so of course, we had to show those bratty Oxford kids how it's done."
Lila noticed the confidence that rolled off his tongue. This version of Five was reassured and knew if he spent enough time with a question, he could figure it out. Lila was struggling to adjust at his look but now the way he spoke to her. Like they were childhood best friends. Like they were meeting at the 20th University Reunion.
"What was the title of our paper?" Lila blurted the question out before he could notice her struggling to keep up.
"It took us forever to decide the title, but we settled on 'Interdimensional Detours: How We Accidentally Could Create a Time Vortex.' It was about making a time machine and the physics of it all, but it was all theoretical." He threw back his head with laughter. Lila laughed with him as she imagined herself at 15 fighting about an equation with Five. "I tried to actualize it when it sucked me in and dropped me off in our, sorry, my apocalypse."
"And what's going on with the dirt?" Lila asked as she touched his face to smudge it on her fingers and rubbed it with her thumb to see what it was. "Is this...? Is this charcoal?" She felt the grainy ash as she wiped it away on a napkin.
"Yeah, I've been working on a new material for a smoke bomb. My world is now in a Civil War between the survivors. I'm trying to see what gives the best coverage without leaving a noticeable trace. It kind of exploded on me, thus..." he gestured over his face and shirt that had a fine powder of soot.
"So, does that mean you have a lab?" Lila asked, suddenly remembering her original mission. "We've found something that could help us end our apocalypse, but we need a lab to tweak the vaccine." She asked hopefully.
"I do have a lab. I mean I would have to see what it is to know if I have the right equipment though." Before he could even properly finish his sentence, she stood up and gestured him to follow her. "Oh. Oh! Yeah! Okay. Let's go," as he grabbed his jacket and put it on just so he didn't have to carry it in his hands.
Lila practically ran to the door and opened it as she gave Max a thumbs up. He nodded at her; glad it worked out.
"Five, I found you a lab!" Lila burst through the door, and he stopped writing on the board to turn towards her. He set down the chalk and rolled his eyes at the ridiculous version of him. He had never seen himself in a rebellious fashion and was alarmed at how many metals decorated his jacket.
"Woah, Five is punk rock now!" Klaus grinned at the new Five and gave him a quick and loud high five which was easily reciprocated. For a second, Diego wanted to ask where he got the jacket but remembered who he was.
"Hi, guys. Some new faces here, but nice to meet you all. Trying to save the world again I see." As he looked around, he only recognized Diego and approached him to shake his hands. "Yo, Diego. Long time, no see, man. How are your kids?" Diego flinched back but before he could fully step away, Doc grabbed his hand and shook it for him.
"I know, I know, you don't know me, but you were the best drummer I've ever played with, man. Just call me Doc." He finally let go of Diego's hands and Diego nodded at him trying to act as casually about it as he did. Doc did not seem phased at all about this alternate version of his family, like the timeline traveling had made him numb to any surprises. He looked around and learned everyone's name as best as he could. Five broke the pleasantries, "Okay let's get to know each other in a little bit and just take a look at the vial already," and picked up the vaccine to shove it in Doc's hands.
Doc held it by the wax seal and sloshed it around, he brought it up to the nearby table lamp to inspect it closely. "What is this exactly? Where did you find it?" He asked inquisitively, unable to take his eyes off the shining substance.
"I found it in here, on a shelf. Dad wrote down the equation in his journal and Five found a way to fix it, I think? It's a 'vaccine' to reverse the Durango." He glanced at Five to double-check.
Five walked over to the board and dragged it over to the table, "This is what I came up with." Doc finally snapped his eyes away from the bottle and started skimming the equation on the board. His mind was rapidly checking and considering the possibility that his Mass Spectrometer in the basement, may still be functional. He quickly nodded at Five and said, "Yeah, we could do that in my lab." He shrugged and solidified his confidence that this may work.
Five taken aback at Doc's nonchalant tone, broke it with a loud announcement, "Great! Everyone grab your shit!" Everyone groaned at the thought of relocating again and dragged their feet gathering their coats and bags. They filed out of the library with Doc leading them as he put the bottle in his jacket pocket and zippered it shut. Next, filed out Luther and Klaus holding their jackets and with newfound excitement. They waved at Brisket Five as they passed through the bar. Allison, Viktor, and Diego soon followed with anxiety etched on their face as they ventured out again, into the unknown. Five held Lila's hand and pulled her into a kiss on her temple as they closed the door behind them. Max smiled when he saw Lila and the kiss, waved at her, and wished her luck. He tried not to look too sad about her departure. She'd be back. At one point in time, he knew, she'd be back again.
Doc said his goodbyes to the table he had originally sat in, and another Five without a tie handed him his glasses. Doc gratefully grabbed it and thanked him. He put it back onto his face and opened the front door to lead them to the lab. "It's only a few stations over. I found this place pretty quickly actually, accidentally did the math wrong and ended up here. I only got out because of Brisket Five. This is our train." He said as the train stopped in front of them.
'.yb esolc dnatS ,noitatS hsugaraF litnu setunim 51 ,niart dnuobhtron eht si sihT' It announced as they filed in and grabbed a seat.
After a few stations, Doc silently stood up and headed towards the door as everybody scrambled to follow him. Once they exited, they were greeted by a filthy station. It was covered in algae and water as if it had flooded and drained over the course of a decade. Trash and strange objects were strewn everywhere, even hanging by the ceiling on wires. Some lights sparked out as they walked towards the bright light that entered through the staircase. Doc confidently skipped two steps at a time as he approached the topside. Far away, they heard an explosion, but Doc hadn't flinched when he heard it. Klaus instinctively ducked and was reminded of Vietnam. Allison held his arm as they continued to follow Doc in between buildings and alleys. They found themselves behind a large building with every window shattered. The structure was still held on by the bare bones of the foundation and metal prongs that poked out of the ground. He swiftly moved past the elevator that had been forcibly opened and left empty. Luther saw the crowbar marks along the door openings and wondered what the story was. Doc pushed open the emergency staircase, and skipped down two floors, whistling a strange song as it echoed against the concrete walls. He opened a heavy door and turned on the lights next to the entrance.
The lab slowly flickered into action. An old refrigerator sat in the corner making futile sounds of fans whirring and lights around the lab tables revealed a mess. Papers were stacked high on the corner, strangely labeled chemicals lined the top shelf, a jar with various ears from multiple species, and an old computer jolted awake as Doc tapped on the space bar. Five looked around in awe at the sheer collection of information and couldn't help but buzz with excitement. He let go of Lila's hand and pushed past Luther to explore further. Luther walked around carefully, afraid he may knock something over with his large body, kept his arms near and stepped around carefully.
"What do you make here, exactly, um... Doc?" Allison asked, concerned for their safety and Doc's sanity. She looked around for anything familiar only to come up empty.
"A revolution isn't a clean fight, you know." Doc broke a smile at Allison with only one dimple and winked. "Bombs, traps, programs, medications, and now vaccines, I guess." He turned on a Bunsen burner and flicked a clicker above it as it roared into a large flame. He placed a plate and started adding various ingredients from the nearby shelf as he mumbled the ingredients under his breath. He shook his jacket off and threw it at the nearby couch and picked up the lab coat instead. He placed the goggles back onto his face moved towards the fridge and grabbed a test tube out of the door. He finally spoke up to the family as he shook the tube, "This is the Durango. I found a small lab that Hargreeves Labs was trying to hide. I hadto steal something from there and got this little number." He remembered the heat and lowered the gas, placed the Durango on a rack, and proceeded to open a hatch underneath his feet and revealed a small storage area. Everyone had been quietly watching him work, trying to understand a morsel of his words, and when he disappeared down the ladder into the room, they all gathered to watch Doc dig through his stuff.
"Aha, there you are Franklin, my old friend." He wiped the dust off an old machine and groaned as he picked it up. It was a heavy machine about the size of a printer and with some struggle, he had managed to lift it towards the opening. "Somebody, grab it." His voice was restrained and panicked. Luther easily reached in and grabbed it as he pulled it up. "Thank you," Doc said as he reached the top and snapped the trapdoor shut. He blew the dust off and plugged it in. Doc closed his eyes and crossed his fingers, "Please Franklin. Be alive. Be alive." It only took seconds, but it managed to light up and chirped two beeps.
"OH! Yes!" Doc was elated and kissed Franklin. He opened his jacket pocket and pulled out the blue bottle. He broke the wax seal and sat on a stool with wheels. He pushed himself a few feet over to grab the large pipette and a small test tube. He slowly pulled 1 ml as testing and closed the bottle shut. He allocated half for the Mass Spectrometer which would determine the active chemicals in the vaccine. Once he had put it in and let Franklin do its thing, he pushed himself down the lab table, to its end. He carefully dropped two drops on a glass and smeared it with another piece, slid it under the microscope, and looked. He fiddled with the knob and brought it into focus. Doc was too excited and too focused to notice the Umbrella Academy struggling to keep up. They started looking around, trying to determine his credibility in detail and Viktor, Klaus, and Allison started to wander around the lab.
Viktor noticed a small vanity mirror with a few photographs taped along the edges. One was an old, wrinkled, borderline brown, photograph of a focused Lila and Five, young and fresh, working in a lab. Next to it, a candid photograph of Lila as she talked to someone was taped. Klaus picked up an 8-ball and asked in his head, 'Will we survive the apocalypse, let alone Doc?' and turned the ball to reveal, 'Ask Again Tomorrow,' and rolled his eyes. He huffed and placed it back down on the shelf. Allison was reading through the titles of books on the shelf and noticed a bound, paper copy of 'Interdimensional Detours: How We Accidentally Could Create a Time Vortex.' By Lila Pitts & Five Hargreeves. Led by her curiosity she pulled it out and read the first page.
Dedications:
The authors would like to dedicate this academic research and its findings to each other. May we continue to grow and learn together. And of course, our moms.
She broke into a smile and shifted through the pages and was surprised at the details they wrote as 15-year-olds.
Lila couldn't decide whether or not she liked this version of Five. He seemed too cheery and unfazed by the destruction around him. Nothing reached him and nothing hurt him. It felt like he kept the world separate from himself in this sterile, rationalized the world in this room just to breathe until tomorrow. This was a version of Five that had nothing to lose. She quietly stood next to her Five, the Five that had too much to lose. He instinctively held her and pulled her close to him and she fit like a puzzle around his torso. They watched Doc shift through lenses and heard Franklin struggle to spin the machine. Lila's head was aching from the many versions of Five she had met and barely could keep up with this Five. Doc pulled his glasses back onto his face and squinted at an interesting find.
Five saw Doc as a different person. This Five felt so far removed from his personality, that it felt like a robbery. Like Doc stole his face and sewed it unto someone else's body; even the way he breathed seemed so out of place for Five. The lab coat was smeared and stained with various colors and chemicals. His hair kept shifting every time he pushed it out of his face. There was no predicting what he could do next. He soon grew tired of Doc's mumbling and instead looked at Lila. He felt everything melt away and his face softened as she nudged him in excitement. His shoulders finally relaxed and allowed himself to squeeze Lila to him and kiss the top of her head. He breathed in to process the last hour pulled a lab chair and offered it to Lila. She shook her head and Five sat down instead. He pulled Lila to his lap and let her lean onto him as they watched Doc start another ramble. By the time Doc pulled away and adjusted his glasses, Franklin let out a small beep and stopped spinning. With a strangled noise, the machine started to push a long piece of paper with a graph with large and small spikes with the elements listed along the bottom. Doc watched it finish, stroked Franklin, thanked it, and cut the paper off to read it closely. Five and Lila shared a glance, 'Oh he's crazy, alright.'