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Spaceboy 00.01 "Arrogant and self-centered, Luther cares more about being a hero than anything else. It's certainly more important to him than his family."  The Kraken 00.02"Diego's independence has always put him at odds with Father and the other siblings. I admire it, though, and while we drifted apart, he's the only one I can say I love as a brother."  The Rumor 00.03"My sister is beautiful, and she knows it. Allison loves attention, even while complaining about it, feigning modesty. What else would you expect- her superpower is dishonesty. Father trained her so well." The Séance 00.04"Klaus was so sweet and vulnerable as a boy, but Father experimented on him the most, and it changed him. He became cruel as a teenager- even worse, the older he gets." ??? 00.05"He disappeared when we were only 13 years old. At that time he refused to choose a name, so I don't even know what to call him. I envy him, having checked out of this family so long ago." The Horror 00.06"The kindest of my siblings, but he was so easy to please Father. He was easily manipulated, dragged into Father and Luther's little games- and those two simply let him die." The Wisp 00.08"Circe would've been our Number 1 if she didn't arrive after we were adopted. She always wanted to prove people wrong and that trait ended up being her downfall... But she was more of a Number Seven than I ever was." Vanya Hargreeves 00.07"I was never made to feel a part of the team, much less the family, not including Circe. But really, I was just happy to be sent off to school."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Clink, clink, clink

Porcelain joints clinked together as Circe walked. It was a soft sound, like little china tea cups clinking against each other. She smiled to herself at the smell of wet air from the recent rain, breathing in deeply before exhaling.
As she walked through the streets, some people stared, it wasn’t everyday they’d see such a small girl walking alone in the city. Especially with some of the people living there. Or, maybe it was because of the uncanny look she had.

Clink, clink, clink

Circe’s pale skin looked like glass, similar to a porcelain doll. Her black eyes had a shiny gleam in them even though it seemed as if they were soulless. She had shiny, healthy-looking black hair that was pulled back in a loose braid with bangs. 
Her smile was… Nice. She was smiling as if nothing was wrong in the world! Even though the smile never reached her eyes.

Clink, clink, clink

She had black gloves on that made the handle of her umbrella slightly slippery. The porcelain doll had a long-sleeved, white, ruffle blouse underneath a black suspender jumpsuit. Almost as if Circe stepped out of a vintage magazine.
Earlier, she found a small crack in one of her hands and her mask underneath her eye hole. Even though she didn’t need to wear a porcelain mask, she preferred to. Her face was ugly.

Clink, clink, clink

That was the reason why she was out (not to fix her face), the cracks troubled her and kept her awake. So, she went to her personal repairwomen and asked her to fix her. Thankfully, Hela did the job well.
Hela ended up fixing her mask and hand pretty well. She repainted the red lipstick and green-blue eyeshadow as well as powdered back on the yellow blush. Circe was thankful because she had noticed earlier that week that her paint was chipping off of her mask.

Clink, clin-

She suddenly stopped in front of a TV storefront, which was weird since most of those weren’t even around, and her slight smile turned into a frown as she watched the news.

Moments ago, police reported the death of the most eccentric and reclusive billionaire, Reginald Hargreeves.

Circe was Number Eight, The Influence or The Doll. She preferred her original title over her most recent one. It reminded her that she was no longer fully human and sometimes it was better to bury things deep down.

_____________________________________________________

The mansion was designed in a neo-Gothic style with dark, looming stone walls, high-pitched roofs, and ornate detailing. The tall, narrow windows that give it a somewhat eerie appearance.
The building is massive, with multiple stories and wings, making it feel more like an academy or institution than a typical family home. Circe supposed that was why it was called ‘Umbrella Academy’ and not ‘Umbrella Family’.

Circe’s hands clinked together as she removed the gloves from her hands and opened the front door hesitantly, as if something or someone was going to jump out at her at any second.
Upon entering, the familiarly large and dramatic foyer Circe sighed, nothing had changed throughout the house. The foyer had a sweeping staircase that led to the upper floors. The space was adorned with dark wood paneling, heavy drapes, and antique furnishings.

“Ah, Miss Circe. I’m glad that you’re doing well.” A familiar voice called out to her. It was a soothing voice, one that calmed almost everyone down. It was nice to hear her fathers ape assistant, Pogo.

Circe turned and smiled, “Hello, Pogo.” She smiled, her shoes tapped on the ground as she walked up to him, “How are you?”

“I’ve been doing well, thank you Miss Circe.” Pogo said, “I wasn’t expecting you to come knowing that you were very busy with repairs.”

“The cracks come and go, my family won’t wait for me.” Circe said.

“As graceful and elegant sounding as ever.” Pogo nodded as the door opened to reveal… Luther.

“Am I… Early?” Luther asked awkwardly, his gaze staying on Circe for a few more seconds than it did with Pogo.

Circe’s slight smile became a bit wider, “I suppose you are, Luther.” She said, “How was the moon?”

“It was… The same old moon as always. Sent some stuff to dad, almost ran out of food.” Luther smiled slightly, “I’m gonna go up to dad’s room.”

“Luther,” Circe said, “Are you doing well?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just that I can see my father's experiments.” Circe said, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well it’s not gonna change anything.” Luther said, his voice getting defensive.

“I know what that’s like, Luther.” Circe smiled, tapping her finger on the side of her face, making a

clink

sound. “It’s good to see you again.” She said as Luther walked up the large wooden staircase.

“... Good to see you too, Circe.” Luther eventually said.

After a moment of silence, Circe turned to Pogo, “Pogo, do you know where Mother is?” She asked.

Pogo nodded, “She’s upstairs, looking at the paintings.” He said and Circe thanked the ape before going into the parlor.

The living areas in the mansion were grand and old-fashioned, with large fireplaces, vintage furniture, and an overall sense of formality. Despite the fanciness, the rooms always felt cold and lacked the warmth of a typical family home.
Of course, this living area wasn’t much different. Circe walked upstairs to the main landing before seeing her Mother sitting down, looking at one of the paintings with eeriness.

“Hello, Mother.” Circe said, walking up to her chair with hesitation. Grace snapped her head to the side to see Circe and smiled.

“Darling, welcome back home.” Grace said and stood up, hugging Circe tightly.

“Um, everyone’s going to be downstairs. So, if you’d like to greet everyone when they come in, maybe you’ll…” Circe’s voice trailed off.

“Of course I’ll meet everyone downstairs. Don’t you worry, darling.” Grace said before sitting back downstairs.

Circe frowned, her Mother was acting weird, but shrugged it off and went to go back downstairs to the parlor. Maybe she’d see Vanya or Klaus first.
As she came back down to the parlor, she sighed to herself as she saw the portrait of Five above the fireplace. She pursed her lips as she remembered the boy. It was such a long time ago when she came here…

_____________________________________________________

“Please, we cannot take care of our daughter.” Circe’s father pleaded to Reginald. The old man pursed his lips.

“I have no need to have another child in this household. I already have the designated children that I need.” Reginald said sternly, “I cannot help you two. You said you wanted a child, there you have it.”

“She’s different.” Circe’s mother explained, “She has… She does weird things.”

Reginald, although skeptical, asked the desperate woman to continue. The parents both looked at each other before exhaling slowly.

“She controls people… And things. Whenever she plays with her toys, they move on their own. She moves things around the house, we can’t find anything.” Circe’s mother explained, “We’ve always wanted a child but… Not this one.”

“And it’s been five years. Surely you’ve had enough time to discard the child.” Reginald said. The parents widened their eyes, shocked by the man’s heartlessness.

“We’re not going to kill a child.”

“I did not mean that. I meant that you could put her in every other orphanage and household.” Reginald crossed his arms, “Why mine?”

“You warned us, we ignored you. We thought-”

“Well, you thought wrong.” Reginald frowned, “Now, get off my-”

“Mama…” A small voice whispered. Reginald snapped his head towards the five year old girl tugging on the woman’s red skirt. The five year old girl had a black suitcase with her. “I wanna go home…”

“This is our daughter.” Circe’s mom pushed the five year old girl from behind her and in front of Reginald.

Reginald pursed her lips, “What can you do?” He asked.

Circe looked at her parents nervously. The couple nodded with tight smiles before Circe turned back and dug through her pocket to reveal a pen. She opened her hand and the pen slowly floated up and started spinning.

Reginald paused before nodding, “Very well.” He said and opened the door behind him. Circe looked at her parents with a confused look.

Circe’s dad knelt down to the girl’s level, placing his hand on her shoulder. “You’re going to be staying here. It’s a new school, a… Special one for kids like you.” He explained.

Circe blinked before turning to look at the old man once again, “I don’t wanna go with the scary man.” She whispered.

Circe’s dad smiled, “You’ll be alright. It’ll be just for a little while.”

Circe knew it wasn’t going to be for ‘a little while’. She heard their conversation, she wasn’t stupid. The girl knew that they were throwing her away like some doll.

Something in her gut told her that something was wrong, but brushed the feeling off as she saw the grand foyer of the Umbrella Academy Mansion.

“This is where you will be staying.” Reginald placed his hand on the girl's shoulder and guided her up the steps of the foyer.

She looked up and down the halls as Reginald stared at the girl, observing her expressions. “Down the hall to the far left is Number One, Number Three, and Number Seven’s rooms as well as the bathroom” Reginald pointed down the hallway, “These two rooms next to us are Number 4’s room and Number 2’s room.”

He walked down the hallway and the both of them turned to walk up green stairs. “The two rooms up here are Number Five’s and Number Six’s. Your room will be this empty one.”

“Um, sir, where is everyone?” Circe asked. Reginald turned to look at the girl.

“They are on a mission, Number Eight.” Reginald said. Circe frowned at the name.

“My name’s Circe, not-”

“Think of it as a nickname, everyone is assigned these nicknames and everyone will be called these nicknames unless I say so, Number Eight.” Reginald said, walking down the hall and leaving her alone, “Get used to your new home.”

Circe sighed and opened her room, it was fairly empty with a single window. A plain bed, a small dresser, floor-length mirror, and desk were all that sat in the room.

She frowned and dragged her suitcase in. Circe decided that this place needed some decorating and opened her suitcase to reveal a small stuffed bear. She placed it on her bed with a slight smile.

_____________________________________________________

“We have a new member of the Umbrella Academy, Number Eight.” Reginald stepped aside to reveal the girl.

She breathed in and out slowly, standing up as tall as she could and raising her head slightly. She wondered who Number One was. The kids in front of her, probably her age, were in a straight line as Reginald walked beside each of them.

“Number One.”

Blonde, probably the leader.

“Number Two.”

Second tallest, impatient looking.

“Number Three.”

Curly haired, probably the prettiest.

“Number Four.”

Third tallest, looks like he’s antsy to move

“Number Five.”

He has a sort of smug looking smirk, probably arrogant

“Number Six.”

Nervous looking, might be the kindest

“Number Seven.”

Quiet.

Circe pursed her lips, looking at all of them nervously. “And this is Number Eight children.” Reginald said, standing next to the girl.

“What does she do?” Diego asked. Reginald turned to the girl and Circe shrugged, she wasn’t sure what she could do exactly.

“Today’s agenda is to test exactly what she can do, Number Two.”

_____________________________________________________

Circe breathed in and out harshly, “I wanna take a break, I’m tired.” She complained.

“Taking a break won’t be possible out in the field, Number Eight!” Reginald barked, “Now, fight.”

The six children were watching through the glass windows, they were intrigued with the new guest. After losing to Number Three, Number Five, and Number Six, Circe didn’t seem to have much hope left.

Circe and Number One looked at each other before Number One charged forward. He swung a mighty fist toward Circe, aiming to end the fight with one powerful blow. But just as his fist was about to connect, Circe's eyes flashed with a yellow light.

Number One was suddenly pushed back into one of the glass walls at lightning speed, shattering the glass.

Circe blinked, her eyes going back to brown as Number One groaned and got up. There was a moment of silence. “That is quite enough, all of you go back to your rooms.” Reginald said.

The children awkwardly shuffled past each other and went upstairs, going to their separate rooms. Circe breathed in harshly, biting her lip to stop tears as she sat on her bed.

She was so tired, she just wanted to go home to her mom. She missed her dad’s warm hugs, their nice meals, and the rest of her stuffed animals. She clutched onto the small stuffed animal she had brought with her and hugged it tightly, burying her head into her arms.

Circe heard a strange sound, looking up to see Number Five. She wiped her sudden tears and sat her back against the wall. “What do you want?” She asked, her voice shaking violently.

“How’d you do that?” The boy asked. Circe buried her head back into her stuffed animal. The boy sighed and sat down next to her on her bed.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it.” Circe said, her voice muffled.

“

Well, maybe you could talk about it with me.” The boy said. Circe lifted her head to get a good look at him and slightly smiled.

“My mama tells me it’s not good to use it.” She said, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper.

“So you can control people?” The boy asked. Circe shook her head.

“I can do…” Circe dug into her pocket to reveal the pen from earlier and spun it around with a slight smile. “This and…” She raised her stuffed animal and brought it back down with her hand.

The boy smiled slightly as Circe leaned forward to get a good look of his face. She looked at him before stating, “You have dimples.”

T

he boy looked at her with a weird look. “Yeah, so?”

“I think it’s funny.” She said as the boy frowned. “So, if everyone here has a cool power, what can you do?” She asked.

“

Okay, I’ll show you. But only if you’ll help me with something after.” The boy said. Circe nodded and Number Five held out his hand, she hesitantly took it as the air around them whooshed and she was suddenly in the parlor.

“Woah! Teleportation’s your power?!” Circe exclaimed, smiling as if it was the coolest thing ever. The boy wasn’t used to someone being so excited about… Him before.

“No, it’s spatial jumping. It’s the ability to instantly move from one location to another without physically occupying the space between.” The boy said.

“Oh! I… Guess that makes sense?” Circe frowned. The boy snickered before holding her hand and jumping to his room.

“This is my room.” Five smiled, sitting down on his desk chair. Circe looked around, sitting on his bed.

“

So, what’s the deal with spatial jumping? Like, the whole thing.” Circe asked. Number Five thought about it before speaking.

“Spatial is the transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them…” Number Five rambled before turning red, “Sorry, I don’t mean to ramble.”

“

Why’d you stop? I wanna know more.” Circe smiled. Number Five brightened up as he sat down next to the girl, continuing to talk about the scientific theories around it such as quantum tunneling, quantum teleportation, and wormholes.

_____________________________________________________

She missed him. It was hard for her to admit it but she did miss him. Circe let out a small breath before turning to see her mother was sitting down and looking deeply at the fireplace.

Circe shrugged off the weirdness of her mother before the wooden door of the mansion opened to reveal… Vanya.

Vanya looked around to see Circe and smiled nervously, “Hey, Cici.” Vanya smiled. Circe walked over with a wave.

“Vanya, it’s nice to see you again.” Circe said with a genuine smile, not the polite one she gave to Luther or the default one she had masked on her face, but a genuine smile.

Vanya looked hesitant, she wasn’t sure of how her sister would react to her. She thought she’d be angry, or sad. But she felt a bit relieved as she hugged her sister tightly.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Cici... You haven't aged a bit." Circe heard Allison's voice. She turned to see her other sister wearing a blue top and... Her hair had been bleached?

"Nice to see you again, Allison." Circe smiled.

"You as well, sister." Allison came to the porcelain girl and gave her a tight hug. Circe breathed in and out, she was slightly nervous to see all of her family members.
As Circe let go, Allison peaked her head out to see Vanya. “Vanya? You’re actually here.” Allison walked up to the shorter woman.

“Hey, Allison.” Vanya said quietly.

“Hey, sis.” Allison said, the both of them standing awkwardly in front of each other before the actress chuckled softly and gave Vanya a tight squeeze.

“Ah… What is she doing here?” Diego asked as he walked past Vanya and Allison. Circe scrunched her face before rolling her eyes, “You don’t belong here, not after what you did?”

“You came in through the window upstairs?” Circe asked.

“Yes, I did.” Diego smirked before patting Circe on the back, “Good to see you, Cici.”

“Nice to see you too, Gogo.” Circe said jokingly as Diego scoffed at the nickname.

“You’re seriously gonna do this today?” Allison asked her brother as he walked up the grand stairway, “Way to dress for the occasion by the way.”

“At least I’m wearing black.”

“We all know dad doesn’t deserve respect at his funeral.” Circe said.

“You know what? I- Maybe he’s right.” Vanya doubted herself, “I shouldn’t be-”

“Forget about him. I’m glad you’re here.” Allison reassured her. Circe put a hand on Vanya’s shoulder.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Circe said with a smile, “You’re a part of our family, whether he likes it or not.”

Allison left to go up to Reginald’s office and Circe and Vanya wandered into the parlor, passing by the old newspaper articles and magazine covers that depicted Circe and the others - of course with the exception of Vanya. 
Vanya glanced wistfully at the group photos before turning to the book shelf, and her hand brushed the dark cover of a book. She turned the book over to see her own face on the back cover. "Did you ever read it?" she quietly asked. Her shoulders were hunched and had her gloomy frown on.

"It was... Sad." Circe said, staring at it with a bittersweet look in her eyes. "Knowing how you felt probably felt like a punch in the face for everyone else. And knowing that the truth was set in their faces also felt like a kick to the gut... Vanya, if I had known that you were feeling that way then I would've-"

"Cici, it's fine." Vanya smiled slightly.

"Well, other than feeling guilty, I suppose the book was... Nice." Circe smiled, “It was the truth. And you’re right, that trait was always my downfall.”

Vanya nodded, still hesitant but clearly a bit relaxed. "The others certainly don't feel the same way, they've made that much clear."

"It'll take much more than the truth to make me hate you." Circe nudged her shoulder, "They're all great, but you're one of my number one favorites."

She laughed in response. "So you really don't mind the book?" she timidly asked.

"They hate you because you told the truth. That's why they're so defensive about it" Circe shrugged, "People always get defensive when they're told the truth."

"People always say the truth hurts."

"A lot of things hurt. There are worse things than being told you were a bad father." Circe smiled, "Doesn't matter since he's dead but... I think you'll be the most memorable of us all."

"Really?"

"Yep! I can already picture it, 'Vanya: Spilling the secrets of Umbrella Academy'." Circe turned to her with a smile, "I'd have to say that you're probably the only one who can have a normal life. And... that’s pretty lucky I suppose."

"Yeah... I guess I can..." Vanya smiled wistfully, “You’ve always made all of us feel better.”

“Maybe that’s my superpower.” Circe joked.

"Miss Vanya, so glad to see you here again," A familiar voice said warmly to the woman beside Circe as she approached the talking monkey and embraced him. "As it is great to see you again, Miss Circe."
When they broke apart, he noticed the book in her hand. "I see you've found your book."

"Did... Did Dad ever... Y'know, read it?" Vanya asked.

Pogo thought for a minute. "I couldn't say with utmost certainty.”

She nodded and glanced at the giant painting above the fireplace. She sighed and turned to Circe, "How long has it been since Five left?"

Pogo looked at Circe. "Sixteen years, four and a half months." Vanya gave Circe a pointed look, to which she shrugged.

"It's not like I've been counting. It's just... There's really nothing else to do." Circe frowned, looking at the portrait of Five. When he went missing, Circe cried for a few days. And then ‘died’ two months afterward.
Wow, looking back, her life was kind of shitty.

"Y'know, I would leave the lights on for him when we were little, in case he ever came back." Vanya sighed. "I worried that he wouldn't be able to find us if the lights weren't on and that he'd run off again. I would leave him little sandwiches too," she added, smiling wistfully, "And then on the nights that I couldn't, Cici would do it."

"Yes, indeed," Pogo replied, smiling as well. "I recall happening upon quite a few of those. I would end up washing peanut butter and marshmallow fluff off of my slippers for hours. Miss Circe used to sleepwalk and step on them as well."

"Ugh, I still remember the feeling." Circe sighed.

"Sir Hargreeves always waited for him," Pogo added. "He never stopped believing he'd return."

"
Didn't do much for him," the short brunette mumbled.

Eventually, the six of them met in the main hall. They all sat awkwardly apart, choosing to keep to themselves for a while. The ragged individual whom Circe identified as Klaus was in the back at the bar, most likely pouring himself some mind-numbing, hangover-inducing concoction.

Allison sat quietly drinking what looked like rum by the fire, with Diego across from her. Luther sat across from Circe and Vanya on a couch, her leaning in towards the girl for a bit for comfort.
For a long time, no one spoke. It felt like hours upon hours of simply staring at each other, examining how each sibling had changed - some had quite obviously changed more than others.
Circe hadn't seen any of the others for years, but apparently some of them had met up at Allison's wedding to some guy she knew as "Patrick." Whether Allison was still slightly salty for Circe not coming to her wedding, she never knew.

Finally, Luther stood and cleared his throat. 
"We should kick this thing off," He said with uncertainty. "I was thinking about holding a little memorial service, nothing huge... Out in the courtyard when the sun's setting. Maybe we say a few words in Dad's old favorite spot."

"Since when did he have a favorite spot?" Allison asked.

"It was near that oak tree," He said quickly. She frowned a bit. "The two of us used to go there all the time... Didn't you guys do that too?"

"Not... Not all of us." Circe said quietly.

"Are there gonna be any snacks?" Klaus asked, walking over with a generous amount of alcohol in his large cup and a lit cigarette in his hand. "Simple things, like tea? Maybe some biscuits or those cute little sandwiches." He plopped down next to me.

Luther's face scrunched up. "Klaus, this isn't a- hey, hey! Stop smoking! Dad didn't want us doing that in here!"

Allison interrupted, "Klaus, are you wearing my skirt?" Circe looked down and sure enough, Allison's skirt was around Klaus' waist.

"Oh yeah, I found this lying about," He replied. "It's certainly not in season, but it offers some nice... Ventilation."
Circe chuckled slightly as Klaus looked at the porcelain girl in shock, "Cici? Oh... You're back!" Klaus giggled and gave me a big hug. Circe savored it, even though he smelled like smoke and literally every drug in the world.

"Missed you too, Klausy." Circe chuckled.

"Oh man, at least another insane person is with me." Klaus sighed.

"Guys, knock it off," Luther said over the duo’s small exchange. "There's still a lot of stuff we have to talk about."

Diego stood up challengingly, "Such as?"

Luther rolled his eyes, "Maybe like how Dad died?"

He sat back down, "Oh, jeez."

"Wasn't it a heart attack? At least, I think that's what the coroner said," Vanya replied.

"Sure, but that's what the coroner said," Luther replied.

"Wouldn't a coroner know this kind of stuff?" Allison asked. "I mean, in theory."

Luther sighed, seeming to grow more and more exasperated as time went by. "I'm just saying, something weird was going on." After witnessing everyone's doubtful looks, he added, "The last time Dad and I talked, he sounded kind of... Off."

"And that's such a surprise, why?" Klaus exclaimed sarcastically.

"What do you mean?" Allison asked.

"He just didn't sound like himself; He told me to watch who I trust, to stay on guard." Luther explained.

Diego groaned, standing up again. "Luther, he was a hateful, testy old man who was whatever senses he had left."

"That's not it," Luther insisted. "He had to have known something was going to happen to him." He glanced at you. "Cici, she probably saw something! I mean, she visited him just about three months ago!"

"He was just as distant as he always was." Circe said, crossing her arms. I came for repairs my repairwoman couldn’t do but that’s it."

Luther sighed, turning to Klaus, "I know you haven't done it in a while, but we need you to get Dad over here." Allison scoffed from across the way.

Klaus leaned forward in his seat. "It's not like wishing on stars or something," he sputtered. "I can't just call him up in the great hereafter like, 'Dad, stop playing croquet with Hitler and Ivan the Terrible and pick up my call!'"

"Why not? That's literally your ability," Luther countered.

"I'm not in the proper mindset for something like this!"

"
You mean you're under some kind of influence," Allison stated.

"Of course! How are the rest of you not drunk off of his delusions?"

"Then get into the right mindset," Luther insisted. "This is serious. We also need to find Dad's monocle."

Diego turned. "Why would anyone care about that dusty old thing - and I'm not talking about Dad."

"
That's my point. The monocle is useless to anyone else, so this must have been something personal!"

Klaus frowned. "Where exactly is this conversation going?"

"Can't you tell, Klaus?" Diego rounded on the burly male. "He thinks the murderer is right here in the room."

He stood there awkwardly until Klaus spoke up in awe, "You're not kidding."

"I have a question.” Circe interrupted. Everyone looked to the girl as she crossed her legs and looked up at Luther. Her eyes stared into his soul, giving him an uncanny vibe. “If it was one of us, what exactly would you do?”
Luther stayed silent and Circe took that as a sign to continue, “Would you… Enact revenge? Kill us? Either way that won’t change that the old man is

dead.

Do you need me to spell it out for you? Why are we still letting him control our lives even when he’s gone?!”

Everyone stayed silent and Circe stood up to face Luther, “If dad’s validation was

so

important to you, then remember, he wanted us to be a team. He wanted us to trust each other and the fact that you’re insinuating that one of us killed him means that he failed.”
“We shouldn’t even call him dad! He was more of a teacher than a parent and used us as tools. We’ve all faced the truth, the real question is have you faced it?”

E
veryone stayed silent before Klaus clapped, “I think Cici should be a lawyer.” Her said and Vanya sighed.
Luther watched as everyone exited the parlor room, the tension even thicker now that Luther brought up the idea of Reginald being murdered.

"Hey, you know how Luthur is. He's just..." Vanya's voice trailed off, “You were great back there. I don’t know how you can just come up with stuff like that.

"I’ve been thinking back on our childhood ever since you made that book. And I realize that…” Circe flexed her hand as it clinked together, “We weren’t raised to be people.”

A loud rumbling of thunder interrupted Circe’s moment with Vanya. The lights flickered and her and Vanya looked at each other curiously.
Circe turned to Vanya. "C'mon."

The two of them met up with Diego as he was heading out towards the courtyard. The rest of our siblings filed out behind us and were all met with a wavering blue vortex. "What is that?" Vanya yelled.

Allison grabbed her arm. "Don't get too close!"

"No shit!" Diego sarcastically hollered.

Luther shouldered his way to the front. "It looks like some temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole, one of the two."

"That's a pretty big difference, Paul Bunyan."

"Get outta the way!" Lurching past the group, Klaus hurled a big red fire extinguisher at the anomaly.

"What is that gonna do?" shrieked Allison.

"I don't know, do you have a better idea?" He retorted. A sound something like lightning or thunder - maybe even a combination, sounded off, and sent Klaus scurrying backwards into me.

"Everyone get behind me," Luther boomed.

Diego shouldered him, "Yeah, get behind us."

Klaus screeched, "I vote for running, c'mon!" He tried to grab Circe's arm, but she gripped his wrist and anchored him in place.
Someone that looked like an old man pressed against the blue vortex, the figure melting into a much younger one as he fell to the ground. As the male came through, the vortex faded, and so did the crashes of thunder that came with it.

The six of them approached the boy - who was wearing clothes much too big for him - when Klaus opened his mouth. "Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?"

The male in question looked at the group, then down at himself, and then looked back up. He made eye contact with Circe as she peered out from behind the lean body of Klaus.
"Shit," Five mumbled.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"What's the date. Exactly," Five said, dropping a wooden cutting board on the table. "March, the twenty-fourth," Circe replied, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. The skinny boy came back over with a loaf of bread. He paused, looking at Circe for a bit before looking back down at the bread. "Good." Luther piped up from across Circe, to Five's right, "So are we gonna talk about what just happened?" He didn't respond, keeping himself occupied with two slices he pulled out of the bag. Annoyed, Luther stood from his chair. "It's been seventeen years." Five looked up at him sternly. "It's been a lot longer than that." He disappeared, only to reappear behind Luther, on a stool to reach the marshmallows on a higher shelf. "I haven't missed that," Luthur mumbled. "Where'd you go?" Diego asked, seeming a tad pissed himself. "The future." He "jumped" back to the table. "It's shit by the way." "Called it," Klaus cheered. This time Five walked to grab the peanut butter. "I should've listened to the old man. Jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He glanced over at me again before laying his eyes on Klaus. "Nice dress." The druggie made a noise. "Danke!" "Wait, how did you get back?" Vanya asked. "I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." "That makes no sense," Diego said. "Makes sense to me." Circe shrugged.Without looking up, Five replied, "Thank you, Cici." He leapt from his seat on the table, only to be held back by Luther. It sort of warmed Circe to know that after all this time, he still called her by her nickname. "How long were you there?" Luther asked. "Eh, maybe forty years years, give or take." "That would make you... Fifty three years old," Circe thought out-loud while the others remained silent in awe. She looked him up and down once more. "Mentally, right?" "My consciousness is fifty, to be precise," he replied. "My body is apparently thirteen again." His eyes quickly traveled up and down. "You seem to be going through something similar." "I'm physically fourteen." Was all Circe said. The rest of her siblings didn't push her to elaborate, after all, her being alive was a sensitive topic to Circe. "Hold on," Vanya spoke up. "Circe's situation makes sense. How did that work for you?" Five only rolled his eyes. "Delores kept saying the equations were off. Eh." He took a bite out of the disgusting sandwich. "Bet she's laughing now." "Delores?" Circe asked, intrigued. She pictured a curly grey haired woman nagging Five about things every day. It was almost comical. He briefly glanced at Circe before finding the newspaper with our "father's" death as the main headline. "Guess I missed the funeral." "How'd you know about that?" Diego asked. "I believe he said that he went into the future, Gogo." Circe said to him. "He died of heart failure, huh?" Five said absentmindedly. "Yeah," Diego said. "No," Luther butted in. Soon all eyes were turned to him. "He thinks I killed him." Circe crossed her arms, looking away and avoiding eye contact. "I never said that!" "Didn't deny it." Diego said. "Oh, of course you're on her side." Five stared at Circe for a bit before mumbling, "Nice to see nothing's changed," as he left the room. Allison turned. "That's it? That's all?" "What more is there to say?" he asked without turning. "Circle of life."
_____________________________________________________
Dad's remains were carried outside by Luther, who, as well as Diego, had no umbrella as the rain poured down on their small group. Meanwhile, Circe, Vanya, Allison, Five, and even Mom had black umbrellas as Klaus sported a clear one with Barbie-pink trim. It seemed fitting for him. Mom looked at all of then. "What's wrong? Did I miss something?" "Mom... Dad's dead," Allison said gently. "Don't you remember?" "Oh, of course," she replied, frowning. "Is... Is she alright?" Allison asked, leaning to look at Circe down the row. "She's perfectly okay," Diego insisted. "She just needs to . . . recuperate. To charge or something." Pogo walked up beside Vanya with a striped umbrella of his own, came in hand as he turned to face Luther. "Whenever you'd like to begin, Luther." He took a hesitant step forward, popped the top of the urn off, and turned it upside-down. The dark, powdery contents of the jar fell to the ground unceremoniously. Klaus grimaced with a new cigarette in his hand. "Some wind might've made it... Better," the hulk of a man mumbled. "Would anyone like to give a few words?" Pogo asked kindly. There was a heavy silence from everyone for a while. Even the teacher's pet himself kept his mouth shut tight. Circe looked at the statue of Ben with a sad frown, she didn't even get to go to his funeral... And than there was her statue. It was definitely... Something. The statue of me had been placed next to Ben's, with my head looking down and my arms held up high, forming a cup with my hands. Pogo stepped in. "He was a teacher, father, and friend. He will be missed more than can be expressed." His little sad smile remained on his little sad face. Diego rolled his eyes. "He was a terrible person. Reginald Hargreeves was a walking disaster and hurt everyone he came into contact with. We're better off with him dead." Allison interjected, "Diego - " "He named me Number Two," he stated gruffly. "And that's because that bastard couldn't bother to give us real names. He made Mom do it instead." Mother randomly asked, "Is anyone hungry? I could whip up some snacks?" "No, it's fine, Mother," Circe smiled at her. "If you say so." She seemed almost dejected. "I'll... Maybe you could make me a sandwich..." Circe quickly said, "I wouldn't mind one of those. After all, it's sort of nostalgic." Mother smiled and nodded. She was acting... Off... Diego moved towards the ashes. "Look, you wanna be polite and give some words? Fine by me. But at least spare all the lies about how much of a 'good person' he was." "Diego, shut your mouth," Luther said lowly. "Diego... I'm not sure this is a good idea." Circe said. The knife-wielder rounded on him. "You of all people should be agreeing with me, Number One. Years of being his little pet, after everything, he still shipped you all the way to the Moon." "Shut up!" he hissed. "That's how much he couldn't bear being around you!" Luther snapped. The two started brawling, Pogo at one point pleading them to stop. Klaus moved protectively in front of Five, who shoved him aside. Circe quietly stood on the other side of Vanya, in front of Ben's statue, watching the scene unfold. This seemed familiar, like it happened before. The fighting, the yelling, the cheering... It was all so familiar like a balloon that Circe had lost to the wind and desperately tried to grab back. Diego started to gain what looked like an upper hand. Vanya begged the both of them to stop, while Klaus was begging them to continue, cheering like a rabid sports fan.  Pogo huffed and slunk back inside as Diego started shouting encouragement at Luther. The former was then thrown by the latter before getting held in a chokehold. "Get off me!" Diego wheezed. Luther was knocked off and Diego staggered closer to the statue. "This is utterly pointless," Five muttered as he turned to leave before turning and grabbing my hand, "I need to talk to you."
_____________________________________________________

"You're telling me, that I end the world?" Circe asked in disbelief as Five jumped around looking for a coffee mug.
 
"I'm not saying that, I'm saying that when I ended up a few hours after the apocalypse-"'
 
"Which is in a few days."
 
"Which is in a few days, I found this." Five stopped and held up a glass eyeball. "And one of these." Five then dug through his pocket to find a few pieces of chipped porcelain.
Circe froze, as she saw the cracked pieces and shut down almost immediately as she saw the pieces. Her hands shook and she steadied them on the table with a shaky breath.
Five placed his hand on her shoulder and she snapped her head towards him, quickly clearing her throat.
 
"I found it in Luthur's hand. As well as the glass eye." Five said, jumping around once again before finding a coffee mug. "If it's not you, then we need to find the owner of the glass eye."

"Hold on, 'we'? We as in our siblings right?" Circe asked. Five shook his head.
 
"They're all imbeciles, I need someone who can keep up with me. And I need you to stay around me." Five said, "Keeping you around me may prevent the end of the world.
 
"I... Think I'm going to take that as a compliment." Cici said as Klaus and Allison walked in the room. Five dug through the shelves curiously, probably in search of some coffee.
 
"Where's Vanya?" Allison asked.
 
"She left a while ago." Circe said.
 
"That's unfortunate." Five said before taking an empty container and placing it on the table, "An entire square block, 42 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, and not a single drop of coffee."
 
"Dad hated caffeine." Allison pointed out.
 
"Well, he hated children too and he had plenty of us." Klaus laughed, clutching onto a random electric guitar.
 
"I mean, he does have a point..." Circe agreed with her brother.
 
"Aww... Cici agrees with me..." Klaus let the guitar drop to the floor as he stumbled over to Circe and gave her a big hug.
 
The porcelain girl smiled as Klaus collapsed onto her. "You’re so amazing..." Klaus sighed.
 
"I'm taking the car." Five left, "Cici, c'mon."
 
"Where are you two going?" Klaus asked as Circe managed to push him off of her and stand up from her seat to follow Five.
 
"To get a decent cup of coffee. And to talk." Five said with a 'duh' tone.
 
"Do you even know how to drive?" Allison asked, crossing her arms.
 
"I know how to do everything." Five said snarkly.
 
"I mean, I've got a drivers license." Circe shrugged. Five and Circe held hands as they both space jumped to the garage. 
 
The girl shivered, "I'll never get used to that." She sighed as she sat in shot gun and Five sat in the drivers seat.
After a few minutes of awkwardness, Circe broke the silence. "So... Did you just learn how to drive during the apocalypse? Like, you were lucky to find a car and ended up teaching yourself?"
 
Five sighed as the car drove into the road, "And to think I missed your idiotic questions..."
 
"Aw, you missed me?” Circe smirked.

_____________________________________________________

The bell rang in her ear as a random stranger opened the door for the two of them. "Thank you." Circe gave a smile to the stranger.
 
The duo both sat down at the table before another man sat down next to them, exhaling deeply as he took his cap off and started working on a... Crossword puzzle? Circe didn't really know.
 
"Sorry, sink was clogged." An elderly waitress wearing pink smiled as she took out a pad of paper and pen, "So, what'll it be?"

"Uh, give me a chocolate eclair." The man said.
 
"Mhmm, sure. Can I get the kids a glass of milk or something?" The waitress asked.
 
"The kid wants coffee. Black." Five scoffed. Circe gave the waitress a friendly smile.
 
"I'll have some tea. Chamomile please." Circe said.
 
"Cute kids." The waitress smiled slightly. Five fake smiles at her as she went to the back.
 
"Even if you're old, you still have to be nice to other people." Circe said, turning to him, "After all, you're physically thirteen again. Not fifty."
 
"You're too nice, Cici. Even for your own good." Five shook his head.
 
"At least I'm not rude all the time, you've always been a smart-ass." Circe remarked.
 
Five looked at her before looking away, smiling slightly as he started a conversation with the man next to him. "Don't remember this place being such a shithole. I used to come here as a kid. Used to sneak out with my brothers and sisters and... Eat donuts 'till we puked. Simpler times, huh?"
 
"Uh... I suppose." The man said, clearly confused as to why a thirteen year old looking boy was talking like an old man.
 
The waitress came over to them, setting down their orders as the man offered to pay for the other two's drinks. "Thanks." Five said as he eyed the man's jacket, "You must know your way around the city."
 
"I hope so. I've been driving it for 20 years." The man said.
 
"Good. I need an address." Five said.
 
Circe drummed her fingers on the counter, looking around at the familiar looking place. She smiled as she remembered there was one time where she had to carry both Ben and Klaus out of the cafe because they got too sick off of donuts. Their father scolded her for an hour because she took the blame. God, that was a long night.
 
"When'd you start drinking tea?" Five asked, suddenly snapping her out of her trance.
 
"Well, I enjoy it more than water and soda." Circe said, "But sometimes I like to drink coffee.”
 
Five nodded as Circe felt his eyes on her. She shifted uncomfortably before the doorbell rang and tons of people filed in. 
Since she was facing the other way, she could see that they had guns. She vaguely remembered Diego saying guns were for sissies. Heh, simpler times.
 
"Hm... I thought they'd have more time before they found me." Five said calmly, setting his coffee mug down.
 
"You're gonna explain later, Five." Circe frowned.
 
"Don't worry, I will." Five said.
 
"Let's all be professional about this, okay? On your feet and come with us. They wanna talk." The man with the gun pointing to Five's head said.
 
"I've got nothing to say."
 
"It doesn't have to go this way." The man said. "You think I wanna shoot a kid? And go back home with that on my conscience?"
 
"Well, I wouldn't worry about that." Five sighed as he turned to the man pointing the gun at him, "You won't be going home."
 
Five looked to Circe and blinked twice. She blinked twice back as Five slowly picked up a knife and space jumped, stabbing the man in the shoulder.
Circe quickly got up and reached for her pocket, searching for her garrote. Tightening it, she ran up behind a person and slammed them on the ground, effectively choking them before they passed out.
 
Circe grunted as a bullet grazed through her side. She hissed at the pain. Five watched her get shot before bashing someone's head on the ground. Circe threw a fork and it landed into a man’s eye.
She sighed as she felt a burning sensation in her side, dammit, she thought that her dad made her skin impenetrable. So much for that bullshit.
 
"Hey, Cici! Leave it to me!" Five smiled as blood splattered onto the floor. 
 
Circe nodded, holding her side and coughing harshly. She grimaced before tearing her sleeve and wrapping it around her waist as a makeshift bandage.
As the lights flashed rapidly and Five finished off the rest of the attackers, Circe hopped off the table to join Five, who had finished cutting his arm and digging out a small tracker.
 
"So... Did you want to come to my place? I mean, I think we have to deal with that injury sooner or later." Circe suggested as they walked out of the diner.
 
"No, can't risk it at your place. Let's go to Vanya's." Five said. Circe frowned.
 
"Are you sure? I mean-"
 
"You're injured." Was all Five said. Circe, as if on cue, winced as she remembered the bullet wound.
 
"I've-" Circe coughed, "-Had worse. I'm sure it'll heal like the rest."
 
"It could get infected." Five said matter-of-factly. Circe shrugged.
 
"I guess I can tend to it later. Right now, we need to get to Vanya's place." She said, "We're taking the car, right?"
 
"Why do that when we can just-" Five grabbed her hand and space jumped into an alleyway.
 
"Shit! You've got to warn me." Circe said as he chuckled slightly.
 
"Sorry." Five said, giving her a smug smirk as he climbed up the side of a building.
 
"How'd you find out where Vanya lives?" Circe asked, following him up.
 
"Sources." Five said as he opened the window to the second floor. Circe sighed as she followed him.
 
The room was fairly clean, as expected from Vanya. There was a small kitchenette and a violin sitting on a wooden chair. Five sat on a plush grandma chair and Circe sat beside him in another.
Five and Circe heard keys click as the door opened. Five clicked the lamp on to reveal... Vanya. "Jesus!" She said in surprise.
 
"You should have locks on your windows." Five commented.
 
"I live on the second-floor." Vanya said, flicking the light switch on to bring some more light to the dark apartment.
 
"Rapists can climb." Five said.
 
"Five, that's not..." Circe's voice trailed off as the stinging in her side made her body feel like it was on fire.
 
"You are so weird." Vanya said, closing the door and taking off her shoes and coat.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Number Eight watched from a balcony on the bank she had snuck into with the others as a bunch of burly robbers looted the place.
 
"Make sure they stay behind the counters!" one of them hollered. He held up a walkie-talkie. "Now, I didn't wanna do this, but unfortunately, you've forced my hand."
 
"Damn!" Number 3 trotted up beside him and looked at him from the side.
 
"Hey! Go back with the other hostages, now," he growled.
 
"I heard a rumor," she giggled.
 
"Excuse me?" Number Eight recognized the signs of his dwindling patience.
 
"I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot," she said to him. He slowly turned and cocked his gun, hypnotized by her ability.
 
"What're you - augh!" The bullet ripped through his leg and he fell to the floor in a writhing heap. Number Eight hopped up onto the ledge of the balcony as Luther came crashing through the ceiling, glass clattering as it hit the floor.
He slammed a goon against the counter and then proceeded to throw him through a window. Number Eight sighed before following him through the window.
 
"Guns are for sissies, real men throw knives!" Number Two shouted as he threw one of his signature knives. It went forward before curving abnormally and stabbing a robber in the chest.
She landed on the ground and ran up to a robber, jumping and tightening the garrote around her wrists before landing on the mans shoulder and choking him until he passed out.
 
A robber quickly hopped onto the counter and menacingly waved his firearm, messily aiming at us. "Get back you freaks!"
 
"Hey, be careful up there, buddy," Number Two shouted.
 
"Yeah, wouldn't want you to get hurt," Number 3 added smugly.
 
Five appeared on the counter beside the robber with a loud whoosh. "What could you possibly do?" Bang bang! Five space-jumped behind the robber to avoid the gunshots. The man whirled around and brandished his weapon.
Five looked down and looked back up with a mocking grin, "That's one badass stapler!" Five smirked before he slammed the office tool into the man's head and the goon fell of the counter, unconscious.
 
The seven of them slowly approached a door that led to a vault. Number Eight could see the silhouettes of more guys inside. "Do I really have to do this?" Number Six asked, pouting.
 
"C'mon Ben, it's only a couple more guys," Luther said, gesturing to the door.
 
Number Eight stepped up, nudging the boy. "I'll go with you." 
 
Number Six sighed, "Fine. At least I didn't wanna do this."
 
The two of them slid into the room, both of them not very happy about their situation. Number Eight ran up behind one of the robbers and wrapped the garrote around their neck before they collapsed to the ground.
Behind her, Number Six unleashed four long appendages that wrapped around more goons, one per tentacle.

She breathed in and out before moving one of the cabinets and slamming it into three of the men.
Number Eight turned around to face her blood-drenched comrade, even the whites of his domino mask had been colored red. The poor guy could probably barely see.
Number Eight wiped the blood off of his domino mask, "Mother will wash it for you, Ben. Don't worry."
 
"Thanks, Cici." Number Six breathed out a shaky breath.
Without another word to each other, the two of them exited the vault room. "I wanna go home." Number Six whined to the others.
 
"I think there are reporters outside," Number 3 said.
 
"Guess it's time for our close-up!" Number 4 giggled gleefully, slinging his arms around Number Eight. "Ugh, you've got blood on your cheek!"
 
Five rolled his eyes, "Take a look at Ben, genius." They all chuckled a bit - even Number Six - as they left the building.
 
Number Eight's smile immediately fell as she stood bored beside her siblings - specifically Number Five - as cameras flashed in their faces and reporters shouted more questions than she had time to answer.
After a while, their "father" stepped in front of the seven of them. Speaking of Seven, where was Vanya? Number Eight sighed, she was so bored.
 
"Hey, wanna bet that Vanya's up there?" Five whispered. Number Eight turned and nodded.
 
"I feel bad, she should be down here having fun with us." The girl sighed. Five put his arm around his best friend with a smirk before turning to her.
 
"Don't worry, we'll have all the time in the world to be with her at home." Five smiled.

_____________________________________________________

Vanya sat down next to Circe and Five as she looked over at the two. "Is that blood?" She asked. Circe hissed as she had almost forgotten about the now stinging bullet wound in her side.
 
Five looked at his arm, not noticing the blood on his white collar. "It's nothing." He said.
 
"I think she meant your collar." Circe said, coughing and wincing once again.
 
"Why are you here?" Vanya asked.
 
Five sighed, "I've decided you're the only one I can trust. Not including Cici." Five said.
 
"Why me?" Vanya asked again.
 
"Because you're ordinary."
 
Circe cleared her throat and Five rolled his eyes. "Because you'll listen." He corrected himself.
 
Vanya stared at him before nodding, getting up to get medical supplies for both the injured 'teenagers'. Circe sighed, coughing once again.
 
"You don't do well with pain, do you?" Five asked.
 
"It's normal for me, but it's not like I'm numb to pain." Circe said.
 
Vanya came back, carrying medical supplies as she sat down and signaled for Circe to lift her shirt up.  "It's fine, Vanya. You should treat Five first, after all, he's the one-" Circe was interrupted by Vanya.
 
"You've been shot, Cici. Please, lift up your shirt." Vanya sighed. Circe reluctantly raised her shirt just enough to see the open wound.
 
She gritted her teeth as Vanya cleaned it with rubbing alcohol. As Five explained what happened in the apocalypse, Circe's mind had wandered.

'I don't want to be a burden for Vanya, especially when she's done so much. And after all, Five's still hurt as well. My wound will be fine.'

"Cici?" Vanya's quiet voice whispered. 
 
The girl looked up and smiled, "Yes?"
 
"Did you want anything to drink?"
 
"I'm good, thank you though." Circe said as Vanya walked over to the couch where Circe was seated and grabbed two blankets. 
 
"I know it's not a lot, but please just stay here for the night, okay? We can talk about all of this in the morning, I promise."
 
Circe took a blanket with a smile, "Thanks, Vanya."
 
She flashed the younger-looking girl a weak smile. "Goodnight."
 
"'Night," They both replied as she went into her room.
 
Five went over to Circe on the couch. She sat up, coughing as she scrutinized Five's shirt. "What?" Five asked. Circe lifted her hands and adjusted his tie.
 
"Your tie was always so crooked." Circe said before smiling slightly and lying back down again.
 
"We should go." Five said. Circe sat up once again.
 
"'We'? What about Vanya?" Circe crossed her arms.
 
"Don't you remember anything I said? If you stay with me, then there's a slight chance that we could stop the apocalypse." Five said.
 
"But..." Circe's voice trailed off. She didn't want to leave Vanya, but she also didn't want to end the world. Perhaps not ending the world would be the better option than leaving Vanya... Circe nodded, "Ready when you are, captain."
 
"Good. Now let's go." Five said and opened the white wooden door, Circe following him out.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
As soon as it opened, Circe and Five were on it. They checked in, jumped up a few flights to the main lobby and waited. Five rolled the eye in his hand, pacing around waiting.
 
Everything was white, walls, floors, ceiling. Spotless white plastic. The wall behind the front desk was all windows. The doors to our left and right were glass, leading into offices and down corridors.
 
After about half an hour someone acknowledged them. "Uh, can I help you?" Five had had his back to him and Circe was looking around.
 
He was in his late twenties/early thirties, wore a lab coat over a God awful jumper and black trousers. His curly black hair was short and combed over to one side. Five turned to look at him.
 
"I need to know who this belongs to." Five said, walking up to the doctor and holding up the eye.
 
"Where did you get that?" He asked.
 
"What do you care?" Five asked. Circe frowned at Five before looking back at the doctor with a slight smile.
 
"We found it. Says on the back that you made it so we figured we'd be kind and drop it off at whoever owns it." The dark haired girl said.
 
Five nodded and looked back at the doctor. "Yeah, must have just," He clicked his tongue. "Popped out. Like she said, we wanna return it to its rightful owner."
 
"Aw," The woman behind the front desk said "What thoughtful young children."
 
Five smiled. "Yeah. Look up the name for me will ya?" He asked nicely.
 
"Uh, I'm sorry but patient records are strictly confidential." The doctor cut in.
 
Circe smiled innocently at him. "Don't worry, we won't tell. It’ll be our little secret, sir." He laughed.
 
"As much as I'd like to believe you, I still can't. But I'll tell you what I can do. I will take that 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-" He reached out to grab it.
 
Five moved his hand away. "Yeah, you're not touching this eye." He said warningly.
 
The doctor furrowed his brow. "Now you listen here young man-"
 
Five snapped. He grabbed the doctor by the collar and dragged him down to be at eye level with him. "No," Five said "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."
 
"Five..." Circe sighed.
 
"Oh dear," The woman behind the counter said.
 
"Call security," The doctor said quietly. The woman hastily picked up the phone.
 
"Real subtle..." Circe sighed, folding her arms.
 
Five let go of the doctor and shot him a look as they both walked out.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
The duo stood in Five's old room. He was staring out the window and Circe was sitting on the bed, fiddling with her bracelet to pass the time. They heard footsteps and a second later, Vanya appeared in the door. She gasped when she saw us. "Oh thank God." She walked in. "I was worried sick about you."
 
“Sorry I left without saying goodbye."
 
"No look, I'm the one that should be saying sorry. I was dismissive, and, I guess I didn't know how to process what you were saying. And I still can't, to be honest."
 
Five had walked up to her and clicked his tongue. "Maybe you were right to be dismissive. Maybe it wasn't real after all." He walked away. "It felt real." He continued, "Well, like you said, the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind."
 
"Maybe I'm not the right person you should be talking to." Vanya said "Look I used to see someone, a therapist. I could give you her information."
 
"Thanks but," Five looked at the bed. "I think I'm gonna get some rest. It's been a long time since I've had a good sleep."
 
"Okay." Vanya nodded and walked out.
 
"You shouldn't be lying to Vanya, at least say you'd like to be alone for now." Circe frowned.
 
"Then why didn't you say anything?" Five rolled his eyes. 
 
Circe pursed her lips, "Because I want to figure out how to prevent the end of the world."
 
“Well, clearly you care about the world more than your siblings.”
 
“That’s rich coming from you, Five.”
 
The cupboard door opened and the two both jumped. Klaus half climbed half fell out, taking half the stuff inside with him. He put a hand on his heart. "That's so," Half the wardrobe fell out with him. "Touching. All that stuff about family and Dad and time. Wow."
 
Klaus looked at us before pouting, "Aw, are mummy and daddy fighting?"
 
"Would you shut up?" Five hissed, "She'll hear you."
 
"I'm moist." Klaus continued, ignoring Five. He wore a floral pattern blouse with frills all over the place and tight black pants with lace up sides.
 
"I told you to put on something professional." Five said, spying the outfit.
 
"What? This is my nicest outfit." Klaus said.
 
"We'll raid the old man's closest." He said.
 
"Whatever. As long as I'm getting paid." Klaus said following them out the room.
 
"When the job is done." Circe and Five both said.
 
"Okay but just so we're clear on the finer details," They stopped and looked at him. "I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?"
 
"Yeah. Something like that." Five said.
 
"So what's our cover story?"
 
"What? What are you talking about?"
 
"I'm not sure that they're not gonna ask for your life story Klaus," Circe said, crossing her arms.
 
"Yeah but like, was I really young when I had you two? Like sixteen? Like young and terribly misguided?" He put his hands on his heart. Klaus continued. "Your mother, that slut, whoever she was. We met at... the disco. Okay? Remember that." He snapped his fingers. "Oh my God, the sex was amazing-"
 
"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain." Five said, shaking his head as they headed down the stairs.
 
"Don't make me put you in time out." Klaus said. Circe chuckled slightly as Klaus hugged her again.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Man is as a rope, stretched between the animal, and the superhuman,'" Father said from the top of the massive staircase. Vanya stood beside the old man with a clipboard and a whistle. "'A rope, over an abyss. It is a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.' That's Nietzsche."

Seven took the whistle into her mouth and blew it shrilly. The seven of them bolted up the stairs, roughly shoving past each other in order to get ahead. Luther pushed his way into the lead of the pack.

"As much as you must strive for individual greatness, and strive you must, for it won't come to you of its own accord."

The other six had caught up with the blonde by now, clumsily ramming into one another as we each scrambled to reach the top of the stairs first.

"Remember that no one of you can possibly be stronger than the seven of you combined."

Diego shoved forward and sprinted ahead of the rest. Just seconds after, Five warped in front of him in a blue whirl. "Hey, Five's cheating!" Diego whined, fighting to reach him again.

"He's merely improvising, adapting," Hargreeves responded curtly.

Circe sighed before pushing herself to run as fast as her other siblings, trying to catch up to Five before groaning and jumping high, allowing her to fly up to the top.

_____________________________________________________

As promised, they got Klaus a decent outfit. They entered and checked in normally. Surprisingly, they didn't ban them from the hospital. They went up the elevator and, of course, were met with the same doctor.
After Klaus convinced him to talk he led us into his office. Three of four walls made of glass, again, everything was white. Klaus sat down and shut up while Circe and Five spoke.
 
"Like I said to your children earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential. Without the client's consent I simply can't help you." The doctor explained to Klaus.
 
"Could you call them and ask, please?" Circe asked.
 
"I can't. Sorry, now there's nothing really more I can do so-"
 
"What about my consent?" Klaus asked. They all looked at him in confusion, what was he talking about?
 
"Excuse me?" The doctor asked.
 
"Who gave you permission to lay your hands on my kids?" He sounded close to tears. He pointed at the younger looking duo as they both gave him confused looks.
 
"What?" They all asked him.
 
"You heard me."
 
"I didn't touch your kids."
 
"Oh, really?" He leaned forward in his seat. "Well then how did my son get that swollen lip then?"
 
"He doesn't have a swollen-"
 
Klaus stood and punched Five in the face. The doctor stared in shock, Five stumbled back and Circe laughed. Five rolled his eyes before back-handing Circe in the face. She gasped before punching his face once again. Klaus took a deep breath. "I want it. Name please. Now." He leaned on the table.
 
The doctor pointed at him. "You're crazy."
 
"Wait till you meet us two." Circe grinned. Klaus pointed at her over his shoulder.
 
"What she said." He picked up a snow globe from his desk. "Peace on earth. That's so sweet." He smashed it against his forehead.
Circe and Five both laughed. Klaus put an arm around each of them and looked at each of them as he spoke. "Y'know kids I'm so proud of what you did today." His hair and face was wet and covered with glitter. The left side of his forehead was bleeding down his face. He pushed them away and leaned back on the desk.
 
The doctor picked up the phone. Klaus snatched it out his hand. "There's been an assault," He gasped, "In Mr. Big's office and we need security now. Schnell!" He droppe
d it carelessly and took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Now here's what's gonna happen, Grant."
 
"It's Lance." He said quietly.
 
"In about sixty seconds two security guards are gonna burst through that door and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood and they're gonna wonder 'What the hell happened?' And we're gonna tell them you," He started crying again. "Beat the shit out of us."
 
"Unless, you could get us that name. That'd be helpful, Grant." Circe smiled mischievously.
 
"I'll do whatever you want." The doctor said with a look of concern, maybe they all belonged in a mental hospital.
 
"We want that name." Five growled, leaning on the table.
 
"And address if you got it." Circe added with a smile.
 
He nodded and stood. "Okay. Follow me."
 
Circe hopped off the table and followed him out the office. Klaus followed behind them and leaned down to whisper in our ears. "Nice work you two." He said "Quite the power couple aren't you?"
 
"Shut up." Five hissed but Klaus didn't miss the slight tint of red on his cheeks. Circe sighed as Lance led them down the halls at a speed walk.
 
He led them into a long room, one wall of windows and the other lined with rows of files. In the middle of the room was another row. Klaus sat on the top beside Lance. Circe and Five stood opposite him and the girl leaned her elbows on the top, watching him intensely. He flicked through files for a minute before pulling one out.
 
He opened it and glanced at Klaus, still covered in blood. "Oh, that's strange," He said, reading the file.
 
"What?" Five asked impatiently.
 
"Did staying in the apocalypse cause you to forget manners?" Circe asked, hitting his arm. He hit her back as the doctor spoke once again.
 
"Uh, the eye, it hasn't been purchased by a client yet." Klaus jumped down off the table.
 
"What? What do you mean?"
 
"Well uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number," He skimmed the page again. "This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet. Where did you get that eye?" He looked at me and Five.
 
Five sighed and shook his head a little. He looked at Klaus. "Let's go, Dad."
 
"This is not good." Five said as we walked out the building.
 
"I was pretty good though, right? Yeah what about my consent, bitch?" He laughed.
 
"I have to say, you were pretty good at being insane. But I think that might be the drugs." Circe smiled.
 
"It doesn't matter." Five said.
 
"What?" Klaus asked "What's the big deal with this eye anyway, anyway?"
 
Five stepped towards him. "There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They're gonna bring about the end of life on this earth as we know it."
 
'Yeah, and that person might be me...' Circe thought to herself. 'How the fuck did I go from dying for my family to ending the whole world?'
 
"Yeah. Can I get that twenty bucks, like now or what?" Klaus asked.
 
"Your twenty bucks?" Five repeated.
 
"Yeah, my twenty bucks." Klaus nodded.
 
"The apocalypse is coming and all you can think about is getting high?"
 
"Well I'm also quite hungry." Klaus said. "Tummy's a-rumblin'." He made a groaning sound and waggled his fingers at them. They both stared at him with a mixture of disgust and confusion.
 
Five sat down on the steps. "You're all useless." He said.
 
"Oh come on," Klaus groaned "You need to lighten up old man. You too, uh, um... how old are you?"
 
"As old as you." Circe said not looking at him. Klaus looked between them in thought.
 
"Hey! You know, I've just now realized why you're both so uptight. You must be horny as hell." He laughed and sat down.
 
Circe turned and looked at him. "What?"
 
"In the apocalypse!" Klaus smiled and pointed at Circe, "And when you shut down for… A while actually! All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone."
 
"Well," Five sighed. "I wasn't alone."
 
"Oh?" Klaus asked, "Pray tell."
 
"Her name was Delores. We were together for over thirty years." Five smiled and Circe felt her heart clench.
She hadn’t seen Five smile that genuine since he had gotten back from the apocalypse.

‘Which is in a few days…’

Circe reminded herself and groaned quietly, cursing her doubtful mind.
 
"Thirty years? Oh wow," Klaus laughed. "God, the longest I've been with someone was, I don't know, three weeks. And it's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep."
 
Five grabbed Circe's arm and jumped into the backseat of a taxi. The driver gasped. "Don't stop." Five said, "Just keep going." He saluted to Klaus on the steps as we drove past. Klaus called after us about money and Circe shut the window.
 
Circe looked at Five with a frown, his teeth were clenched as well as his hands as he looked out the window. Circe knew that look. That familiar look that Five always did when things went to shit and he had to figure out everything on his own. She
silently took Five's clenched hand into hers as the taxi driver continued driving. Five slightly smiled as he held her hand and the both of them sat in silence.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The rest of the day, Five seemed distracted. Finally, when Circe asked him what was up and he led them to an old department store, empty and closed up for the night. It was pitch black and raining.
 
Circe and Five walked up to the sliding glass doors and he looked at the girl. "Stay here for me, would you?"
 
"Why are we here?" Circe asked him, looking around inside through the window, though it was dark and she couldn’t even see anything.
 
"You'll see," He jumped inside.
 
Sighing, Circe leaned her back against the windows and started fiddling with the hem of her shirt. About two minutes in, she heard gunshots fire.
 
"Five!?" Circe turned and kicked the glass twice, smashing it. She ran inside and there were two shooters, both with rifles. She could only see their silhouettes but swore they didn't have human heads.

Circe crouched down and had her back to a metal pole, probably a clothing rack, and breathed in slowly.
 
Loud shots fired and Circe ducked down, covering her head while trying to avoid getting hurt. She heard a loud ‘clink!’ and cursed when she realized her mask had been chipped by a stray bullet.
She grabbed the missing piece of porcelain from the ground and pocketed it. When the bullets stopped firing,  she kept running as fast as she could.
 
Circe grabbed a shoe and threw it in the opposite direction to distract the shooters. She stopped and crouched down before being met with Five.
"Watch out!" Five said and dived at her. He tackled her to the ground and landed on top of her. Two isles away the two shooters were firing half their ammo at where they'd just been.
 
"We gotta get out of here." Five said breathlessly. Circe nodded as she heard a loud racket and a couple of shots fired where it was. He slipped his hand into her’s, ready to jump at a moment's notice.
And together, they ran. They ran together silently until Five pulled away. "Where're you going?" Circe whispered.
 
"I gotta get something!" He yelled over his shoulder, running the opposite direction we were meant to be going.
 
"Over there!" The bullets came and we both fixed for cover.
 
"I get the girl you get the boy," One of the shooters said. Her voice was muffled which meant they were in fact wearing masks.
 
She gritted her teeth as she focused and pushed a clothing rack a few aisles away from her with her ability. They shot over where the noise was made. Hopefully, she could cause a distraction so they could waste their bullets.
As she made her way through the clothes, away from Five and towards the door. Behind me, a gun went off. Five appeared next to Circe, half a mannequin in hand. "Ok let's go." He said.
 
She nodded as he grabbed a backpack from behind then and shoved the mannequin inside. He put it on and grabbed Circe’s hand, running down the aisle exposed. Bullets rained over them and Five yelled. Her vision went blurry and blue for a moment and when it faded, they hadn't moved. Circe suddenly slammed him into cover.
 
"Thanks for the cover." Five smirked. He grabbed Circe’s wrist and dragged her as he ran. Circe took a breath and continued flinging racks of clothing from the opposite of them as well as hangers of clothes over at the assassins.
 
The two assassins fired at them with much better accuracy before Five let go of Circe’s wrist and they vaulted over a register. "Got 'em!" They spun and saw them.
 
One, wore a blue cartoon bear mask. The other, Circe guessed, was female and wore a pink rabbit mask. They both had their guns aimed at their faces, torches shining in their eyes.
Behind them outside, sirens wailed. They all looked and saw cops pulling up in the parking lot. While the assassins were looking, Circe and Five dived behind another register.
 
"The bastard jumped again." The man said.
 
"Come on," The woman said.
"Let's go."
 
Circe heard their footsteps fade away, they were leaving. Breathing hard, she grunted before asking, "What's that for?"
 
"This is Delores." Five said, almost offended.
 
“Nice to meet you Delores.” She said, still out of breath and slightly shaken. She was too tired to care about why some mannequin was so important to Five anyways.
 
"Why didn't you just fling them away?" Five asked.
 
“Like you, I didn’t eat anything.” Circe said as she coughed violently. Five pointed to her face.
 
“Your mask.” Five said.
 
Circe cursed as she felt the jagged hole in her perfect mask and breathed harder before standing up. “We gotta go back. C’mon.” She said, not bothering to help Five up as he grabbed Delores and the two headed back to the Umbrella Academy.
Five couldn’t help but notice how sensitive Circe was about her mask. The way she panicked made him confused. What was so bad about her face that she needed to hide it.

_____________________________________________________
 
Circe sighed, rubbing her eyes as she looked at her face in the bathroom. She gritted her teeth, tense, as she glued the porcelain piece back onto her mask. She exited the bathroom with a shaky sigh before going upstairs to Five’s room.
 
In his room, Circe grabbed a random book to read and clicked on a lamp. She sat next to Five as he muttered something, hugging Delores tightly in his arms.
Circe flipped the book open and started to read for a while with a slight frown.

‘That’s stupid, why would he even like her? She’s mean and rude and more of a pushover than anything! And what’s the point of world-building for FIVE CHAPTERS only to have twenty chapters in the first place? Also, what’s up with the-

Her train of thought was interrupted as she felt a weight on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Five sleeping on her shoulder, his hold on Delores was looser now. Circe smiled slightly as she looked down at him before going back to reading the book.
After a few minutes, Five shuffled around and his eyes parted open slightly. “Cici?” Five muttered. She turned to him with a confused look as he continued to speak, “You’re okay… You’re alive.”
 
“Yeah, I’m alive Five.” Circe said quietly. Something about the way he looked broke her heart, like it was being stabbed. “I’m right here.”
 
“Don’t ever leave me…” Five said as he relaxed back into her shoulder. Circe stayed silent before nodding.
 
“Don’t worry, I won’t ever leave you.” She said as Five started to drift off to sleep again, but this time with a slightly sleepy smile.
Circe frowned, what did he mean by that? Maybe it was something about the apocalypse? She’d have to ask him in the morning…

_____________________________________________________
 
Five woke up, Delores in his arms, but Circe was nowhere to be seen. The lamp was off and the book she was reading was on a nightstand. He looked around before Circe came in with a steaming cup of coffee and a box.
She looked at him with a smile, “I’ve got coffee. Don’t worry, it’s not the shitty kind.” She said and handed him his coffee. “Black coffee, right?”
 
Five nodded as he took a sip. He slightly smiled, “Thank you, Cici.” He said.
 
“It’s no problem,” She said.
 
“When’d you wake up?” Five asked. Circe shrugged.
 
“Never went to sleep.” The girl said casually, as if it was normal to pull an all-nighter. Five gave her a concerned look and she elaborated. “I don’t need to sleep. At least not for a few days.”
 
“And how many days has it been since you’ve slept?” Five asked. Circe stayed silent, changing the subject.
 
“You have to deal with that wound.” CIrce pointed to the bullet wound in his arm that probably grazed him last night.
 
“I’ll take care of it.”
 
“No you won’t.” Circe said as she opened the box in her hands to reveal a first aid kit, “Let me help.” She said.
 
Five reluctantly took off his shirt as Circe sat down beside him and started to clean his wound. Five frowned slightly before speaking, "You get any?" He asked me when Circe picked up the needle.
 
"No." She threaded the needle.
 
"Lucky,"
 
Circe had it done in about 13 minutes and Five finished it off with a bright yellow kids plaster. He got dressed, zipped up Delores's bag, and opened a window.
"We can leave normally." Circe commented, following him out the window.
 
"Less conspicuous." Five said, grabbing Delores's bag. Circe, although hesitant, followed him out the window.
 
All the windows in the house had small black rail balconies outside. Thankfully, they were all connected by stairs and ladders in a maze of wires. Five started climbing down the stairs first, Delores over his shoulder. Circe followed him down.
On the street, in an alleyway, Klaus was rummaging through a dumpster talking to himself and smoking weed. Circe and Five started down a ladder.
 
"I'd ask what you're up to Klaus bit then it occurred to me," Five stopped and looked at him. "I don't care." They kept climbing down.
 
"Hey," Klaus laughed and watched the duo. "You know there are easier ways out of the house, buddy."
 
"That's what I told him," Circe said.
 
"This one involved the least amount of talking." Five said jumping off the ladder. "Or so I thought."
 
Circe reached the street and they headed out the alley together. "Hey hey hey, so." Klaus called after them, leaning on the edge of the dumpster. Circe looked back and saw his flask of God knows what in hand. "You need any more company today? I could uh, clear my schedule." He drank.
 
Circe smiled slightly. It must’ve hurt to know that your siblings have given up on you so much that you’re always the last to… Everything. "Sorry, Klaus. Maybe when you're a bit more sober." Circe smiled, “But, maybe next time, we could go shopping?”
 
Klaus gave us a bittersweet smile as Five rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no. I'm done funding your drug habit." Five said, walking away.
 
"Maybe I just wanna hang out with my brother and his weird crazy kinda-girlfriend." Klaus called. 
 
“Bye, Klaus! We’re going shopping later.” Circe pointed and Klaus blew a kiss.
 
"I love you! Even if you can't love yourself!” Klaus shouted, “And I’ll hold you to it Cici!”
 
"Wanna steal that van?" Five asked, nodding to the van parked ahead of them.
 
"Sure." Circe shrugged.
 
After a decent night's sleep, which was the best Five got, he was able to jump into the van and open it for me. Circe handed him her pocket knife and he hotwired the van. They drove off and parked on a street corner across from Meritech Prosthetics.
The duo sat there spying. Five nudged Circe and nodded to the Lance from before, they watched him go in. He was dressed the same as before, with a jumper and lab coat. In his hand was four coffees. As he made his way in he kept glancing around behind him as if expecting an attack at a moment's notice.
 
"He seems nervous." Circe noted.
 
"Shaken from yesterday?" Five suggested.
 
"If that's what you think." Circe shrugged. He headed inside and they looked away. 
 
Five looked into the back of the van and swore. He zipped open Delores's bag and pulled out two bottles of vodka. He set the two bottles in my lap.
"Hey," He helped Delores sit up. "Sorry you were in there so long Delores. No, I'm not drunk."
 
Circe examined a bottle in her hand before handing it back. "I'm not really into alcohol.”
 
Five frowned, “Right, I forgot. You can’t get drunk.” He nodded. Circe was slight taken-aback.
 
“How’d you know that?” She asked. He didn’t answer as he took the two bottles and drank straight from the bottle.
 
Five played with his eye and drank from time to time while Delores sat there. Circe said something to him but he didn’t say anything. She noticed how dilated his pupils were and how ragged his breathing was. His hands were balled into fists and his knuckles were white as he clutched onto his shorts.
 
Circe placed a hand on Five’s shoulder, “Hey, hey, hey. Five, you’re alright, you’re safe.” She said and turned his head towards her. “I’m right here. It’s gonna be okay, just breathe in and out.”
Circe breathed in and out as Five copied her shakily, “You’re doing great, it’s gonna be over soon.” She said, “I’m right here.” Five blinked rapidly before his breathing slowly returned to normal.
 
After a few moments of silence, Five spoke up. “Thank you.” He said quietly. There was a sudden knock on the window and the two of them jumped, only just noticing his brother. 
 
Circe opened her door and Luther stuck his head in. "You okay?" He asked.
 
"What are you doing here?" Circe asked. "How'd you even find us?"
 
"Um," He nodded behind them. They looked and saw Klaus making out with Delores in the back of the van.
 
"Hey, a little privacy guys. We're really hitting it off back here." Klaus said. He went to kiss Delores and Five threw something at him. Klaus screamed.
 
"Get out! You can't be here." He yelled.
 
"I'm in the middle of something." Klaus came forward in the van and stuck his head between the front seats. "Any luck finding your one-eyed man?"
 
"No," Five whispered.
 
"What's he talking about?" Luther asked.
 
"Does it matter? It's Klaus." Five sighed. "What the hell do you want Luther?"
 
"Okay, before we have a conversation... Can you, um, get out of the van?" Circe asked. Making a confused face, Luther got out of the van. He put an arm on the roof and leaned down to look at them. His weight made the van lean with him. "Anyway, um, so Grace may have had something to do with Dad's death. So I need you to come back to the academy, all right? It's important."
 
"It's important?" Five repeated with an annoyed expression. "You have no concept of what's important."
 
"Look, Luther, we're dealing with something a little bigger than whether it was murder or heart failure that killed your dad."
 
"Hey, did I ever tell you guys about the time I waxed my ass with chocolate pudding?" Klaus laughed. "It was so painful."
 
"You know I'm trying to have a serious conversation here," Luther said.
 
"What? Are you saying I'm incapable of being serious?"
 
"Luthers got a point, you should get out." Five said.
 
Klaus scoffed, offended, and got out of the van. He slammed the door and walked off. "You're still one of my favorites, Klaus!" Circe shouted.
 
"Thanks, Cici!" Klaus shouted back.
 
"What are you up to, you two?" Luther asked once he was gone.
 
"Believe me, you wouldn't understand." Five said.
 
"Try me, last I checked I'm still the leader of this family."
 
"Well, last I checked I'm twenty-eight years older than you." Five argued.
 
"You know what your problem is?" Luther asked Five.
 
"Really hoping you'll tell me." Five said sarcastically. Luther missed the sarcasm by a mile.
 
"You think you're better than us. You always have. Even when we were kids. But the truth is, Five, you're just as messed up as the rest of us. We're all you have. And you know it."
 
"I don't think I'm better than you, Number One. I know I am. I've done unimaginable things. Things you couldn't even comprehend. Things she couldn't do in her wildest dreams."
 
Luther scoffed. "Right."
 
“As if.” Circe muttered. Five opened his mouth to say something before being interrupted by a loud voice.
 
"Hey bitches!" Klaus called as he ran past holding a bunch of food. A man in a security uniform chased after him, blowing a whistle.
 
"All just to save you all." Five finished his sentence.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Hey, the moon’s out.” Five said. Circe looked up with a smile.
 
“Yeah…” Circe smiled, she always loved how the moon shined brightly. She remembered sitting on the rooftop of the mansion with Five, staring and looking out at the stars and moon.
 
“You always like the moon, didn’t you?” Five asked and Circe nodded.
 
“You remember?”
 
“Never forgot.” Five said, not looking at her, “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
 
“Yeah…” Circe said, staring at Five before looking back, “It really is… How’d you remember that after everything you’ve been through, anyways?”
 
“Well…”
 
․  ·  ․ •  °  º The Wisp º  °  • ․  ·  ․

“You’re not supposed to be up here.” Five said as he found Circe sitting on the ledge of the Umbrella Academy Mansion’s roof.

Circe turned her head to see Five with a slight smile, “You couldn’t sleep either?” She asked, ignoring Five’s comment.

He reluctantly sat next to her as they both saw the moon glowing brightly through the night. It was a wonder that they could see it clearly considering the city lights were brighter than the stars.

“I was gonna come to your room since you promised you’d help me with some stuff.” Five admitted, “But I couldn’t find you and you’re always daydreaming up here.”

“I don’t daydream.” Circe said as she tilted her head to get a better angle of the moon. Five watched her intently before turning his head to see the planet in the night sky.

“Why do you like the moon so much anyways? I always thought you liked sunsets better.” Five said. Circe turned to look at Five.

“Nah, the sun is pretty. But everyone likes it and it always stays the same. The moon changes every night which makes it interesting to look at.” Circe smiled, “And the moon always lights the way for others.”

Five looked at Circe, “That’s poetic. What book did you get that from?” He asked with a teasing smile. Circe shoved him lightly.

“I didn’t.” Circe stuck her tongue out at him, “I just… It was the first thing that came to mind. And it always helps me sleep when I’m up here.”

Five nodded, “The breeze is nice. And I guess the moon sort of lights the roof up so you can see.” He admitted.

“See? The moon isn’t that bad.”

“I never said it was bad in the first place.”

“Oh shut up, smartass.” Circe rolled her eyes.

The duo sat in the soft glow of the moon, bathing in its cool and ethereal light before Circe placed her head on Five’s shoulder. He looked to see her sleeping peacefully.

He hesitantly snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. He just didn’t want her to fall and they were on the edge of the roof, that was all! Five laid his head on hers as they both sat there.

․  ·  ․ •  °  º The Wisp º  °  • ․  ·  ․

“You remember all that?” Circe teased with a smile. Five rolled his eyes.
 
“Well, it’s not like there was anything else to do except for reminisce about my life.” Five said. Circe nodded and stared up back with glazed eyes. Five stared at the sparkle in her eyes before turning back to the light in the sky with a smile.

‘The sky had miraculously cleared up after the past years and the stars were beautiful looking. Especially the shooting star that Five had spotted. “Nice eye, Five. What’re you wishing for?” She asked him. Five had stared at her with a dreamy look. “One life spent with you is all I could ever wish for, Circe.” He remembered saying.’

_____________________________________________________
 
It was morning and Lance was taking his dog for a walk before going to work. They jumped into his car. Five in the front seat beside him and Circe in the back behind him. "Oh, Jesus!" He yelled and jumped when he saw Five. 
 
"Remember us?" Circe asked, leaning forward between the seats. She pulled out her pocket knife and pushed it to his throat. He forced his head back against the seat, if he moved it an inch his neck would be sliced open.
 
 Five leaned into him. "One chance. That's all you've got. One chance to tell us what exactly is going on in that lab."
 
Lance panicked and started rambling. "I- I manufacture prosthetic devices for fake patients. I bill the insurance companies and then send them for cash on the black market."
 
"Including eyeballs?" Five questions.
 
 "Yeah they're my biggest seller." Lance said. "I mean, they sell like hotcakes-"
 
 "We don't need the exact numbers Lance," Circe said. "Just tell us if you've sold our eye and who to." 
 
"In regards to that eyeball, yes, it could have been bought. But- but it would have been off the books. No records other than my list, I mean I've got about twenty on it just today-" 
 
"So let's go get that list." Five said, holding the knife closer. 
 
Lance whimpered. "Okay." He said and Circe thought he was crying. She slightly felt pity. Slightly.
 
 "Names and numbers." Five added. "Now!" 
 
"Okay, okay. I'll get whatever you want." He stammered. "But, the only copies at the lab. In my safe." 
 
"Then I guess we're going to your lab.” Circe said, taking her knife off of his throat.
 
"Okay." Lance whispered. He glanced back at Circe and she waved, knife in hand. Lance did his seat belt as Five pressured him to hurry up. 
 
They parked down the road and made our way towards the lab. Until they saw the smoke. Circe and Five exchanged looks before he ran off. She called after him but he didn't stop.
 
Circe looked at Lance. "Don't go anywhere." She told him before going after Five. 
 
Soon she saw the whole building was up in flames, glasses smashing, people screaming, sirens and alarms blaring from inside. Then, with no warning, the place blew.
"FIVE!" Circe ran faster. The exploration had thrown him sky high before he was engulfed in smoke. When it cleared, she saw him lying on his side amongst the rubble. 
 
Circe ran to his side and knelt down, shaking his shoulder. "Five? Five, can you hear me?!" She asked. Groaning, Five sat up. Circe sighed with relief and sat down beside him. She helped him sit up and looked him over for anything life threatening. 
Police sirens were blaring around them as people and policemen were beginning to gather around. Circe touched Fives arm and crouched down. "Five, we gotta go." She helped him to his feet and let him lean on her as we left the crime scene.
 
"What happened?" Lance asked as they approached him. "Hey, what happened to the lab? Was it you?"
 
"Lance, you say anything and my crazy family will come after you." Circe said to him. Lance nodded and let us go. 
 
"You know what I think?" Five asked Circe as they walked away.

"What?"
 
He started to pull away, seemingly recovered from the explosion. "We are way too sober for this shit." Five said. 
 
Circe looked at him and smiled, shaking her head. "I don't drink, but I'll share with ya."
 
"I'm gonna grab Delores then let's go." He said, jumping. 
 
Five jumped the two of them into a liquor store and stole a bottle of vodka. They sat on a street corner, drinking straight from the bottle.
At that point, Five started going on his rants, this time about the apocalypse. Circe dragged him to a nearby library and they both sat down.
He also kept talking to Delores, which was weird, especially considering she seemed to talk back to him at least.
 
"Hey, Five." Circe tapped on his shoulder. He cleared his throat and turned, leaning on her. "We should really go back to the academy now."
 
"Who're you?" Five asked, his voice hoarse.
 
"It's Circe," She said. He buried his head into her neck.
 
"Hey, Cici." he muttered. She chuckled before pushing him off of her gently and having him lay on the mannequin.
 
"How about you... Uh... Just hang out here." She said, "Maybe we should get back to the academy soon, Five."
 
"No... Just stay here with me..." Five said, taking her hand with a smile. A genuine smile. "Please?"
 
"Five, you're hopelessly drunk right now..." She frowned as he put her hand to his cheek.
 
"You're warm." He whispered, still holding her hand before he collapsed onto her lap with Delores still in his arms. Circe sighed before picking up her book and starting to read.
 
Circe suddenly heard footsteps and saw Diego and Luther. “Wow. Not something I expected to see.” Diego said as he saw the scene. Five was toppled over Circe as she was reading a book.
 
She looked up, “Oh yay. Backup, now, get Five off of me please.” Circe smiled, “My legs are falling asleep.”
 
Luther picked Five up as he muttered protests and the three of them walked out of the mall and into an alleyway.
 
“You know what’s funny.” Five said as he burped, “Aah! I’m going through puberty. Twice.” Five chuckled as he held onto Circe’s hand. “Where’s she?”
 
“She?” Diego looked to Five, “The mannequins right there.”
 
“Where’s Cici?” Five muttered and Circe sighed.
 
“I’m right here, Five.” She said and Five turned to smile up at Luther.
 
“I drank the whole bottle, didn’t I?” Five asked, “That’s what you do, when the world you love goes bye-bye! Poof! It’s gone… What’re you guys talking about?”
 
“Two masked intruders attacked the academy last night.” Luther explained.
 
“They came looking for you, so I need you to focus.” Diego said, “What do they want?”
 
“Hazel and Cha-Cha.”
 
“Who?”
 
“You know I hate codenames.”
 
“Yeah, and that’s why we named you Spaceboy.” Circe snorted as Five’s grip tightened around her hand.
 
“Ah, the best of the best. Except for me and-”
 
“Best of what?” Luther asked, interrupting him.
 
“Y’know, Delores always said she hated when I drink. She said it made me surly-”
 
“Hey!” Diego yelled and Circe slightly flinched at the sudden loudness. “I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?” Five wore a cheeky smile as he stared at Diego in silence. “We just want to protect you.”
 
“Protect me? I don’t need your protection, Diego.” Five’s voice slightly cracked, “Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed? No. I’m the Four frickin’ horsemen. The apocalypse is coming.”
 
And then he threw up.

_____________________________________________________

They got to Diego’s place as Five laid on the cot. Luther and Diego talked for a while before Diego left.
 
Luther turned to see Circe brushing Five’s hair out of his face as she stared at him with a confused look. It looked as if she was calculating her enemy, but Luther knew that Five was definitely not considered an enemy to her.
 
“Something wrong?” Luther asked, suddenly breaking the awkward silence. Circe snapped her head towards Luther.
 
“Sometimes Five says stuff that confuses me. He says things as if he knew another… Me before.” Circe admitted, “Is that weird?”
 
“Well… We’re all a weird family… I guess.” Luther shrugged.

_____________________________________________________

Circe woke up in a boiler room. It was filled with things to make it more homey, but still a boiler room. She was laid down on a bed, Five's face right in front of hers. She sat up, coughing harshly before rubbing her eyes.
 
"Ah, you're up." She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Luther stood at the top of the stairs to the door.
 
"Where's Diego?" Circe asked.
 
 Luther sat down in front of the bed and watched her. Circe watched him back out of the corner of her eye. Luther dropped his head and took a deep breath. "So, last night, you said some things-"
 
"You got some water?" Circe asked. Luthur shook his head. "Dammit..."
 
"Cici…?” Circe heard Five murmur as he sat up and groaned. She waved before coughing harshly again.
 
"It's really dusty... Wonder if Diego would want my help with cleaning this place?" Circe muttered to herself.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Upon witnessing the apocalyptic aftermath, Five felt overwhelmed with shock. The world he knew was gone, replaced by desolation and destruction. Fire’s and rubbled laid waste where there once was a beautiful city landscape he called home.
“CIRCE?! Vanya?! Ben?! Dad?!” Five called out to the desolated home that was once called the ‘Umbrella Academy’. “ANYONE?!”
 
He walked carefully through the rubble, looking for any trace of his family members being alive. Five slowly walked up to one of the larger ones and widened his eyes, realizing it was a dead body. Actually, a bunch of them.
He slowly crouched down as he saw the eyeball in Luther’s hand. He plucked it away from the corpse. As he stood up, he examined the body more to realize… It was Luthers.
As Five observed more, he realized something else. They were his family’s dead bodies. Not some randos on the street. He shook Diego’s body wordlessly as he saw Allison’s ash-coated face. He stumbled around the rubble to find Klaus’s dusty dead body.
 
Catastrophic devastation surrounded him, including the bodies of his family. All sense of normalcy was lost, and Five felt desperate to find out what happened and what caused it.
He heard a sound, some rubble moving, and whipped his head around to see… Circe. Her face and clothes were covered in ash, and her hair was tousled. She coughed harshly as she stumbled to the ground with a groan.
 
Circe looked up with wide eyes to see Five as she coughed violently. “Five?” She whispered softly through the chaos. “Where’s Vanya? Where’s Diego?” She whimpered before her eyes filled with tears as she saw Klaus’s dead body. “Klaus…?”
 
Circe stops in her tracks, overwhelmed with an almost physical jolt of grief. She falls to her knees, clutching her chest, as the shock and pain hit her. Her anguish is palpable, and in her sorrow and rage, she releases an enormous burst of blue energy, everything around her being thrown away. The sheer force of her grief causes the energy to ripple outward, manifesting as a devastating wave of destruction. "
Oh god… Oh god…” Circe cried as she broke down into tears as everything was flown backwards, including Five. The boy’s eyes widened as he ran to her and crouched down next to the crying girl.
 
He hugged her tightly, a question forming in the back of his head. “Cici, what happened?” Five asked. Circe shook as sobs broke out and she struggled to breathe.
 
“Vanya… Diego and Klaus… They-” Circe gasped for air. The smoke around them filled her lungs, causing her to cough violently. Her heart slammed against her ribs, faster and harder with every beat, as if it were trying to break free. “Five… Five… Where’s- Where is she- Is she okay?”
 
Her hands trembled, shaking uncontrollably, and she could feel the cold sweat forming on her palms. Her fingers went numb, tingling like they were falling asleep, except the rest of her body felt wide awake- too awake.
 
“I’m right here, Cici.” Five said, “You’re okay, it’s alright. You’re safe.” He whispered, “Breathe in and breathe out.” Circe followed his breathing pattern, although shaky. “You’re doing great, Cici.”
 
Circe nodded as she looked around, “Is everyone…” She turned to Five and he nodded. “How’re you here? Where’ve you been, Five?”
 
“I just got here.” Five said, “I’m stuck here though.”
 
“We’re stuck here…” Circe looked around, “Together…”
 ․ · ․ • ° º The Wisp º ° • ․ · ․ 
Circe spotted her face in a shattered piece of mirror and touched the left side of her face. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was mussed, and her face was… Ugly. It was smeared with dirt and ash.
It didn’t help that from her forehead all the way down to her neck, was a gnarly looking scar. It was wrinkly and misshapen, it made her face ugly. As Klaus would say it, other people’s scars were the ‘I’m special and quirky’ kind but hers was the… ‘Your fucking ugly’ kind.
 
“Something wrong, love?” Five asked as he stopped his red wagon with Delores looking at the two of them confusedly.
 
‘I think she’s upset, Five. Comfort her.’ Delores said, her italian accent was thick and her face was molded into a frown.
 
“I will, Delores.” Five said as he placed a hand on Circe’s shoulder. She jumped and turned to him. “Circe? Everything alright?”
 
“No… No, it’s nothing just…” Circe turned to the shattered mirror and frowned. Five caught her glance in the mirror and turned her head towards him.
 
“You’re beautiful.” Five said and Circe pursed her lips.
 
“It’s stupid. And I never said I wasn’t.” Circe crossed her arms, “C’mon, let’s keep walking.” She said, starting to walk again before Five stopped her.
 
“You’re beautiful, Circe.” Five said once again and cupped her face with his hand. “You’re sweet and loving and keeping me sane. I love everything about you and you know that… Do you?”
 
Circe nodded as she placed her hand over Five’s with a smile, “Of course I do, and I hope you know that too.” She said, “We’re sharing the end of the world together.”
 
“Of course, love.” Five kissed her cheek before the two of them continued walking through the deserted land.
 ․ · ․ • ° º The Wisp º ° • ․ · ․ 
The night was thick with the kind of darkness that made the stars seem impossibly bright, scattered across the sky like diamonds spilled over black velvet. It was a miracle that the air had cleared up.
In fact, after the few years they’d been in the apocalypse, it was as if the Earth was slowly rebuilding itself (surprisingly). They spotted a few pieces of grass but that was it. It gave them hope though.
The air was cool, carrying the faint scent of dust and earth like always, and the only sound was the gentle hum of crickets and the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze.
 
Five and Circe laid side by side on a blanket spread over the grass, Five’s arms were around Circe’s waist as she smiled at him. Above them, the sky stretched endlessly, a canvas dotted with constellations as they tried to name but mostly admired in silence.
“Hey, look. A shooting star.” Five said quietly and Circe’s face lighted up as she saw the star shoot across the sky.
 
She tilted her head toward him, her eyes glimmering like stars themselves as she whispered, 
“Nice eye, Five. What’re you wishing for?” She asked him.
 
Five had stared at her with a dreamy look. “One life spent with you is all I could ever wish for, Circe.” He 
smiled, a soft curve of his lips that she could barely see in the dim light. His gaze remained fixed on the sky, but his hand found hers, fingers intertwining with an ease.
Her heart swelled at the thought, and she squeezed his hand gently. There was something about stargazing with him that made the world feel infinite yet intimately small, as if the universe itself had paused for this moment, for them.
 
Circe turned her eyes back to the sky. “It’s strange,” she said softly, “Do you… Think that we’ll make it back to them? That we’ve got the right equation?”
 
“Of course. It’s all right here.” Five smiled as he held up Vanya’s book, which they used as an equation notebook.
 
Circe nodded as she looked up, “Do you ever think the stars see us as small things like how we see bugs?”
 
His eyes filled with the quiet wonder she loved so much. “Maybe that’s what love is,” he murmured. “Being small together, but feeling bigger because of it.”
The words hung in the air between them, delicate and true, like the stars themselves. She leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer.
 
For a long while, they lay like that, two small figures beneath the sprawling heavens, wrapped in each other’s presence. The stars glittered above them, silent witnesses to their love, burning brightly in a sky that seemed to stretch forever. Yet in that vastness, nothing felt distant, nothing unreachable, because they had found everything they needed in the closeness of each other.
As the night deepened, they drifted between quiet conversations and peaceful silence, time losing its meaning. The world around them faded into the background until there was nothing left but the stars, the sky, and the steady rhythm of their hearts beating together.
 
That wouldn’t last long.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"So when is it supposed to happen?" Luther asked. "This... apocalypse."
 
 "I can't give you the exact hour but, from what I could gather we have four days left." "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
 
Circe drummed her hands on her thigh, a dreadful feeling clenched her heart tighter. It hurt to know that in the apocalypse, she and Five fell in love. She turned to look at him and smiled, she wouldn’t mind falling for him a second time…
It also hurt her to know she saw her name. She gritted her teeth, was she more ugly in the apocalypse? Was she prettier now? There was a reason why she needed to wear one…
 
Yeah, no. No more thoughts about that!
 
"But still," Luther said. "With the weight of the world on our shoulders we could have banded together, tried to help you stop this thing." 
 
"For the record you already tried." Five said.
 
 "What do you mean?" Luther asked. 
 
"In the original timeline, the one we're trying to change, the one with the apocalypse, you all die together. At the Academy. Fighting, as Five sats." Circe explained.
 
"We die?" Luther asked. 
 
"Everyone dies, Luther." Circe said. "It's the apocalypse. No one survives."
 
 "But he did." He pointed at Five. 
 
"He missed the moment when it all happened. He got there after everyone died. Maybe," Circe shrugged. "An hour earlier and he'd be dead too." 
 
“But you survived.” Luther pointed.
 
“I must’ve created one of the shields I made… The one where…” Circe’s voice trailed off and Luther got the hint, nodding with her. "Must have ripped it out of their head before you went down." 
 
"Who's head?" Luther asked, looking up from the eye. 
 
"Whoever started the apocalypse." Five said. "We don't know who."
 
 "Well there's a serial number on the back." Luther noticed. 
 
"Five had this thing for over thirty years. You think he wouldn't have tried to figure it out? We tried to find the owner." Circe told him. "But the business was corrupt and half the stuff they sold was off the books. Just before we could find out who it belonged to on this special list the place was torched down. Yesterday morning." 
 
"Oh," Luther handed it back. Circe took it and gave it to Five.  At that moment Diego kicked open the door and made Circe flinch. 
 
She held up her hand as he stormed down the steps. "Hey, hey, hey," She said, wincing at the sound. "What happened?" 
 
"Piece of shit."
 
 Luther stood and turned to face him. Diego stormed towards the two on the cot. "Do you have any idea what you just did?!" Luther grabbed him before he could reach them.
 
Circe leaned in and whispered in Five's ear. "Do you remember anything last night?"
 
"Nothing besides throwing up and holding your hand." Five whispered back and Circe tried not to flush red and the thought. After a moment of yelling at Luther, Diego calmed down and Luther put him down. 
 
"What happened, Diego?" Circe asked. 
 
"Our brother and

you

have been pretty busy since they got back." Diego said, glaring at us, "They were in the middle of the shootout at Griddy's, and then, at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in the masks attacked the Academy, looking for them." He pointed at them accusingly.
 
 "None of which is your concern." Five said calmly. 
 
"It is now. They just killed my friend."
 
"They killed Eudora?" Circe asked, concerned. Circe knew how much Eudora meant to Diego, especially since they broke up.
 
 "They're assassins, Diego." Five said. "It's what they do." 
 
"And that makes it okay!?" He yelled.
 
"Five, someone just died and you're okay with it?" Circe asked before turning to Diego, "Who killed her?"
 
"Five should know." Diego accused Five angrily.
 
"Who are they, Five?" Luther asked. Five looked down and swallowed. 
 
"They work for my former employer. A woman called The Handler. She sent them... To stop me. And probably Cici as well now. Then as soon as Diego's friend got in their way, well, fair game."
 
 "And now they're my fair game. And I'm gonna see to it they pay." Diego turned and headed for the door. Circe got up to go after them before Five grabbed her arm.
 
"Where're you going?" Five asked.
 
"He'll die if he goes after them." Circe said. "I'm not losing another brother, Five." Circe said, pulling her arm away from his and going after Diego.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
"What are you doing here?" Diego hissed at Circe. She rolled her eyes, her hair had been tied back with a ponytail and sighed.
 
"You're trying to find those people right? Hazel and Cha-Cha?" She asked.
 
"Uh, correction: found 'em," Diego corrected her with a smug smirk. "Now we just gotta kill 'em." 
 
"You know..." Klaus took a long sip from the bottle in his hand. "This isn't going to make you feel any better." 
 
Diego shrugged. "Yeah, but when it's done, I'm gonna sleep like a baby." 
 
"Right, but..." Circe’s voice trailed off as she looked at Klaus, "Are you okay?"
 
"Mentally or physically?" Klaus asked, drinking his bottle.
 
"You're hurt. I think after this I should-"
 
"It'll be fine, Cici. Just sit back and relax." Klaus smiled. Circe frowned before shaking her head.
 
"We'll talk about this later..."
 
 "

You

have to be careful," Diego said, pointing at Circe with a pointed look. "I'm not having Five on my ass because you got hurt." 
 
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, Diego." Circe smiled reassuringly. They all watched as the man, Hazel, exited the room, an ice bucket in his hand. 
 
"Stay here," Diego said, reaching for the door. 
 
"Are you kidding me? This guy tortured me," Klaus countered and Circe looked at Klaus with a shocked and concerned look.
 
"They, what?!" Circe exclaimed, suddenly fuming with anger, “I’m gonna kill the other one, Diego.”
 
"Relax, I've got a plan," he replied, moving out of the car. 
 
"Klaus, are you actually okay?" Circe asked, placing her hand on his arm as he was about to take a drink. Klaus looked at Circe and sighed.
 
"We'll talk about it later, Cici." Klaus smiled. Circe shook her head with a sigh. A few moments of silence had passed before Klaus opened his mouth again, "We're going, right?" 
 
"Yeah." 
 
The both of them got out of the car and quietly followed where he went. When they reached the top of the stairs behind Diego, Klaus opened his mouth, "So what's the plan, Macho Man?"
 
"I told you to wait!" 
 
"You also told me licking a nine-volt battery would give me pubes." 
 
"Oh..." Circe grimaced, “Yeah that was never a good idea…”
 
 "We were eight," Diego hissed. Klaus shrugged and proceeded to pass Diego until the latter grabbed him and pulled him back, dragging him down the stairs. 
 
"Cici, you too."
 
 "I'll be fine."
 
"Yeah, she'll be fine. She'll just mind-control them until they go insane. Or blow their heads. Like when we-" Klaus was interrupted by Diego.
 
 "For once, will the two of you listen to me?" He led the both of them down to the base of the stairs. "Look, both of you, go wait in the car. If I'm not back in two minutes, I'm probably dead."
 
 "And what're we gonna do if that happens?" Circe asked, crossing her arms in disbelief.
 
"Don't you know how to drive?" 
 
"I'm not losing another brother, Diego." Circe sighed. 
 
Diego thought a bit before ruffling up her hair. "Don't worry, Cici. Just go get help."
 
"Alright, but if you die, I'm killing them." Circe said as she glared at him. The two of them lingered at the base of the stairs before Diego pointed to the car like a scolding father would. 
 
"Ugh." He started forward a few paces and stopped. "Let's go." He grabbed Circe’s hand and quietly pulled her back to the stairs, but stopping under them.
 
 A car turned the corner, and Cha-Cha was leaning out, pink dog mask and all, shooting at Diego. The hand holding Circe’s was suddenly gone, and she heard Klaus racing up the stairs before his arm shot out and yanked Diego back as a bullet grazed his arm.
 
 "See?" Klaus looked pointedly at Diego. "You used to think I was an idiot." 
 
"I still think you're an idiot," he shoved Klaus off. "We're gonna lose 'em."
 
 "Uh- you're welcome," Klaus said sassily as the two of them ran behind him. When they reached the car, the three of them deflated when they saw the tires were deflated from various bullets. 
 
"Shit," Diego hissed before smiling, "New plan."

Circe jumped onto the hood of the dark green car, and then leaped onto the top of the truck in front of it. "There's only room for two people," Klaus said. "You can't seriously ride on top." 
 
"Who said I was riding on top?" Circe asked. Klaus snorted and Circe thought before shaking her head with a slight chuckle. "Okay, walked right into that one. But still, I'll just sit in the middle."
 
"How-"
 
 "Like this." Circe sat in the middle, criss crossing her legs and holding onto the back of the front seats. "Let's go."

_____________________________________________________

"Are you positive they're up this way?" Diego asked Circe.
 
"I'm sure." Circe answered. "I can see their car, punch it Klaus!" She felt the vehicle lurch as Klaus floored the gas, the surrounding scenery zipping by.
Her stomach twisted at the sight of Five and Luther on the other side of the road, facing them. This'll be tough to explain, she thought, grimacing.
 
 As Klaus honked the horn, waving at them, Ci
rce flashed a smile as Five rolled his eyes. "Go faster!" Diego yelled. 
 
"It's a set-up!" Cha-Cha shouted. The two of them began firing at the truck, and the side of it knocked into both of them, sending them back a ways.
 
Suddenly, the world stopped.
It felt weird, like her reality came crashing down on her. Was it just her or did everything look… Brighter?
 
“Well, is this the lucky girl?” A woman wearing a coat of leather and red lipstick smiled. Five turned to Circe with a look of confusion. “I assure you Five, I used this trick on everything here. But it seems as though… She’s… Not affected. It’s nice to see you again, Cici.”
 
Circe groaned and stood up, brushing her pants off before walking over to the two, “Who the hell are you?” Circe said, looking up and down at the fashionably dressed woman.

“I met you in another timeline, the aftermath of the apocalypse which is happening in four days.” The woman smiled, “You were quite the assassin… Almost gave Five here a run for his money.”
 
“You’re not touching her.” Five said. The Handler’s smile twitched as she shrugged. Circe stepped beside Five and crossed her arms.
 
“Congratulations on the age regression by the way. Very clever.” The Handler smiled, “Threw us all off the scent.”
 
“Ah, well, I wish I could take credit. I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and… Well, you know, here I am.” Five gestured to everything that was happening around the three of them.
 
“You realize your efforts are futile.” The Handler said, pointing to Circe. “There’s no stopping her… So why don’t you tell me what you really want.”
 
“I want you to put a stop to it. We both do.” Five put his arm around Circe with a smile. The Handler’s eye twitched slightly.
 
“You realize what you’re asking is near to impossible, even for me. What’s meant to be, is meant to be.” The Handler chuckled, “That’s our raison d'être.”
 
Five blinked twice and Circe and she nodded before he pulled out his gun, pointing it at the woman. “Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?” He smiled, rolling the r. “As you can tell, my friend here isn’t normal.”
 
“I’ll just be replaced. I’m but a… Small cog in a machine.” The Handler smiled, “This fantasy you’ve been nurturing about summoning your family to stop the apocalypse… It's just that. A fantasy.”
 
Five’s eyes were deep in thought, conflicted about what the Handler was saying. “I must say though, we’re all quite impressed with your intuition. You’re… stick-to-itiveness, really quite… Really quite something.” The Handler smirked. 
 
Something about that smirk made Circe sick to her stomach and she frowned. “And you.” The Handler turned to Circe, “Well, you’re just a diamond in the rough. Powerful and quite beautiful. Just like me.” The Handler smiled, stepping closer, “Which is why we want to offer both of you positions at the commission, in management.”
 
Five chuckled slightly, “Sorry, what’s that now?”
 
“You want… Both of us?” Circe frowned, still suspicious of the Handler’s intentions.
 
“Come back to work with us again. You know it’s where you belong.” The Handler said, a slight tone of… Desperation in her voice. “And you, I just know this is your calling Circe.”
 
“I never told you my name.” Circe frowned. The Handler merely smiled.
 
“Five talked about you a lot when he was around in the commission.” The Handler smirked, “He was right, you’re a gem. A rare find.”
 
“Well, it didn’t work too well the last time.” Five said, getting back to the matter at hand.

“But you wouldn’t be in the correction division any longer. I’m talking about… The home office. You’d have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel. You’re the most distinguished professional in…” The Handler looked down at his uniform, “School boy shorts.”
 
The Handler stepped uncomfortably close to Circe and Five as they still looked at her with slight hesitation. “We have the technology to reverse it. I mean… You can’t be happy about this.” The Handler slowly pushed Five’s gun down.
 
“I’m not looking for happy.” Five said. The Handler stroked his face and Circe suppressed a gag.
 
“We’re all looking for happy.” The Handler cooed, “We can make that happen. That’s why she’s here, isn’t it? We can make the

both

of you, yourself again.”
 
Circe pursed her lip, “What about them? What about our family?”
 
“What about them?” The Handler asked.
 
“We want them to survive.” Five glared at the older woman.
 
The Handler looked to Luthur and looked at the ice cream truck before turning to Five and Circe once again. “All of them?”
 
“Yes, all of them.” Five said. The Handler flipped open her sunglasses and slid them on her face.
 
“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” She smiled, “Do we have a deal?”
 
Five looked at her hand before shaking his head, “One thing.” Five said before walking away to fix a couple of things.
 
“So, Cici-”
 
“My friends call me that.” Circe glared at the woman in front of her. The Handler still had her smile plastered on her face.
 
“Well, I suppose it makes sense. Five has been your friend since childhood.” The Handler smiled. Circe paused before asking a small question.
 
“Just… How much did he talk about me?” Circe asked before adding, “And my family?”
 
“That’s a secret.” The Handler smiled as Five came back to the two of them. He held Circe’s hand before shaking The Handlers and the three of them teleported away.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
As the three of them made their way through the front yard, drawing many stares. Obviously because they were with The Handler, but also because of Number Five, famous names amongst the Commission. 
 
Though Circe didn’t understand why people were also staring at her. The Handler was giving a speech about how well Five worked and the big picture and successors and all that, something Circe was hardly listening to and Five didn't look too interested either.
 
 "I'd like to discuss the logistics of my family's safety at your earliest convenience." Five said as we started up the stairs. 
 
"And these body replacements." Circe added, eager to get her… Actual body, one she’d actually fit in better. She hadn’t seen her

normal face

since the accident."At your earliest convenience."
 
“You never said you wanted to turn 30 again.” Five frowned.
 
“I’ve never seen adult me.” Circe shrugged and Five remembered. She never physically aged.
 
 "Such chutzpah." The Handler said. "It's refreshing, I'll admit. Slow down kids, all in good time. In fact, now that you've agreed to work with us, we've got all the time in the world." 
 
They had reached the top of the stairs and The Handler started leading them through the halls. She led them through the halls, giving them the welcome speech and tour, something Circe barely paid attention to. 
 
Five asked about who was watching him in the apocalypse, which led to them meeting Dot. She finished with a not so subtle hint that they were amazing and probably going places with the Commission. 
 
She walked over to an empty desk, it was the only one with two seats. One each side facing each other. The Handler pulled out each chair and gestured for the two to sit. "I suspect you two like a challenge. Which is why I've given you a particularly complex first case." She handed us the file and Five took it. 
 
He opened it and we both skimmed over it. "Too bad Joseph Späh decided against sabotaging the fuel tank. It would’ve been so much easier." The Handler laughed. "Anyhoo, if you have any questions, I'll be right behind you." 
 
She walked out and we sat down, watching her leave before properly reading the file. The duo spent a while brainstorming a way to sabotage the aircraft Hindenburg. 
 
“What did she mean by me being a diamond in the rough, Five?” Circe asked once it was quiet. Five shrugged.
 
“I’m not sure, and I’m pretty sure I’ve only talked about you and the family once or twice.” Five frowned. “Of course, we were in the Commission together so she know’s you but… Never mind.”
 
Circe was unsure of what that meant, she was getting an uneasy feeling from The Handler, whatever it was. When they both figured it out we got up and left, heading for the Tube Room, as it was uncreatively called. Five opened one of the many tubes and Circe handed him the case.
 
 "I'm afraid that's not procedure." 
 
The duo both jumped and looked. It was The Handler as she had bent down and stuck her face between them, talking directly in their ears. 
 
Five took the container out and we turned to face The Handler. We followed her gaze to an older woman with brown curly hair and glasses sat in an office at the end of the long room. 
 
Spotting us, the woman stood and walked over to us. "Five, Cici-”
 
“Circe.” The girl interrupted her.
 
“Of course.” The Handler smiled before continuing, “Meet Gloria. Gloria is perhaps the single most vital cog in our machine. Gloria, this is Number Five and Circe." 
 
Gloria laughed. "Look at you, deadly little things. So happy we decided to close the contract on your lives." 
 
"I'm afraid your reputation precedes you. And it looks like you're building on it here." She held out her hand and Five handed her the container. She opened it and unrolled the note inside. "Oh, Karl Weber? Now tell me, why unfortunate Karl?"
 
"Karl Weber is the butcher at the shop where Captin Ernst A. Lehmann acquires his weekly roast. So if Karl dies his butcher shop is passed on to his son, Otto." Five explained. 
 
"Charming guy really," Circe took over. "However he has an unfortunate habit of never washing his hands. I know right, disgusting."
 
 "So he's the one who gives the captain his roast." The Handler said. 
 
"And that gives him food poisoning." Five said. 
 
"Which makes him late for work. Which delays the takeoff." The Handler followed. 
 
"And to make up for lost time, the Hindenburg flies through a weather front of high electrical charge and humidity." Five said. 
 
"It doesn't mix well with crappy 30's machinery." Circe shrugged. "Stray sparks from the engine and the rest of it mixes with the static and," At the same time Circe and Five mimicked the sound of an explosion.
 
They got another speech, then everyone cleared off for lunch. Circe and Five watched them and the girl sighed, pushing her glasses up. 
 
Wordlessly, Five stood and started going through Dots files. He slid one under his jumper and Circe sat up, smirking. “Bathroom?”
 
"Bathroom." 
 
Circe nodded and followed the crowd. She tried sitting alone, but a group of people started following her around.
 
“Are you Circe Hargreeves?”
 
“You’re Number Five’s lover right? What’s it like?”
 
“I heard you decimated multiple timelines and universes.”
 
“You’re like an Angel of Death!”

“What was it like dying?”
 
“You idiot, this is an alternate version of Circe!”
 
“Oh, right!”
 
Circe sat down and they all surrounded her, introducing themselves, asking her questions about what she didn’t even know she did. She decimated timelines? She erased universes?
 
When the living fuck did she have time for this?!
 
Circe saw Five standing in the doorway to the cafeteria and sat up. Five nodded at her to follow him and she shot up, practically running to him.  Five laughed. "Miss me that much?" 
 
"People here buy too many rumors." Circe said before realizing The Handler was in front of them. Circe gave Five a confused look.
 
 "She invited us to lunch in her office." He explained.
 
 "Sounds like hell.” Circe sighed.
 
The first thing that made Circe feel like she was growing gray hairs was listening to The Handler talk about her favorite stories and tales from the Commission. Something about archdukes and Phil. 
 
She set aside her empty cup, apparently she was on a liquid diet, and gestured to the sweets on her desk. "Care for dessert?"
 
 "No, thanks. I'm full." Circe lied. There was no way she was eating something from a shady woman that could potentially drug her.
 
"I had a bad Twinky in the apocalypse once," Five said, reminiscing on the moment with a slight smile. Circe dared Five to eat it and he blindly did so. "It kind of put me off desserts."
 
“Was that why you made the twinkie shelf life joke earlier?” Circe asked and Five chuckled slightly.
 
 "Please," The Handler said, interrupting their laughter. "Indulge me." 
 
Reluctantly, Circe and Five took a sweet each. We ate as The Handler lit her cigarette and smoked as she watched the duo. She leaned back in her chair. 
 
"What does that taste like to you?" It was like nothing Circe had ever tasted and scrunched her face in confusion. Of course, Five got it first.
 
"The 1950's."
 
 "Oh… That’s why it tastes like that.” Circe frowned, “Not my favorite decade.”
 
"Our clever metaphysics division concocted a way to perfectly distill an entire decade into a single candy." She picked up a sweet. "This one's modeled after the Fudge Mutt, America's favorite in 1955."
 
 "Impressive." Circe said.
 
 "You'll be happy to know it's the very division that's building your new bodies. Oh, that reminds me, I have something for you." She pressed a button on her intercom. "Carla?"
 
 "Yes?" Carla replied. 
 
"Would you bring the box in please?" The Handler looked at them with a smirk. 
 
"Certainly." Circe heard footsteps approaching and folded her arms. She looked at The Handler. 
 
"So tell me," Circe said. "Are our bodies or the sweets of highest importance to the metaphysics?" 
 
The Handler laughed and stood, walking around the table. Carla came in and put two boxes down in front of them. Circe and Five stood and The Handler sat on the edge of the table. "Go ahead." She said, "Open it." 
 
Five and Circe both took the lid off and inside were a pair of clothes. "Clothes make a person." The Handler said as they grabbed their own bag and opened it, revealing a suit inside each. "Won't they be nice when you can actually wear it?
 
Circe looked at the box and The Handler placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, “Now, my dearest, you’ve got a one of a kind piece from me. I assume that you’re a girl who knows style.” The Handler smiled, “So I’ve gotten a pair of clothes similar to mine as of course, I have a sense of style.”
 
The box had a double-breasted black coat. The coat has a tailored fit with a strong silhouette and sharp lapels, a midi-length dress with a geometric print, possibly a diamond or checkerboard pattern, and black, leather knee-high boots. Circe hated to admit it but The Handler did have a good sense of style.
 
 "Thank you." Five said to The Handler, "From both of us."
 
 "Yes, I'm sure I could get used to it." Circe said, suppressing a smile.
 
Five turned and pointed to the collection of weapons on The Handlers wall. "Is that a Chinese flamethrower?" 
 
"And a 1920's machine gun?" Circe added, also turning. 
 
"Good eye you two." The Handler said. Circe and Five walked up to her collection and examined the things we had pointed out. "War." The Handler said behind them. "Such a fascinating subject. A temporary salve for a permanent human flaw. Course it's a bit easier to see from 30,000 feet." The Handler said as she walked up beside Five.
 
The Handler continued. "These are just some of the things I've collected from my travels. M26 grenades from the Vietnam War. And this, my most noteworthy perhaps, My Walther pistol. The very one Hitler used to kill himself."
 
“Vietnam war, huh?” Circe turned to Five and he blinked twice at her once again, she blinked twice back before turning to look at the weapons.
 
“I suppose you have a thing for weapons, Cici?” The Handler asked. Circe gritted her teeth and forced a smile as best as she could.
 
“It’s Circe.” She corrected, “And, no. I don’t have an affinity for weapons, but I do enjoy learning about history and its mistakes.”
 
“I believe you and I will be getting along well, Circe.” The Handler smiled as she still had Hitlers pistol in her hand, pointing it up. “Feel how perfectly balanced this is.”
 
Five took the gun, observing it as he turned and started to speak. “Me and Cici had some thoughts we wanted to run you by. Some suggestions to improve commission protocol.”
 
“Mm! Shaking things up already.” The Handler smiled, taking a smoke from her pipe and taking the gun from Five’s hand, placing it on the weapons table. “I admire that.” She stroked his face once again. Circe coughed.
 
“Go on.” The Handler walked away to her desk, “Do tell!”
 
“She’s flirting with you.” Circe whispered to Five. He gritted his teeth and nodded, acknowledging the fact that she was, in fact, flirting with him.
 
“Gloria.” Five said, placing both of his hands on the chair as Circe sat down in one of them. “The tube operator.”
 
“Wouldn’t it be simpler if case managers were to send their own messages?” Circe asked.
 
“I appreciate the thought, I really do. But everyone loves Gloria, I-I would never hear the end of it.” The Handler smiled. Circe and Five looked at each other with the same thought.
 
She was changing the subject and lying.
 
“She’s been with the commission for years and

this

close to making a pension.” The Handler smiled. And now she was rambling and over explaining the situation. 
 
A knock on the door interrupted the three’s conversation as Dot walked in with a red file in hand. “Sorry to interrupt, may I have a moment alone?” The woman asked.
 
“Of course.” The Handler smiled, “Duty calls.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“I understand now, she’s manipulative and… Annoying.” Circe complained as they walked down the hallway. Five nodded.
 
“She’s onto us.”
 
“Must’ve been that file.” Circe said, looking around. “We should’ve waited.”
 
“The apocalypse can’t wait, Cici.” Five whispered, “We need to act now.”
 
“Fine, but I’m using those Vietnam grenades.” Circe said, crossing her arms.
 
After that, Circe and Five reworked the plan to fit better and ended up spying on the tube room. They saw Dot head inside, container in hand. Five grabbed the girl's arm and jumped inside, hiding in the corner. 
 
"Get this to Hazel and Cha-Cha immediately." Dot was saying as she handed Gloria the container. Gloria hesitated, confused. "Immediately." Dot repeated. 
 
"Okay, yeah." Gloria said. Dot walked out and Gloria put her glasses on, reading the label on the container. "Who are they?"
 
 Five jumped, leaving Circe behind and landing behind Gloria. He hit her hard in the back of the head and she collapsed.  "You know everyone loved Gloria right?" Circe said as she stepped out of her hiding spot.
 
 "Shut up and cover me." Five said as he grabbed the container off the floor. He sat in Gloria's chair and Circe closed the door. She hid Gloria and stood in front of the desk.
 
"Protect Harold Jenkins." Five read out. 
 
"Guess we're killing him." Circe said without looking at Five. "What are we gonna do about Hazel and Cha-Cha?"
 
"We aren't going to do anything," Five said as he typed. "They're gonna do our work for us." He stood, two containers in hand and notes, he waved the notes in Circe’s face as she snickered.
 
“Oh man, I’d love to see that happen.” Circe smiled. Five stared at her before putting the notes into the containers and slid them away as Circe kept watch, peering out the crack in the door. 
 
"You know that's not how we do things here." The duo looked up and saw The Handler smiling at them from across the room.
 
 Five leaned on a tube casually and Circe smiled. "Where's Gloria?"
 
 "Off." Circe shrugged. "Wasn't here when we arrived. Thought we'd save her the trouble and us the wait." 
 
Behind her desk, Gloria groaned as she started to wake up. The Handlers smile faded and she dropped her hands to her side. "You're a great disappointment to me." 
 
"That’s what my dad used to say to me." Circe, coming up beside Five. 
 
"You can't change what's to come." The Handler ignored Circe. "I truly find it so odd you can't shed this fantasy. You're a first grade pragmatist. And you, Circe. I mean you seemed like a great employee, a role model for all of us to attempt to copy. You both belong here with us." 
 
"I don't belong anywhere thanks to you." Five said. Circe shrugged.
 
“I don’t play by rules, Handler.” Circe shrugged.
 
"You made me a killer." Five said angrily. 
 
"You were always a killer." The Handler said calmly. "You both were." She bent down and unzipped the leg of her dress. She straightened with a pistol in her hand. "I just pointed you in a direction." 
 
The Handler shot at them and Circe stopped the bullet, turning it and aiming it toward The Handler before Five jumped the two of them.
 
 The Handler shot three more times. At that point, the girl heard yelling outside and alarms started blaring. "Security breach in tube room." It was saying, over and over again. 
 
Circe and Five were crouched in a gap between tubes opposite each other. Five was hidden behind a trolley. As The Handler walked through the room, Five slid the trolly out at her. She caught it with her foot and shot at Five who jumped away. 
 
Circe stood and stopped the bullets from coming after her, aiming them towards The Handler as fast as she could.  She ducked, though Circe did manage to mess that perfect hair of hers. She spun and shot, Circe jumped aside and out of nowhere Five grabbed her and jumped away.
 
"What's the rush kids?" The Handler asked calmly as she stood and looked around. "We're just getting started. Is this really how you want the last line of your reports to read?"
 
The duo jumped behind her. "When I'm done I'm just done I guess." Five said. 
 
"You can't keep this up Five." The Handler said, pointing her gun at the two. 
 
"Watch us." Circe grinned. 
 
 "We all know that even he has a limit." The Handler went on. "You owe me." She pulled the trigger. Again and again. The gun clicked with empty amo. The Handler lowered it and checked.
 
"I do owe a debt." Five said. He jumped them both behind her and held up her Vietnam grenade. "But it's not for you."
 
Circe pulled the pin out and Five rolled it across the ground. "Shit." The Handler said quietly as it stopped at her feet. 
 
They dived out of the room and around the corner, Circe covered her ears as the bomb blew and people screamed. Five grabbed the girl's arm and jumped into the briefcase room. 
 
He grabbed one and Circe reached into his pocket, pulling out the other grenade. She pulled the pin and dropped it, running out with Five.
 
 "Hey," The man at the desk outside said as we ran. "What are you-?" He was cut off by the explosion. 
 
Circe and Five spun, he held up the briefcase as a shield and they both hid behind it. Then Five jumped them back to 2019.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
Circe fiddled with the hem of her shirt as Five was rambling on about something. He said something about Harold Jenkins and how they were going to kill him. Sounded easy enough.
"Harold Jenkins was that one guy that Reginald was being rude to." Circe chimed in before adding, “When we were younger.”
 
"How the hell do you know Harold Jenkins?" Diego asked. 
 
"He was the one that I gave that… Um… Oh! He was the one I gave that pin to," Circe said as she recalled the early memory.
 
"I remember that," Five said in a low voice. He said that he didn't like Circe being so touchy with the fans and that there were creeps out there.
 
"The boy was Harold Jenkins," Circe explained. "He was being abused, and wanted an escape. Father turned him away." 
 
"Of course he-”
 
 "I think you were just upset about how he was touching Allison." Circe interrupted Luther and grimaced.
 
 "None of that matters now," Five harrumphed. "What matters is that he's responsible for the apocalypse. So we have to find him, and we have to do it now."
 
 "How's he related?" Diego asked. 
 
"How am I supposed to know that when this is all I'm going off of?"
 
"So his name is all you've got?" 
 
They continued to bicker as Circe tried to wrack through her brain for solutions. However, for some reason, Circe kept on thinking about Vanya. She was still being shunned away from all of this and she felt... Really bad.
 
“Circe, you helping?” Five called out to her. She looked up.
 
"Alright, I'll bite. Let's find Harold Jenkins." Circe smiled. Five nodded.

"Thank you, Cici." Five said before turning, "Well at least we've got another competent person on our side."

"I hope that's a compliment." Circe sighed.

_____________________________________________________

As Circe, Five, Diego, and Allison all stepped out of the car, Allison said, "We have no clue what Peabody is capable of."

"Yeah, he didn't seem like much of a threat earlier," Diego noted dismissively.

"Besides," Allison said, "Look at Five."

"Thanks," the short boy grumbled as Circe muffled a laugh.

"Good point," Diego agreed. "So what's his deal with Vanya?"

"Let's ask him after we kill him," Five suggested.
 
"We can't just kill her boyfriend, you know how emotionally distressed she'd be? She'd hate us forever." Circe frowned.

"You're too soft for your own good, Cici." Diego said.

“She’s our sister, we should care for her well-being, Diego.” Circe argued.
 
“Yeah, well right now we’re caring about the world's well-being.” Diego said.

Circe gritted her teeth and sighed. “Well right now, I don’t care if the world ends as long as we’re all together.” She crossed her arms. 
 
They all went around the back of the house, Allison on our tail as the guys continued their discussion. "Y'know," Circe said quietly, "This is kind of like the old days. Breaking in, saving the day."

"Yeah, it really is." Allison smiled.

They opened the back door without a problem just as Circe heard the loud crash of breaking glass. Allison approached Diego's sprawled figure on the floor, Five not far from what Circe guessed was a spatial jump.
 
 "Subtle," the tall woman jokes. 
 
Five's hand wrapped around the doorknob. "Y'know the door's unlocked?" 
 
Diego rolled his eyes as he got to his feet. "Yeah, well it worked, didn't it?" he groaned. "Spread out," he grouched, walking down a hallway. "Just yell if you're getting shot or something." 
 
Circe wandered up the stairs and began looking around, silently observing each room she went through. Eventually, Circe found a hatch to the attic in the hallway, and decided to give it a try. 
Carefully climbing up, the room Circe found startled her. "Hey, guys? Might wanna check this out," Circe called out to the other three.
 
Allison looked around. "Our faces are all burnt off," she observed.
 
"All but Circe," Diego remarked. "You sure it isn't you that Peabody wants?" he joked. 
 
Circe chuckled awkwardly, "God, I hope not." She said, catching Five's sudden sour mood as he grumbled about something.
 
"This guy's got issues," Diego added.
 
Circe looked at all of the burnt figurines and scratched posters before finding a small miniature figurine of herself.  With mussed hair and a mask on, the miniature version of her had her arms in front of her face and her hands had plastic yellow light surrounding them.
 
"This isn't about Vanya," Circe realized. "He has problems with the Academy. Leonard and Harold are the same person." 
 
Beside Circe, Five let out a shaky sigh as he fell back, hitting the floor with a soft thump. "Five?" The three of them knelt down around him. "He's bleeding," Allison said.
 
Circe gritted her teeth, "We need to go right now." She said, her head going back to mission-mode. “Start the car!”

_____________________________________________________

"Cici? Cici!" Diego waved his hand in front of her face. She felt herself breathe heavily as her mind raced faster than she could process.
 
"Circe!" Luthur shook the girl. Circe blinked and cleared my throat, looking up at Luther with a slight smile.
 
"Yeah?"
 
"You were zoning out." Diego said, "You never zone out when something like this is happening."
 
Circe slowed her breathing, "Yeah, I'm just tired. Sorry." She sighed, "But, I think I should get some water alright?"
 
"Yeah, you should probably get some water." Allison said. Circe nodded, exiting the room and going downstairs to get some water.
 
As she poured herself a drink, her thoughts whirled around like a storm.

'Do any of your SIBLINGS even care about you? Imagine if Five died, what would you ever do with yourself?’

A slight dizziness washed over Circe, and she felt an inexplicable sense of dread. Her heart began to race, pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. Circe took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, but it only made things worse. Her chest tightened, and she struggled to get enough air.

‘You’re a useless and self-centered brat who can’t handle conflict herself. You hide away until your emotions get the best of you and then you blow up, pushing everyone away from you just like you’re doing now! Instead of being a narcissistic asshole maybe you should try getting therapy like everyone else!'

Her hands started to tremble, and she could see them shaking uncontrollably. The room seemed to close in around her, and the walls felt like they were inching closer. A wave of heat surged through Circe’s body, followed by a chilling sweat that made her skin clammy.
 
Circe tried to focus, to remind herself that it was just a panic attack and that it would pass. But her mind was a whirlwind of fear and confusion. Circe’s vision blurred, and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She needed to get out, to escape this suffocating space, to leave, to go anywhere else but this house.
 
Anywhere else but by her family.

_____________________________________________________

"God... What're we going to do about this?" Diego asked, "I don't think this is a dehydration kind of problem."
 
"She's got to be stressed, I mean with everything that's happened I'm sure one of us would break down at some point." Allison said. Diego shook his head.
 
"But

we

both know Circe, and we both know she never really cracks under pressure. The pressure usually just... Eases itself out." Diego sighed as he looked at his sister.
 
"Right, I mean, she called me about how she was started to crack again but…” Allison looked as she saw the small weathered hands of her sister and the slightly chipped mask on her face. Diego pursed his lips, looking back at Circe with concern and worry.

_____________________________________________________

Circe blinked, opening her eyes and sitting up from the bed. What happened? She sighed and figured she probably passed out. She frowned, getting out of the bed and going downstairs. She heard voices in the kitchen and went downstairs.
 
"See? There's your maiden, Five." Klaus said. Circe didn't even want to know what was happening.
 
"I passed out?" Circe asked. Klaus nodded. "Alright... So…”
 
“Dad killed himself.” Klaus said and Circe widened her eyes at the sudden information before thinking.
 
“What…?” Circe scrunched her face in confusion, “Well, I don’t even want to know. I just wanna get the hell out of here and fix the apocalypse before it happens.” Circe sighed before turning to Five, "Is that coffee?"
 
"Tastes like shit." Five said. Circe nodded.
 
"Well, let's find that piece of shit who ends the world and then kill me and we'll all be happy." Circe smiled. Five whipped his head to meet hers.
 
"What do you mean?"
 
"Well, I just thought that we'd also end up exterminating me when we kill Harold Jenkins. Was... That's not the plan?" Circe frowned.
 
"That was never the plan!" Five sighed.
 
"Oh... Mummy and daddy are fighting again... I'll see myself out..." Klaus said and trotted up the stairs, away from the tension.
 
"Look, Five, it's alright, I'll just... Cease to exist. It'll be easy." Circe smiled, "I'll just..." She mimicked a gun and pointed it to her head.
 
Five took her hand and placed it in his. Circe liked it, it felt... Warm. "No. That's not going to be an option, alright? We. Are. Not. Killing. You." Five said angrily, "We'll... Find something else to do after Jenkins dies, alright?"
 
Circe sighed, "Alright, but if I

do

end up killing everyone... Then… You have to kill me, alright?" Five hesitated before nodding.
 
"Fine, but it won't come to that." Five said.
 
“Don’t be so sure.” She said quietly.

_____________________________________________________

Five sent Circe with Allison, and then Allison and her were now hanging around the house that Vanya was currently living in. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Allison?" Circe asked.
 
"Yes."
 
 "Alright, be careful," Circe said. She nodded and the two of them got out, Allison entering first. 
 
Solemn violin music poured out of the cabin, and small objects like chairs and windchimes rocked back and forth in a strong wind that came from the same location.

"Vanya?" Allison called over the loud sounds. "Are you there?" She opened the door and stepped inside, while you loomed by the doorway. "Vanya, what's going on?" 
 
Startled, Vanya lowered her bow, staring between the two of them. "What're you guys doing here?" she asked. 
 
"We're here to visit you," Circe said. "Are you okay?" 
 
"Uh... Yeah." 
 
"There's something... Strange going on," Allison noted. "What's causing it?"
 
 Vanya seemed more sure of herself, as if she were a new person when she straightened up and said, "I am."
 
 "What are you talking about?" the taller woman asked. 
 
"I'm making this happen." She said, "With my abilities," Vanya added. "Turns out I've had them this whole time. Weird, huh?" 
 
Circe smiled, "That’s amazing, Vanya!” Circe said excitedly. Vanya visibly relaxed with a smile before turning to Allison for reassurance.
 
Allison inhaled sharply, "That's incredible."
 
 Vanya caught the hesitation in her tone. "But?"
 
 "Can we talk about this in the car?" 
 
"Why?" 
 
"You won't wanna hear it."

Allison sighed, "Leonard Peabody? His real name is Harold Jenkins." Vanya stayed quiet. "I couldn't find anything about him in the library, remember? It's because he doesn't exist; Harold Jenkins does. He was imprisoned for twelve years. He murdered his father when he was thirteen." 
 
"That's crazy."
 
 "But it's true," Circe said. Both of them turned to face her. "If you don't believe Allison, then at least believe me. I didn't see it before because he had aged so much, but I met Harold Jenkins over a decade ago. He and Leonard Peabody are the same person." 
 
Vanya's shoulders sagged before Allison was in her face again. "We were in his house. He has pictures of all of us with our eyes gouged out!" 
 
"Allison-"
 
"What?" 
 
"We'll tell you everything when we get in the car, promise, but it isn't safe here!" She grabbed Vanya's arm and tried to pull her towards the door.
 
 "Stop!" She pulled away from the taller girl and lowered herself onto a chair.
 
"Hey, don't grab her. Even if she's in danger..." Circe placed her hand on Allison's arm, "If someone told me someone I loved killed someone and tried to grab me, I'd be hesitant as well."
 
Sighing, the woman knelt down in front of the violinist. "I can't imagine how hard it is for you to hear this... But we love you, and I just wanna be here for you, as your sister."
 
 "There's no way," she mumbled. "I love him. This makes zero sense. And my powers, I just, I don't know what's even going on," she whimpered, covering her head. "I dunno what to do."
 
 "... I might understand a little bit," Allison said. "When we were four, Dad said you were sick, and you had to be quarantined. We were so young. None of us knew to question him, not like we do now. But then he told me to do something that I didn't understand… Until now. He wanted me to make you think you were ordinary. He made me his accomplice." 
 
Vanya blinked a few times. Circe stared at Allison with a mix between shock and horror in her eyes. "So this is your fault?" Vanya hissed.
 
 "I… I didn't realize- "
 
"You knew this whole time? That I was like you guys?" She shot up out of her chair angrily. 
 
"No, no! I didn't really understand until today, until I saw you, and-and all of this!"
 
 "Now everything makes sense," she spat. "This is why you never wanted me around!" 
 
"What? No!"
 
 "You couldn't risk me threatening your place in the group, your-your dominance." 
 
"That is not true!"
 
 "You couldn't handle that Dad might've found me special!" 
 
"You are special, Vanya!" 
 
"Stop saying that!"
 
 "We can start over now!" 
 
"You destroyed my life!" 
 
"Oh, please, Vanya," she scoffed. "We can move on!" 
 
"I'm moving on, but not with you. With Leonard." 
 
"With Harold, you mean- " 
 
"With Leonard! The only person who has ever loved me for me! Someone who's not Circe!" The words went through Circe's chest like a knife. The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed, and a presence filled it, one that seemed familiar. 
"Look me in the eye and tell me you aren't threatened now," she growled at Allison.
 
 As a wind filled the room, Allison hesitantly said, "I don't want to argue with you- " 
 
"Then go!" Vanya hollered. Something crashed. 
 
"I'm only trying to help- " 
 
"I don't want your help!" 
 
"Vanya, I love you!" 
 
"Stop saying that!"
 
"Allison." Circe placed her hand on Allison's shoulder, "We should give Vanya some space. We should go."
 
"Vanya, are you okay?" Allison ignored the girl.
 
 "Go!" The lights on the ceiling shattered, spraying glass everywhere.
 
 "Please don't make me do this," Allison whimpered. "... I heard a rumor- " 
 
Vanya's bow sliced through the air, and a line of red was suddenly across Allison's neck. The both of them lurched forward as blood leaked through the wound and she toppled to the ground. "Allison, no!" Vanya cried out. She mumbled the same word over and over, "No, no, no!" 
 
Circe breathed in and out, trying to calm herself as her eyes filled with tears. She cleared her throat and ripped her shirt, placing it over Allison's neck. She flicked her hand as the bleeding started to slow. "That should prevent any more blood loss," She mumbled. 
 
"I didn't mean it," she sobbed, "I'm so sorry," she cried, her fists balling up the fabric of her shirt as she leaned into Circe. 
 
"Hey, hey, hey. It's gonna be okay, everything's going to be okay." Circe comforted her. Vanya cried in her arms. "Everything's gonna be okay, Vanya. I got you."
 
 "Vanya!" Leonard's shout turned both their heads as he opened the door. 
 
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She wailed against Circe’s shoulder. 
 
"I forgive you, Vanya... Calm down, breathe in and breathe out..." Circe whispered to her. 
 
"You did what you had to," he said. "Vanya, we need to go!"
 
 "I can't leave them here!" Vanya cried as she was pulled out of Circe's arms, she fought against him, "No!" 
 
Vanya's hands covered with blood, sobbing hysterically and sputtering out apologies as she was held by the very man the others were hunting down. "Vanya." Circe said. "It's going to be alright." She got up and turned to Leanord. "If you hurt my sister, or my family. I will come after you and kill you. That is a promise... Do you understand?"
 
"Please Cici, don't- don't send me away!" 
 
"I'm not, I promise - I promise that I'm not" Circe said shakily as her voice cracked. "The others are most likely on their way here. They'll see Allison and you and Harold and they'll think the worst." 
 
She wailed. "I just need to diffuse the situation. I need to explain what happened." Circe said, "They trust me. And I need you to trust me too."
 
"Let me fix this. Let me at least try." She shook her head, sobs still pouring from her shaking lips. 
 
"Hey, hey, hey." Circe took her sister's hands, "I will protect you and I promise I will try to explain what happened." She held her hand out. "Sisters promise, alright?"
 
"R-right..." Vanya's voice was shaky as the two of them left.
 
Circe's hands trembled as she looked at Allison's injured body and lifted her hand, cocking her head to the side as Allison’s body floated up, yellow light shifting around her body as Circe walked out with her body.

_____________________________________________________

"Hey, uh, Cici?" Five called out to the girl who was looking out the window. She turned around, her eyes still red from crying. And yet she still smiled.
 
"Hey, Five." Circe's voice cracked as she wiped her eyes, "Probably should be moping in my room, shouldn't I? Heh... Idiotic of me, right?"
 
"No, not really." Five sat down next to Circe.
 
"Can you just stay here with me?" Circe asked, turning to Five. "I think I like your company..." Her voice was quiet, a mere whisper, but Five heard. And he stayed. He held her hand as she rested her head on Five’s shoulder and they fell asleep together.

_____________________________________________________

"So, why're you down here right now?" Five asked as Circe sat down by him at the bar, handing her a margarita. "You've been more mopey lately." Five commented.
 
"Yeah, well. What can I say." Circe chuckled, "I let Vanya go away with a maniac who killed his abusive father, I got Allison's throat sliced up to the point where none of us know if she’ll ever be able to speak again, and everything else..."
 
"You remember all of that?" Five asked, setting down his drink. "Sounds like you need therapy."
 
"And you don't?"
 
"Ouch." Five said, "Not used to you going for the kill on the first try."
 
"I don't kill..." Circe said as she turned to see Delores, "Hello, Delores."
 
Nothing.
 
"She says hello." Five says and takes a sip of his drink. Circe smiled, resting her head on the table. Five eyed her as he frowned, he didn't like seeing her sad. It made him feel... Worse. Like his whole mood dampened when she was sad.
 
"Thanks, Five." Circe chuckled. Five frowned.
 
"What-"
 
“For being here with me… For all of us.” Circe said quietly, “It must’ve been so hard coming back and going through all of that.”
 
Five looked at her in a way she’d never seen him look at her before. He suddenly cleared his throat loudly, "It’s nothing, I’m just… Glad it’s over.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“... Luther?” Circe’s voice was quiet against the house violently shaking. She widened her eyes as she saw Luther suffocating Vanya.
 
He turned to her with eyes, full of pain. Circe saw Vanya and immediately separated the two. She flung Luther to the window of the foyer stairs with a ‘crash!’ and rushed to Vanya.
 
“Vanya… Are you alright, can you stand?” Circe asked the woman and she breathed loudly, wheezing and coughing. “Luther, what did you do?!” She yelled at the man who started to stand.
 
“I’m doing what I have to do, Circe! Vanya hurt Allison, she can barely speak!” Luther yelled. Circe stroked Vanya’s hair before setting her against the wall to rest. She turned to Luther.
 
“You don’t get to decide to kill her!” Circe yelled, “She’s our sister!”
 
“I’m the Leader! And I wasn’t going to kill her!” 
 
“Yeah, and lock her up like some lab experiment?! The Umbrella Academy is OVER! You’re not a leader! You cannot just decide to suffocate someone!” Circe yelled, “I won’t let you hurt

our

sister.”
 
“I’m not gonna fight you, Cici.” Luther said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
 
“Yeah, well, maybe you should’ve thought that earlier because I sure as hell want to hurt you right now.” Circe said as she raised her hands and threw Luther to the ground. She pulled out the floor from underneath him and trapped his arms into the floor.
 
Circe picked Vanya up as her unconscious body floated and landed on the couch. She brushed her hair out of her face and wiped her tears before going back to the foyer to talk to Luther.
 
“Motherfu-”
 
_____________________________________________________
 
A window that Vanya was behind, sobbing and pounding on thick glass that silenced both actions. Without a word, Circe rushed forward, shoving past Luther. Diego and Klaus looked at each other in shock.
 
"What are you doing?" She shouted at Luther, "What part of this actually looks okay to you?" She was seething. She probably wasn't in the right state of mind to be dealing with Luther and his antics at the moment.
She was still emotionally unstable. Diego and Klaus looked at each other in shock, she'd never been

this

angry before.
 
"Circe, even Dad was afraid of her- "
 
 "How can you be sure? Can you tell me that without a doubt?" He fell silent for a moment. 
 
"Maybe it was right for dad to leave you on the moon, maybe you've gotten some screws loose UP HERE!" Circe shouted.
 
"You were there, you must've known she was a threat!" he challenged. 
 
"She's not a threat!" Circe yelled, "Allison set her off, and she paid the price! I told Vanya to leave because I knew you'd do this to her! All to protect your precious Allison! You never have a damn about Vanya, and here's the proof!" She turned back to Vanya's cell, "This isn't right, and you know that." 
 
Luthur came over to her before stopping, "Luthur." She whispered, "You're going to unlock the door, and bring Vanya out." 
Circe raised her hands slowly as Luther was pushed against the wall, the rock around him crumbling to tighten around his arms. “Or else, I’m killing you.”
 
Diego and Klaus looked at each other before going up to Circe and shaking her. "Woah, woah, woah! Cici!"
 
The girl blinked and she fell before rising up again, "What the hell?! I was this close!" Circe yelled, "I'll let go of Luthur as soon as Vanya's out!" She screamed, turning to Vanya, who was sobbing hysterically.
 
"I think we need Five." Klaus whispered. Circe turned around in anger.
 
"Five can't help at all." Circe gritted her teeth. Luthur was erased from her hold as Circe was held back by Diego and Klaus.
 
"I'm sorry, Cici." Luther said as he knocked her out.

_____________________________________________________

"What about Circe?! Is she still alive?!" A voice yelled. Circe looked around and spotted a group of people gathering at the front of the mansion.
 
Circe ran towards them, hair disheveled. Her eyes were still red as she coughed through all the dust. “Guys!”
 
“You’re okay.” Klaus breathed in slowly and hugged Circe tightly.
 
 Five space jumped right to where everyone was. "Guys!" Five called, getting their attention. "The apocalypse is still happening, the world ends today."
 
 "But you said it was over, didn't you?" Luther said. 
 
"Look, I was wrong." Five brandished the newspaper in his hand at the four of them. "I found this the day I got stuck. The headline's the same!" 
 
"That doesn't mean shit," Diego denied, shaking his head.
 
 "The timeline could've been changed since then." Five huffed, "Just listen! When I found this, I assumed this place burned down along with everything else, but here it is! Earth is still intact! That means Vanya destroyed the Academy before the apocalypse happened. I thought Harold Jenkins caused it, but he didn't! He was the fuse - Vanya's the bomb - she causes the apocalypse!" 
 
"Good point," Klaus muttered, almost as if he was talking to someone else. 
 
 "Vanya killed Pogo," Luther said before Circe could get a word in. 
 
"You're unbelievable," Circe growled in a voice they'd never heard before. "After all of that, after everything you've done, you still want to paint Vanya as the villain here?! Well, I might as well just-"
 
Helicopters were suddenly over our heads, and police sirens sounded off. "Move! Regroup at the Super Star!" Luther ordered. 
 
Five warped the three of them into an alleyway next to the bowling alley. "C'mon, we have to go," He said, grabbing her hand. She made no move to get up, and even pulled her hand out of his. 
 
"Right..." Circe clicked her fingers, she was muttering something. "I can fix this, I know I can. I just need to... Think. Yeah, I just need to think..."
 
"Cici." Five tilted her chin, turning her head towards him, "We need to go."
 
"Right..." Circe nodded, "Right..."
 
 Inside the bowling alley, they  found a bench at an empty lane and quietly sat, allowing the varying sounds of thudding bowling balls and falling pins. After a few minutes, the others had trickled into the building, making their way over.
Circe had opted to remain quiet, although everyone didn't miss the deathly glare she shot at Luther. He squirmed under her gaze. "I hate to be the one to say this, but we need to prepare ourselves."
 
 "For what?" Diego asked. "To do whatever it takes to stop Vanya." 
 
Five glanced over at Circe, she was... Slowly having her mental state go down the drain. She breathed shakily as she clutched onto her pants. 
Five saw the corner of her mouth twitch upward as Allison hit Luther with her notepad. "We might not have a choice, Allison!" He protested. 
 
"Bullshit," Diego replied. "There's always another option."
 
"She has a concert tonight." Circe said, "She'll be playing first chair. She said she'd reserved tickets for the whole family." They all looked guilty for a few seconds and she pursed her lips. "Yeah, I hope you feel

fucking

guilty for trapping her like a caged animal." She said angrily, her hands shaking with frustration.
 
Five placed his hand on her arm. She looked back and nodded, breathing in and out slowly. Allison scribbled something in her notepad and brandished it at Luther: She's our sister! 
 
"We're the only ones who can stop her," he replied. "It's our responsibility to Dad."
 
 "To Dad?" Diego huffed. "Forget that, I've heard enough about- " 
 
"He sacrificed everything to get us back together." 
 
"I've gotta side with Luther on this one," Five said, Circe gritted her teeth.
 
"I'm going to blow up someone's head." She muttered under her breath.
 
"We can't give Vanya a chance to retaliate - and she will. There are billions of lives at stake, we can't worry about just one anymore." 
 
A loud cracking noise turned all of our heads. It turned out to be the chair Circe had been sitting on, she was now standing as the chair was crushed like a soda can on the ground.
 
 "You people are impossible." Circe growled. "All of this, and you still wanna try to incapacitate her? Forget that, you think you can take her?! If you want to fight her, fine, just be prepared to lose and have me say 'I told you so.'"
 
 "Cici-" Five started.
 
 "I don't need to hear anything from you," she snarled. "It's pretty clear you don't care about anyone unless they're on your side!
I'm only cooperating for one reason: to make sure Vanya stays alive." Circe said, "And the only reason why

you guys

are still alive is because I haven't crushed your heads yet!"
 
 "I might be able to help," Klaus said when the girl sat beside him. 
 
Luther rolled his eyes, "Not the time." 
 
"Let the man finish," Diego retorted, earning a look of inquiry from the blonde man. "He saved my life today."
 
 "Really?" 
 
Klaus gulped. "Uh, yeah, yeah," he said, standing up. "I did... Take credit for it. The real hero... Is Ben."
 
Circe nodded on as everyone rolled their eyes. She rolled her eyes at everyone’s lack of belief. Of course, she gets it, Klaus has relapsed and used drugs so many times that he’s become so shunned away from the family.
 
But the Klaus she knew, sober or not, didn't joke about Ben's life.
 
"Today... Today, he punched me in the face. And earlier at the house, he saved Diego's life, not me."
 
 Luther huffed incredulously, "I can't believe you, Klaus!"
 
 "You want proof?" He reached out and grabbed a pink bowling ball. "Here's your proof," the skinny man declared. "Come on, it's showtime, baby," he said to the empty space just behind Circe. 
He tossed the ball in the air, narrowly missing an unflinching Circe before it thudded against the ground.
 
 "Is there any way to silence that voice inside your head that screams out to be the center of attention?" Luther snarled. 
 
"You know, I liked you a lot better before you got laid," Klaus fired at him. Allison reared back, away from Luther, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Which was a complete…" He backtracked, "It-it wasn't his fault, 'cause he was ridiculously high, right? And-and the girl, she thought he was a furry-"
 
 "Stop!" Luther snapped. "Okay," was his weak reply. He took up his seat beside Circe, who watched Luther's reaction with a satisfied expression. Allison turned on her heel and walked away. 
 
"Allison!" Luther called, chasing after her.
 
"Aw, does poor Allison wish that she was Luthur's first time?" Circe muttered to herself, "Sometimes I wish that I could bash their fucking heads into the wall..."
 
"Cici..." Five placed his hand on hers. Circe coughed and nodded. From a few lanes down, a stout older woman approached us, with a scrappy-looking boy in tow, probably her kid. 
 
"Excuse me?" she asked politely. "It's my son Kenny's birthday today, and... Wouldn't your kids be happier playing with other kids their own age?" 
 
The scrawny boy locked eyes with Circe, and ducked his head as she sent him a fake smile. "Assuming it's okay with your two dads." Klaus and Diego shared a confounded look. 
 
Meanwhile, Circe smiled sweetly. The same smile that made Five remember how she was a few days ago. "I don't really bowl."
 
"I would rather chew off my own foot." Five said.
 
The woman reared back, "Let's go, Kenny."
 
"If I was going to date a man," Diego said, the shock of the woman's insinuation wearing off, "You'd be the last man." 
 
"You'd be lucky to get me," Klaus remarked.
 
Circe muttered something to herself again, but this time Diego caught it. "Does your newfound superpowers make you feel better about yourself?" Diego asked. Circe looked at him and squished his head with her fingers just so she could see it.
"It makes me feel better that I could squish your dick into a millimeter." She smiled sweetly. “Not that it would make a difference.” Klaus whistled.
 
"Wow, you are mean." Klaus high-fived Circe, "And I am

loving

it."
 
"Thank you, Klaus." Circe turned to Diego, "See, this is why he's my favorite, Diego. Take notes."
 
"God, you are such an asshole." Diego sighed, sitting down next to Circe.
 
"Y'know what’s an asshole," Klaus and Circe turned to each other and both said at the same time, "Depression."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Circe heard the sound of Five warping and she frowned. Of course now, of all times he decides to go rogue again.  "Where's Five?" Luther asked. 
 
"Left us again," Circe said flatly as she crossed her arms, trying to calm herself down.
 
"Oh, for the love of - where'd he go now?"
 
 "Didn't say," Diego shrugged as Klaus came back from taking his shot. 
 
"We can't wait for him, Vanya's concerts in thirty minutes." 
 
"And what's the plan?" Diego inquired. 
 
"Well…" He paused for a second. "We go to Icarus Theater," he decided. 
 
"That's a location, not a plan," Diego countered. Luther looked uncertain.
 
 "Is that really all you've got?" Diego asked. "Look, you wanna be Number One? Fine, but you've gotta get us all on the same page, because right now, we're all over the place."

"I can just..." Circe snapped her fingers and the chair next to her was contained with a force field. “I’ll do the same shield I made when I- Never mind.” Circe cut herself off short.
 
"You might hurt her." Luthur said and Circe rolled her eyes, uncrossing her arms.
 
"I’m sorry, but who suffocated her and led her to destroy the academy again?" Circe said, looking around before yelling, "Get down!" She hollered as people in leather suits and red gas masks opened fire on the place. The five of them ducked, hiding behind various units in their lane and she was soon squished between Allison and Klaus.
 
 "And who are these goons?" Diego shouted above the gunfire. 
 
Klaus, covering his ears responded, "Maybe they're here for Kenny's birthday!" A shot went off, and the bullet tore through a nearby table. 
 
"Pretty sure they're some of Five's old work buddies!" Luther yelled. 
 
Diego quickly stood and turned, throwing a knife into the chest of one of the men, sending him crashing into what Circe guessed was the sound system. 
As he rammed into it, an upbeat song began loudly pumping out of the speakers, spirits gradually rising with the infectious beat.
Circe focused slowly before pressing a few of the masked people into the wall, eventually suffocating them inside of it. Luther hurled whole bowling balls at their heads. 
 
Klaus threw a… Cake before going to Allison's side, as neither of them had any real offensive abilities anyways. "They're blocking the exit!" Klaus screeched.
 
 "Luther, now would be a good time to have an actual plan!" Diego asked loudly. Circe turned when Allison roughly poked her leg. She pointed to the long aisles in front of her and Circe nodded.
 
 "The lanes!" Circe screamed. Taking off in a run when she saw the others on either side of her. She then proceeded to slide feet-first into the lane before it spat all of them out into an alleyway.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
The five of them ran up the stairs of the theater, panting at the top. Allison furiously scribbled on her notebook before thrusting it at Luther: We need to go alone. She pointedly gestured between herself and Circe. 
 
"What?" Luther objected, "You're not doing that - neither of you - okay? You can't reason with her anymore."
 
"Hear the music?" Diego asked. "It's started."
 
 "D'you honestly think she'll listen to you?" Luther asked Allison. "After everything that's happened?"
 
“Do you think she’ll honestly listen to you after you suffocated her?” Circe pointed to Luther accusingly and he quieted down.
 
 "There's no time," Klaus pleaded off to the side. 
 
"Fine," the blonde sighed, backing off. Allison turned to Circe with a determined look and the girl nodded. 
 
Taking the message, Circe looked up at Luther. "If Vanya dies tonight, I'm going to bash your head into a kitchen cabinet." She said with a calm voice, "And that's a promise, Luthur. I never break my promises."
 
Without another word, Circe and Allison walked into the theater. Slowly walking down the aisle, they were in total awe as Vanya was seated front a center as the first chairman, playing her beloved violin with a grace and precision that made Circe feel a sense of pride.
As she began to play a solo, her eyes wandered into the crowd, the eerie blue connecting with Circe’s brown. She sent her a smile and... She smiled back.
 
Circe’s heart nearly stopped beating when Diego and Luther came charging at Vanya from the wings. The brunette stood from her chair, and with a wave of her bow, a silvery shockwave shot out from her body, sending both men to the ground. 
"Shit!" Circe hissed as the audience dissolved into hysteria. The orchestra moved to evacuate as well, but with another wave of Vanya's bow, they were all back in their seats, continuing to play. Another shock wave sent the four of them hiding behind seats.
 
"She's stronger than I thought," Circe heard Luther say to Diego. She couldn't move her hands, which meant she couldn't do anything.
 
 "I'M GOING TO BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF!" Circe yelled at him, while Allison threw an abandoned stiletto at him.
 
"Ow! We're fine, thanks for asking," he said pointedly. 
 
"At this rate, I want you to die!" Circe yelled.
 
 "Look, we almost lost Allison once, it's not happening again," he said.
 
"Oh, forget that!"
 
 "So much for getting the jump on her," Diego interjected. 
 
"What else you got?" 
 
Allison banged on the back of the seat in front of the two of us. She mimicked Vanya's movements with the violin. 
 
"No shit, Allison," Diego snapped.
 
"Her powers are linked to sound!" Circe screamed. Gunshots went off in the back of the theater, and the orchestra and conductor got up, and weren't stopped from evacuating this time. 
 
"The hell happened to Klaus? He's our lookout!" Diego hollered. 
 
"You're honestly surprised?" Before Circe could beat Luther over the head, a familiar whoosh was heard. 
 
"What's with the lollygagging?" Five sternly asked. 
 
"Get down, moron!" Circe shrieked, pulling him by the shirt collar into the aisle they were sitting in, just as a bullet whizzed by his head. 
 
Five yelped as his hands met the floor on either side of your head, and his legs were tangled with your own. "You recognize these assholes?" Circe asked, releasing his shirt. Five blinked before looking up, quickly ducking soon after. 
 
"They're from the Commission, here to make sure the apocalypse happens," he explained as she pulled away to kneel in front of him.
 
 "Five, I thought you bailed on us!" Luther hollered. 
 
"I had an errand to run, don't get your panties in a twist." 
 
Diego curved a few knives at nor incoming gunmen, when Klaus came running in. "Guys! It's Cha-Cha!" 
 
In a second, Five had disappeared from beside Circe, and she looked up to see him on the back of a gunner who had gotten a bit too close to our location. Circe heard a familiar guttural yell from behind her, and she whirled around to see Ben, shimmery and blue as wispy tentacles came from his stomach and attacked the hostile men. 
 
"Ben!" Circe called out. Ben's ghost seemed to turn to be and waved, smiling brightly before focusing his attention back to the enemy. Circe shook herself awake from the shock and smiled.
 
Diego leapt up from his hiding spot and charged a woman who we quickly identified as Cha-Cha, sending her into a wall. 
Ben made quick work of the assailants, squishing them or tearing their bodies in half. When they were all gone, Ben dissolved into the air, and Klaus stood there with a triumphant smile on his face. "Now who's the lookout?" he chuckled. 
 
Vanya... Slowly, a silvery wave was running through her body, changing her suit from black to white, and the same occurred with the dark brown wood of her instrument. The ground shook beneath Circe, much like how it did back at the Academy.
 
 "And where were you?" Luther pointedly asked Diego as he trotted over. 
 
"Honoring a memory," he answered shortly. "How d'you wanna end this thing?"
 
 "We surround her!" Luther said over the rumbling and music. "We come at her from all angles." 
 
"So a suicide mission," Klaus concluded. 
 
"We all wanna die someday, might as well be today, right?" Circe smiled.
 
"Yeah, but one of us could get through," Five urged. "It's the only chance we've got."
 
 "Are we all in?" Luther asked. Circe and Allison shook our heads angrily. 
 
"No!" Circe shouted.
 
 He nodded to Diego, "Stage left. Pointing to himself, "Stage right." To Klaus and Five, "You guys take the front."
 
 "I stand by what I said before," Circe yelled, "There's always a choice, right? If they make their choice, I'll take that as permission to make my own... Including the one to screw over their plans."
 
 As the two of them started forward, she heard Luther shout his signal. The four of them charged at the short woman, only for her to wave her bow. Four white tendrils snaked from her body, holding the four males in the air across from her. 
Somehow, Circe had made her way onto the stage and stood a few yards from the white-clad brunette.
And then she saw Allison behind Vanya with a gun. "Vanya!" Circe screamed. The gun in Allison's hand was suddenly beside the brunette's head, and the bullet flew past her ear, the sound ringing in Circe’s ear.
 
 The white appendages curled back into her body, and a large beam shot from her body. The beam shot up above your crystals, and through the glass ceiling of the theater, shooting farther and farther into the inky black sky above. 
Vanya collapsed to the floor from the shock of the shot going off in her ear. Behind Circe, she heard the men fall to the ground, as well as glass from the dome in the ceiling.
 
Circe walked over to Vanya, "Is she alive?" She asked weakly, pulling the woman's small body into her arms. Allison's fingers grasped her wrist, and seconds later she nodded. 
The others were soon crowded around the three of us, and Circe felt Five's hand being placed on her shoulder. 
 
"We actually saved the world," Luther sighed. 
 
"Correction,

we

saved the world. I dunno about you guys." Circe said as she looked up and saw a large chunk of the moon sailing towards Earth. "Fuck…” She muttered before standing up raising her hands high.
Yellow particles of… Something seemed to release from Circe’s hands as she held the moonrock in place.
 
 "Oh my God," Klaus breathed. Circe groaned, she felt like her body was being put through a meat grinder as she held back the moon.
 
"So that's how we go, huh?" Diego added flatly, "If only Sir Reginald could see us now. His beloved Umbrella Academy: a complete failure." 
 
"At least we're together in the end," Luther mumbled. 
 
"It doesn't have to end here," Five objected. "I have a way out of this, but you've gotta trust me," he said. "All of you." 
 
The three of them gave short objections before going back to watching the Moonrock flying towards them. And watching Circe holding the moonrock in place.
 
“I DON’T HAVE ALL DAY!” Circe shouted, “What’s the plan?” She yelled as she grunted. Her body felt like it was being crushed by a giant weight and she felt like she was underwater at the same time.
 
"I can time travel out of here," He explained, "But this time, I take you all with." 
 
"Is that even possible?" Diego asked. 
 
"Never know until we try," he admitted. 
 
Diego sighed, "If we do this, what's the worst-case scenario?"
 
 "You're lookin' at it," He said, gesturing to himself. The three of them quickly changed their minds, giving some form of "I'm in." 
 
"Can't get much worse than this." 
 
"Ben's in too," Klaus added, while Allison vigorously nodded her approval.
 
 "Fantastic," Five instructed. "Cici.” Five placed a hand on her shoulder, “Let go of the moon.”
 
Circe looked to Five before eventually the yellow particles stopped and her hands fell down to her side. She collapsed into Five’s arms, groaning as she felt the blood rush back to her head.
 
 "Wait, should we be taking her?" Luther asked, pointing to Vanya. "She's the cause of the apocalypse." 
 
"The apocalypse will always happen , and Vanya will always be the cause, unless we take her with us and stop it," Five said. Circe shakily stood up with a sigh. He held out his hands, and Circe grasped one, her other getting by Allison.
 
Circe felt Five's hand trembling as he intertwined his fingers with her own, giving her hand a slight squeeze. "Hey." Circe called out to Five. He turned to her and she smiled. "We'll be alright, calm down Five."
 
Five gave Circe an appreciative smile as a crackling, swirling blue vortex formed above our small group. Five made an anxious noise. "This is gonna get messy, everyone hold on tight, okay?"
 
Suddenly, Circe and Five weren't the only young faces. The others had taken on the appearance of themselves as younger children. She could feel her own body shrink a bit, and was suddenly back in her Umbrella Academy uniform as were the others.
In an instant, the room grew impossibly hot, and Five squeezed Circe's hand one last time before the vortex fully enveloped them all.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

🙊 Luther Hargreeves 🙊"Look, you want to go save the world? Knock yourself out. All right? I already got a job."  🔪 Diego Hargreeves 🔪"I made that machine my bitch!"  🗣️ Allison Hargreeves 🗣️"I heard a rumor that I blew your minds." 💀 Klaus Hargreeves 💀"Don't go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to." ⏳ Five Hargreeves ⌛"I'M THE DADDY HERE!" 👻 Ben Hargreeves 👻"Are you kidding me?" 🎻 Vanya Hargreeves 🎻"So she's not our biological sister, right?" 🌹 Circe Hargreeves 🌹"I do it for my family, I do it for Five, but mostly, I do it for me!" 🕊️ Lila Pitts 🕊️"You are an open book for very dumb children."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

In the dimly lit ballroom, the gentle strains of a waltz filled the air, soft and tender. The melody was lilting, a three-beat rhythm that seemed to beckon couples onto the floor. Among them were the two of them, stepping into position, their hands carefully meeting.
They stood face-to-face, his left hand resting lightly on her waist, her right hand sliding into his left. His right hand held hers just at shoulder height, and for a moment, they paused, sensing the gentle rise and fall of each other’s breath.
The music began, and they eased into the first step: a slow glide forward with his left foot, her right foot mirroring his motion as she moved backward. The steps were measured, smooth as they shifted through the basic box step.

Isn’t that lovely?

His right foot slid to the side, her left followed, and their feet met in a subtle close. The box completed, they started again, rotating slightly each time they circled through the movements.
As they turned together, her dress swirled around her ankles, brushing softly against his legs. His hand rested on her back, firm yet hesitant, as though afraid to hold too tight. 
Their eyes met for a moment longer than necessary, his gaze softening as he searched hers for something unsaid. She looked away, a faint blush creeping up her neck, though she couldn't hide the smile tugging at her lips.

Isn’t that cool?

They moved as one, the music carrying them along. The steps of the waltz were simple enough, but in the space between the notes, something deeper swirled… All unspoken but present in every movement.
She felt the warmth of his hand through her dress, the steady rhythm of his breathing as they turned together, and in the closeness of the dance, the world outside faded away.
The dance was coming to an end, and with it, the moment they shared, suspended in time. As the final notes echoed through the room, they slowed to a stop, his hand lingering on hers for a second longer than it should have.

And isn’t that cruel?

Their eyes met once more, and in that gaze, there was a promise—perhaps one day they would speak the words they had kept hidden for so long.
But for now, the music faded, the spell was broken, and they stepped apart, the unspoken feelings remained, a secret between them and the music that had carried them through it.
She reached out to touch his hand with a smile, but his hand slipped from hers. When she turned to look, his face was no longer recognizable- just a shadow of who they were before. His eyes, empty and hollow, stared straight ahead, unseeing.

And aren’t I a fool to have…

She called out again, louder this time, desperate. But still, no reply. The room remained as empty and indifferent as before. She was utterly alone. The fear of being alone had twisted into something darker, she wanted to run, to escape, but there was nowhere to go.
She ran as fast as she could, away from the pain and away from the hurt before being met with a mirror standing in front of a mirror, surrounded by people she knew… Old friends she pushed away, family members who were currently missing…
Her reflection stared back at her, but something was wrong. Her face, the one she’s always hated, now looked different, almost distorted.

Happily listened

Every imperfection she’s ever worried about seems amplified: her skin uneven from her scar, her features misshapen. She can feel their eyes on her, judging, scrutinizing.
She tried to cover her face with her hands, but they wouldn't move. She’s frozen in place, forced to face the mirror and the silent disapproval of those around her. Whispers, faint at first, then louder, discussing her weakness, how she’s never been strong enough—physically, emotionally, mentally. 
They see through the façade she’s carefully constructed, the one that hides her insecurities and doubts. Now, there’s nowhere to hide.

Happily stayed

She wanted to scream, to explain that this isn’t who she was, that this isn’t how she saw herself. But no words come out. Her voice, too, has betrayed her. The room begins to close in, the walls shifting and narrowing. 
Everyone’s expressions remain unchanged, indifferent, as though her vulnerability is something they’ve always known, but she’s only just realized. 
The overwhelming shame is suffocating. She’s laid bare, every weakness exposed, and there’s no escape from their judgment or from her own reflection. Forced to confront a version of herself she never wanted to see.

Happily watching them drift away

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Circe clutched onto the edge of the cold kitchen sink as she stared at the mirror in front of her. Her hair had been cut short to her shoulders and she looked… Different. A few scars clung to her porcelain arms and she had grown slightly taller.
 
People around got suspicious of her being a… Robot due to her uncanny face and her weirdly plastic looking arms. It wasn’t like she needed the mask, it was just… She wanted it there. 
 
But after last night, she had to come face to face- she chuckled at the pun she made- with her own body… Her own self. She stared at herself in the mirror before slowly taking the mask off with a ‘click!’.
 
She placed it on the counter, closing her eyes before breathing in and out… Eventually opening them. Circe grimaced, it wasn’t the worst… It was just that she…
 
Circe touched her scar and let out a shaky breath. The scar was discolored from her normal face, a little darker than usual, and the texture was lumpy and rough to touch. The shape of the scar was jagged and irregular and dry.
 
She stared at herself in the mirror, touching the scar with a sigh as she slightly smiled. What would it matter anyways? Her family wasn’t here to judge her, and even if they were…

Alive

they wouldn’t judge her appearance.
 
Would they?
 
No, they’d never! They’d see her as Circe. Circe Hargreeves… She was Circe Hargreeves, the one who sacrificed herself and got this scar from saving her team from something that could’ve been life threatening!
 
Something that could’ve killed them all if she hadn’t decided to step in and do something about it. Although she wasn’t pretty, the scar was heroic in a sense. A sense that gave her a need to belong. A need to heal and grow. Her first baby step was taking off that mask.
 
She ruffled out her hair and took a few deep breaths before leaving the bathroom. She stretched and smiled to herself before taking a few minutes to change out of her bathrobe.
 
Circe wore a pastel teal, short-sleeved dress with a beige, pointed collar and a button-up front. She stared at the full-length mirror with a smile, her actual smile, that she didn’t seem to always wear. Circe twirled around before brushing out the wrinkles in her dress.
 
She felt… Pretty. For the longest time she convinced herself she was a horribly ugly monster, someone who couldn’t be loved. Except, maybe she could love herself instead.
 
She ruffled her short hair with a smile, satisfied with the new look, before tugging on black Mary Jane-style shoes. One thing about the 60’s was that you had to dress the part.
 
And Circe, or Cynthia Harris as she went by, did just that. It was a good thing her ability allowed her to pickpocket strangers for their money. It wasn’t very ethical but it helped her fit in. And now she was working well at a diner.
 
She was living a normal life. Of course, sometimes she used her power to cook efficiently or multitask better but either way she was great. She was, for once, a normal person (Minus the… Age regression).
 
Circe’s heels clicked on the ground as she opened the car door and started to drive to work. Humming a song the radio was currently playing, Crazy by Willie Nelson, she sighed contently as she turned the corner.

Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely

I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue

I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted

And then someday you'd leave me for somebody new

She stopped the car, pocketing her keys before entering the diner. “Cynthia! You’re here pretty late.” Ernie said as his voice started trailing off and saw her scar, “Somethin’ happen a few weeks ago? I was wondering why you took a few days off but…”
 
“It’s nothing, Ernie. Just a little accident.” Circe said with a smile, “Something just came up. But, I’m alright I promise.” She said, “Is everyone already here?”
 
The bell rang and a couple came in. Ernie and Circe exchanged eye-contact before another one of the waitresses came from the back with her notepad already out. Circe sighed before getting ready for a long day of work.
 
_____________________________________________________
 
The door creaked as she pushed it open, stepping into her small home with a heavy sigh. The weight of the day still clung to her—feet sore, back aching from hours spent rushing between tables, balancing trays of food and drinks.
She dropped her bag by the door, kicking off her shoes with a tired grunt. The dull hum of the refrigerator was the only sound in the quiet space.
 
She had been a waitress for over a year now, and though she didn’t mind the work, today had been rough—customers complaining, orders getting mixed up, her manager breathing down her neck. All she wanted was a hot shower and the comfort of her bed.
But before she could even make it to the couch, a soft knock sounded at the door.
 
Frowning, she hesitated. She wasn’t expecting anyone. For a moment, she debated ignoring it altogether, but curiosity got the better of her. She padded across the room, pulling the door open just enough to peek out.
Her breath caught. There, standing in the dim hallway, was a face she hadn’t seen in years. “Circe?” His voice was tentative, almost as if he didn’t quite believe it was really her.
 
“Five?” She whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. Seeing him now, after so long, was like a ghost from her past reappearing at her doorstep.
 
Circe blinked, still trying to process what was happening before slapping him harshly, “WHAT THE FUCK!” She yelled. Five hissed.
 
“Okay, maybe I deserve that.” He muttered.
 
“Yeah, you did.” Circe said, crossing her arms. Five gave himself a moment to process seeing her.
 
She had changed from when he last saw her, which was a day ago. Her hair had been shorter and… Her scar. Her scar was… Beautiful.
 
Circe had so many questions. Why was he here? What had brought him back after all this time? “You should come in,” she said finally, stepping aside to let him in. Her heart was still racing as she shut the door behind him.
 
They both sat down on the couch. Circe stared at Five before standing and hugging him tightly, toppling over him as he groaned. “You’re alive, Five! God, I was so worried!” Circe said and Five felt himself grow warmer at her touch.
 
She pulled away, much to Five’s dismay, with a confused expression. "Anyways, what're you doing here? Why're you

just

showing up now?"
 
Five started to explain, "Turns out, I messed everything up. Everyone's been scattered throughout the years of the early sixties in the alley way of-"
 
"Commerce and Knox, yeah, I know. I landed there too." Circe nodded, "I assume you just got here today?"
 
"Yesterday actually," Five corrected, "But anyways, ten days from now, another apocalypse is coming."
 
Circe's face drained of color, "We took the apocalypse here with us?" Five nodded. Circe sighed, rubbing her face.
 
"You cut your hair?" Five asked and Circe nodded. "It looks nice." Five said before changing the topic, "I need your help. When did you exactly get here?"
 
"Wait, wait, wait. Backtracking, did you just compliment me?" Circe asked and Five nodded.
 
"Yes. Is that not normal?"
 
"I dunno, you're usually grumpy." She shrugged and Five rolled his eyes.
 
"I've complimented you before!" Five said and Circe crossed her arms.
 
"Yeah, and that was when we were twelve." Circe said and Five sighed.
 
"We're getting off-topic. When did you exactly get here, Cici?" Five asked her. Circe shrugged.
 
"Maybe about five or four months ago? I dunno." Circe shrugged. Five frowned, putting his thinking face on as he thought of possible plans. Circe placed her hands on his shoulder. "Do you know where the others are, Five?"
 
Five made a 'so-so' gesture with his hands, "Sort of. I met Diego, he wants to kill the president, I met Luthur, he says he won't help me." Five said, "Vanya... I found her but she doesn't remember much and left." Circe sighed.
 
"Alright, I'll help. But I swear if-"
 
"Everything will be fine, Cici." Five said, taking Circe's hand into his. "Promise." He smiled. Circe's face softened as Five let go of her hand, both of them clearing their throats.
 
“Did you want some coffee?” Circe asked, her voice now soft. A familiar thing that Five…

Loved.

“Sure.” Five said and Circe smiled before going to her kitchen and pouring Five his coffee. Just the way he liked, black.
 
“Here… It might be cold though.” Circe said as she came back with two mugs. The two of them sat across from each other as they slowly sipped at their beverages. “Sorry I slapped you.”
 
“It’s fine, I deserve it anyways. I mean, I left you guy’s stranded here and showed up just now.” Five said dryly. “It did hurt though.”
 
Circe laughed slightly and Five smiled, he… Liked it. He liked her smile, liked her laugh, everything… He just liked her. “When did you decide the mask wasn’t doing it for you?” Five asked.
 
Circe smiled and Five felt his heart swell. “Well, it’s me. Whether I like it or not, it’s still me and there’s nothing I can do about it.” She smiled.
 
“Well, sounds about right.” Five said with a smile, “I’m happy for you, Cici.”
 
Circe felt herself flush red and heat up, clearing her throat. “Thank you, Five…” She said quietly before changing the subject, “I’m assuming you need my help stopping the apocalypse from happening again?”
 
_____________________________________________________
 
"Woah, who's this girl here?" Lila asked, "Your girlfriend?"
 
"Hi, I'm Circe." The girl smiled, holding her hand out. Lila looked at her hand before shaking her hand.
 
"Well I have to say, she's rising to the top of my favorites quickly because

you

are a little shit." Lila pointed to Five.
 
Circe chuckled and Five sighed, "Don't encourage her, Cici."
 
"Oh, you two are on a nickname basis? So I'm right, you guys are dating?" Lila grinned.
 
"No."
 
"Nope, definitely not."
 
"Wow, okay, getting a lot of denial vibes right now." Lila said, raising her arms up in defense. "Unless you two are exes, you shouldn't be so offended like that."
 
Five and Circe looked at each other before Five rolled his eyes and Circe sighed, "We're not exes." Five said.
 
"We're friends." Circe said. Lila made a noise of disapproval before crossing her arms and hearing Five's plan.
 
“Well, nice to meet you Cici. That’s a pretty shitty scar you have.” Lila pointed to her face and snickered as Five snapped his head up to give Lila a glare. “I like it. Makes you look even more badarse.”
 
Circe tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, chuckling nervously. “Thanks?”
 
Five rolled his eyes, interrupting their conversation. "We have a lead on our dad."

_____________________________________________________

"So what's the plan?" Lila asked as they all hid behind a blue car. She was dressed in a nice blue colored dress and Five and Diego were both in suits. 
 
Well, Five was in his usual attire but it was fancy enough for him. Circe crouched down next to Five. 
 
"We infiltrate, we identify, we extract. Double time." Diego said softly, turning to Lila with a smile before turning back.
 
"What the hell is he talking about?" Lila asked, turning to the duo with a confused expression.
 
"Means we kill him and get out fast." Circe said quietly.
 
"That's what I just said." Diego turned to Lila, "On me." Diego crouched down low and traveled to the next set of cars.
 
"After you." Lila turned to Five and Circe. Five glared at her. "What, I can't be polite?"
 
"Cut the crap." Five spat as Circe watched silently, "All right? My dimwitted brother might buy your bullshit, but I don't trust you for a second."
 
"O ye of little faith." Lila smirked before looking at Circe, "And does your little girlfriend here feel the same?"
 
"Depends if you betray us or not." Circe said and with that, the trio both moved forward with Diego.
 
As they entered the large house, soft mariachi music rang through the air. Five grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to Circe. She gave him a smile.
 
Diego looked around, "I don't see dad anywhere." He said.
 
"Just keep an eye out for the magic twelve." Five said, taking a sip of champagne and Circe doing the same, "We got upstairs. Diego, try not to do anything stupid."
 
Five held Circe's hand as they both went up together and Lila turned to Diego, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think that they'd be going upstairs to do...

Other things.

"
 
"Her and Five?" Diego said in disbelief before thinking, "I... Kind of see it."
 
Back upstairs, Circe leaned on one of the polished wooden tables in the hallways. "Hm. Never had champagne." Circe said as Five let go of her hand.
 
"Really?" Five turned to Circe. She shrugged.
 
"Missed out on a lot of things." Circe said. Five nodded, understanding.
 
"Well, maybe when this is all over in the future, we could make a bucket list and check it off." Five suggested, "After all, I

am

getting closer to retirement!"
 
Circe nodded, raising her now empty champagne glass. "Cheers to that. Y'know, I'm getting closer to retirement too now that I think about it." She thought with a slight smile.
 
"What did you try doing that made you die anyways?" Five asked. Circe froze before toying with the glass in her hand.
 
“It was…” Circe thought for a second before speaking again, “It’s complicated really. Stupid of me actually.” She looked away, turning her gaze to the floor.
 
Five turned the girl's head to look at him. She stayed silent as they both stared at each other.
 
"Y'know, you keep doing that thing." Circe said quickly, turning her head away from Five. "That little head turning thing." She chuckled quietly before leaning in with a smirk, "You're starting to make me think that you like me, Mr. Five."
 
Five rolled his eyes, playing along. "Well, Mrs. Circe, it seems as though you've gotten the wrong idea."
 
Circe pursed her lips into a smile, adjusting Five's tie. "Well I'll be damned. And here I thought I was special."
 
Suddenly loud footsteps were heard from the stairs and Circe and Five quickly hid in a room. The sound of a door opening and locking echoed through the silence before Five and Circe exited the room.
They looked at each other before nodding and Five held her hand, jumping her into the room that the strangers went into. All that was left was the empty glass of champagne that Circe held.
Five had ended up jumping them into a closet together. Circe almost sneezed because of the dust and Five covered her mouth.
 
"The president is continuing to make inquiries into Roswell and the other crash sites, gentlemen." A voice said. Five and Circe peeked through the blinds to see who was talking. "And, as you know, we cannot allow him to get his nose into our business. I've confirmed that the motorcade will indeed be turning left on Elm street. We'll have our people in place."
 
"Gentlemen, this plan of yours seems ill-timed." Another voice said. A very

very

familiar voice.
 
"It's going to be a turkey shoot." Another man sitting on the black couch said.
 
There was a soft clattering in the closet, probably the hangers as Five muttered something under his breath. Dad turned around, pulling a stick from the fireplace and walking to the closet.
Five and Circe looked at each other before holding hands once again, jumping from the closet to outside in the hallway. It was now getting darker and the sky turned a nice shade of blue.
They both turned to see a white haired man wearing a white suit glaring at the two of them. The white haired man shoved Five from side to side before jumping out of his arms.
 
Circe grabbed the table in the hallway, just dodging the man and smashing it on the side of his torso. Five came up and tried to crack his neck, but his strength was obviously not as strong in his teen body and he grunted as he was thrown away.
Circe grabbed a picture frame on the ceiling and used the sharp corners to slice his face. Circe grunted as the man grabbed her shoulders and bashed his forehead onto hers.
Five grunted as he was getting punched by the man. Circe smashed her fist in the window, taking the sharp pieces of glass and using it to slice the man's side. What was uncanny was that the stranger didn't even scream.
 
"Five! Can you jump us out of here?" Circe asked. Five tried but struggled. "You didn't eat or drink anything, did you?" Five shrugged.
 
"Does champagne count?" Five asked before landing a punch to the man's face. Circe groaned before roundhouse kicked the man in the face.
 
"He could kill us if he wants, so I'm suspecting that he's trying to bring us in!" Circe shouted as the man held her throat and threw her to the side.
 
"Well, you're correct about that!" Five shouted and landed a hit to the man's stomach. "Can't you just, I dunno, use your power and throw him out the window?!" Five asked as he was thrown to the side.
 
"Look, I didn't eat anything or drink anything other than champagne either, alright?!" Circe shouted and ran up to the man, sweep kicking and allowing the man to fall to the ground.
The man stood up back again and Circe sighed, "Oh c'mon. What're you gonna say? 'I can do this all day' or something?" Circe asked before getting thrown to the side. Five was also thrown to the side as well before out of nowhere, Lila came through.
 
She hung from the chandelier and choked the man out with her legs. Lila flipped the man over and Five and Circe hurried to throw him out the window.
As they finished, they looked over to see Reginald and another woman outside. Five and Circe exchanged looks before he jumped the both of them o
utside.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Five wiped his nose and Circe touched her forehead, great... It was bleeding. The both of them chased after their father and Five shouted something that Circe knew far too well of.
"Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ!" Five shouted. Reginald turned to look at the two teens before going back into his car and driving off.
 
Five sighed and Circe rubbed his shoulder for comfort, "We'll get him next time, Five." She said reassuringly. Five shook his head.
 
Diego and Lila appeared next to the duo as Five confirmed that it was, indeed, their father. "Y'know, I'm starting to get the feeling that dad's avoiding us." Five said, putting his hands in his pocket.
 
"Hate to be the boring one, guys, but it's time we get the hell out of here." Lila said, hurrying away quickly before getting stopped by Five.
 
"When you say 'we', who exactly are you referring to?" Five asked.
 
"Not a lot of ambiguity in that sentence." Lila said, looking between Diego and Circe.
 
"Listen, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but whatever it is, I advise you to return posthaste." Five said with a fake smile.
 
"She's right, Five. We gotta get out of here." Diego said as more and more of the authorities showed up.
 
"I just saved your life, you kinder-shit." Lila defended, "If I hadn't stepped in, all that would've been left of you is a blazer and some bloody socks."
 
"And that's the problem. You're too good. You ask too many questions. You know too much." Five accused, scrutinizing the woman. "And you fight like you know what you're doing."
 
"He's got a point." Diego and Circe both said.
 
"So I know how to handle myself and that makes me the bad guy?" Lila asked. Circe sighed.
 
"Lila, he does have a point." Circe crossed her arms, "No one who goes to an asylum and knows how to handle themselves can run up on walls and choke someone with their legs while hanging on a chandelier."
 
"I thought you were on my side." Lila said. Circe grimaced.
 
"Since when were there sides?" Circe asked.
 
"Well, whoever you are, you're in my way." Five said, "If I see you again, I

will

kill you." He said, grabbing Circe's hand and leading the both of them away.

_____________________________________________________
 
"No, no, no. I don't understand." Diego said, pacing back and forth in the kitchen, "They keep following me."
 
"Who?" Luther asked.
 
"Those dutch psychopaths." Diego sighed.
 
"They're Swedish." Five and Circe both said as the girl handed Luther some pepper and salt. Her forehead had a bandage on it from when the Swedish guy bashed her head last night.
 
"They're hired guns paid to eradicate us if we do any more damage to the timeline." Five explained.
 
"Makes sense, after all, they're Swedish." Circe said and handed Luther the cayenne.
 
"Yeah, but why now?" Diego asked, "I mean... I'm

fine

for three months until

you

showed up."
 
"Yeah, I was here for a year and no one messed with me." Luther said before turning to Circe, "What about you?"
 
Circe shrugged, "I dunno. I guess I had a little trouble but other than that, I was fine."
 
"A little trouble?" Five asked, "What'd you mean by that?"
 
"Some guys showed up and tried to shoot me dead at the house." Circe said, "Do you want spinach with that Luther?"
 
"No, I'm good."
 
"Alright- anyways, I buried them alive and no one else bothered me for a few months until Five showed up." Circe said.
 
Diego and Five looked at each other before getting back to arguing once again. "Even if it

was

my fault, which it isn't, we only have six days before the end of the world, and the closest anyone's gotten to Dad was that driveway at the consulate."
 
"Well..." Luther sighed, "That's not exactly true." They all turned to him in confusion.
 
"What do you mean?" Five asked, stepping in closer.
 
"I saw him." Luther said, still cooking his eggs. He explained how he had to beg for money and how Reginald kicked him out of the house.
 
"That's pathetic." Diego said, sitting down as Luther brought the pan of eggs to the table and started eating them.
 
"Yeah, well, at least he didn't shank my ass." Luther said.
 
"No, dude. He shanked your heart." Diego said.
 
"What, like Lila did?" Circe asked as she put away all the spices. Diego turned to her.
 
"Okay first of all, ouch. Second, may I remind you what you did when Five disappeared?" Diego asked. Circe froze before shrugging.
 
"Touché, off-brand batman." Circe said. Diego scoffed as Elliot came into the kitchen.
 
"Is that my bathrobe?" Elliot asked Luther.
 
"No."
 
"Look, who cares what he shanked. He knows something about time travel." Five said.
 
"Um... Wait, why don't you just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?" Elliot asked. They all turned to Five as Circe sat down in between Luther and Diego.
 
"Anyone care to explain?" Five asked, clearly Elliot touched a nerve. He got up from the table and went to grab some coffee.
 
"First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse." Luther said, his voice muffled by the eggs.
 
"Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls." Diego said and Circe snorted at the comment.
 
"Last time I tried, I scattered my family across three years in Dallas, Texas, possibly triggering a doomsday." Five said.
 
"There's no possibility, it's going to happen." Circe crossed her arms as Five jumped to her and handed her a cup of coffee. “Thank you.” She smiled and took a sip.
 
"You're all missing the big picture here." Diego said, "Dad is the ringleader of a serious cabal that's planning to kill the president."
 
"A cabal?" Luther asked.
 
"Ignore him. Look, the way I see it, we only have one option." Five said, taking a sip of his coffee.
 
"Oh yeah, what's that?" Luther asked.
 
"It's time to get the Umbrella Academy back together." Five sighed. Circe groaned.
 
""Last I heard, Klaus was in India. Allison had a husband which is why Luther's so mopey, Diego was suddenly in an asylum, Vanya was living a good and happy life, and

you

were nowhere to be found." Circe frowned.
 
"Wait, that's why you're eating eggs?" Diego asked. Luther sighed.
 
"Can one of you three just get Allison please." He said.
 
"You two still a thing?" Diego asked his brother before leaning in, "Do we need to talk?"
 
"No, like Circe said, Allison's married." Luther sighed.
 
"Whoa, dude, that's rough." Diego sighed.
 
"I can handle it." Luther chuckled before stuffing his face with eggs with a mopey expression. He was clearly not handling it.
 
"I'll get her." Five said, placing his mug on the table. Circe stood up from the table.
 
"I'll come." She said before turning to Luther, "Don't squeeze Vanya until she suffocates, alright?" Luther looked at Circe before nodding. She smiled before taking Five's hand and they both jumped away.
 
Luther and Diego turned to each other with a nod, "Are they...?"
 
"No." Diego sighed.
 
"But..."
 
"Yeah, I think we all know."

_____________________________________________________

Circe sighed as she looked around, "Now, let's see, Luthur, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Vanya. Me... We just need Ben now."
 
"He's here, don't worry." Klaus smiled. Circe saw Vanya and smiled.
 
"I can't believe I have sisters." Vanya smiled, coming downstairs and giving the both of them a hug. Klaus came over and gave the three of them a hug.
 
"Oh, that's so sweet." He cried.
 
"No, Jesus." Allison said, pushing him away playfully.
 
"Hi." Vanya said, her voice muffled.
 
"Hey, Vanny." Klaus kissed her head and let go.
 
"Klaus, is Ben here?" Five asked.
 
"Oh, uh, no... Unfortunately ghosts can't time travel." Klaus said. Circe sighed, he was

clearly

lying and she could basically hear Ben yelling at Klaus.
 
"Alright then, let's get started." Five and everyone else filed up the stairs to the loft.
 
“It’s nice to see you again, Vanya.” Circe smiled and Vanya nodded.
 
“It’s nice to see you again as well. Even though I don’t really remember you, you seem nice.” Vanya said and Circe’s heart swelled with warmth.
 
"Alright, first off, I wanna say I'm sorry. I know I screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing." Five apologized, looking at Circe for a bit before looking at all of them. "But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."
 
"Oh my god, again?" Klaus gasped before looking at everyone, "All of you knew? Why am I the last one to find out about the end of- Oh my god, my cult is gonna be so pissed. Five, I told them we had until 2019." Klaus complained.
 
"Klaus starting a cult was not on my list of things that we end up doing throughout the universe... " Circe muttered to herself.
 
"We have until Monday. We have six days." Five said, glaring at Klaus.
 
"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked, taking a drink of liquor out of a red cup.
 
"Klaus."
 
"What, it's usually Vanya." Klaus sighed.
 
"Do you have any leads, Five?" Vanya asked, trying to get to the topic at hand.
 
Diego handed him a file, "Yeah, we have one." Five said and handed the file to Allison. She gasped.
 
"Holy shit, is that dad?" Allison asked.
 
"Yeah." Diego sighed.
 
"That's him?" Vanya asked, surprised that her adoptive father was the cause of the world ending once again. Circe sighed.
 
"Standing on the grassy knoll." Diego said.
 
"Diego and I have been trying to talk to dad about what this means." Five said. "So far, we g
ot nothing."
 
"Can't I just-" Circe snapped her fingers and the lamp next to Diego was crushed flat, "Kill him?"
 
"We're not killing dad, if we kill him, there's a chance that the future changes and we won't exist in 2019." Five said. Circe thought for a moment before nodding, he wasn't wrong.
 
"He's planning to kill Kennedy." Diego mentioned.
 
"Maybe, but we don't know what or who sets doomsday into motion." Five said and placed the file back onto the table, "Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely different. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."
 
"Yeah, but how're we supposed to fix it if we don't know what's broken?" Allison asked.
 
"Oh, come on. Do the math." Diego said. "We know dad's having shady-ass meetings with shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do."
 
"Find dad." "Kill dad." Both Diego and Five said. Circe raised her hand.
 
"I'll kill him. Since he's trained all of us, he knows all of our combat moves which means that it can't be Diego or Luther. It can't be Allison because I believe she has a range on her rumoring and dad's pretty good with long range as well, Vanya probably doesn't remember her powers, Klaus is way too drunk

and high

to do anything which means..." Circe pointed to herself, "I get to kill him."
 
"How do you think so fast?" Diego asked.
 
"We're not killing dad, Cici."
 
"I'm just saying that if we do, I'll kill him." Circe shrugged, "And you guys can stab the body- if there is one left- if you wanna take your anger out on him."
 
"None of us are supposed to be here, right? So, what if it's us?" Vanya asked, "Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"
 
"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald." Luther said after a moment of silence.
 
"And you're working for Jack Ruby."
 
"Allison has been very involved in some local politics."
 
"Okay,

you

started a cult."
 
"I'm... I'm just a... Nanny on a farm." Vanya shrugged. Circe patted her back.
 
"Well I think we all know it's not Vanya." Circe smiled reassuringly.
 
"What about you, Cici? You got any confessions?" Allison asked. The girl shrugged.
 
"I mean, I’ve been pretty chill. Don’t think I’ve done anything crazy recently.” Circe frowned.
 
"Well, maybe you do, you just don't know it yet." Allison said.
 
"That could be said about each of us though." Circe countered. Diego suddenly whistled sharply and they all turned their heads towards him.
 
"Listen to yourselves, everything in our lives has been connected to Kennedy's." Diego said, "That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting against the government, Dad is on grassy knoll, Klaus is... Doing something weird and pervy but probably related as well. See, clearly, we were all sent here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
 
"Actually, we were sent here to escape the apocalypse from 2019 but you can think that Diego." Circe said and Allison handed her the bottle of liquor.  “But I don’t think Five’s gonna let you save your little boyfriend.”
 
Diego started yelling at Circe before Allison chimed in, Vanya tried to diffuse the tension and soon everyone was arguing. It reminded Circe of when we were kids. The overwhelming feeling, the overstimulation of the voices... All the good stuff.
"Guys, you all die. I was there. I saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it... In a war that never happened until we brought it here." Five said, "And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything. But dad will. We need to talk to him before everything and everyone we know is dead."
 
"Okay, I'm out." Luther said, getting up from his chair.
 
"Did you even hear me, Luther?" Five asked.
 
"Yeah. Yeah, I did." Luther said, "I heard a 50-year-old-man who still wants his daddy to come back and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."
 
"I'm starting to think that we should all get therapists." Circe sighed and downed the rest of the liquor from the bottle.
 
"Hey, where're you going?" Diego asked, following Luther out of the house. Five jumps in front of Luther and sighed.
 
"No one leaves until we figure this out." Five said. Luther stared at Five before throwing him off the railing, Five blinked away so he couldn't get hurt.
 
Circe sighed as Klaus, Allison, and Vanya stood up. Vanya turned to Circe and held out her hand for her to take, "Are you coming?"
 
She smiled, taking her hand. "Sure."

_____________________________________________________
 
Allison growled before shaking her head, "The nerve of that man. I mean, one thing goes wrong, and he's on a warpath. I mean, doesn't know who I am? No, no. No, Ray, you know

exactly

who I am.

You

just can't handle it!"
 
"You want some relationship advice, Allison?" Circe asked as she spun around in the chair next to Klaus.
 
Klaus gasped, "Oh, yes! She gives the best advice on

everything,

Allison."
 
"Really?" Allison turned to Circe and the girl nodded, "Wow, okay... Well, shoot."
 
"From what I've gathered from the thirty minutes of you venting to us, I can tell that you don't want this marriage, something you're actually happy about, to turn into your old marriage." Circe said, "Clearly, Ray doesn't trust you because he doesn't know if he

knows

you."
Circe stood up, taking the bottle from Allison, "Allison, really focus on what Ray is saying without planning your response, share your feelings and thoughts openly. Honesty builds trust, but it's important to express yourself in a respectful and non-accusatory way.
And also, it depends if you actually want to listen to your husband or if you just want everything to be swept under a rug. Which creates resentment and leads to an unhappy marriage anyways.”
 
"Why're you so good at this? I mean, have you ever been in a relationship before?" Allison asked.
 
"Yes, it was her and Five for that one time, remember?" Klaus whispered to Allison. The dark-skinned woman turned to Circe, who was drinking straight from the bottle.
 
"You and Five were a thing?!" Allison exclaimed. Vanya turned her chair.
 
"We never were a thing! Why does everyone think that?" Circe sighed. Vanya suddenly spoke up.
 
"Well, you look at each other like how Sissy and I look at each other." Vanya said, "Like you guys warm each other up, like two pieces of a puzzle."
 
Circe stayed silent as she spun around her chair some more, deep in thought as she remembered all those... Glances and hand holding… “We’re nothing like that.” She simply said and Klaus and Allison exchanged looks of confusion and suspicion.
 
"Is the world really gonna end in six days?" Vanya suddenly asked.
 
"Well, it did last time, and we did everything Five could think of to stop it." Allison said. Circe pursed her lips.
 
"And I think you guess how well that went, Vanny." Circe said, stopping the chair she was spinning and taking a drink from the bottle.
 
"Hey, wouldn't it be weird if Circe or Five grew up all hot?" Klaus asked. Circe turned to him.
 
"I'm right here, Klaus."
 
"Eww!" Allison said as Klaus got up from the salon chair.
 
"'Oh, ew, ew'. Please, Miss 'Luther was my lover'." Klaus mocked while making kissing noises.
 
"We have never kissed!" Allison yelled.
 
"Yeah, but you guys were making little moon-dog eyes at each other." Klaus said, "All through puberty and breakfast and all that."
 
"Aren't we all brothers and sisters? Or..." Vanya's voice trailed off and Allison tried to explain herself while Klaus made fun of her.
 
"Well, what about Five and Circe?" Allison asked.
 
"When was

I

in the conversation?" Circe asked. Klaus scoffed, clearly drunk and high.
 
"Well, actually, Circe wasn't exactly adopted. She was there for 'school purposes' so it doesn't count." Klaus giggled.
 
"Okay, can... Can we focus?" Allison asked, "I mean, clearly we're not saving the world tonight but maybe, maybe we could at least try to save my marriage."
 
"You want more advice?" Circe asked.
 
"No! No, because that's like... That's like asking a nun how to hump a leg." Klaus stumbled. "I mean, who in this room knows shit about relationships, this one?" Klaus pointed to Vanya, "In secret love with some farm Frau."
 
"Her name's Sissy."
 
"Which is an improvement on her previous love interest, the serial killer." Klaus said as Allison shook her head not to say anything. Circe sighed.
 
"What?!" Vanya exclaimed.
 
"We'll tell you later, Vanya. Don't worry it's not as bad as you think it is." Circe said reassuringly.
 
"Meanwhile, I'm carrying a torch... For a soldier I haven't technically met yet." Klaus raised his flask, "And Luther is... In love with his sister."
 
"Okay,

again,

we are not biological." Allison said.
 
"Face it, the healthiest long-term relationship in this family was when Five was banging that mannequin." Klaus said, "Or, when we were kids and Five used to hang out in Circe's room while they were being nerds and banging each other!"
 
"I wouldn't say that was the healthiest relationship. If we're talking platonic-wise, it was you and Ben." Circe smiled, choosing to ignore his comment about her and Five ‘banging’.
 
Klaus paused before giggling, "Thanks, Cici! See, Cici always makes everyone feel better even though she never feels good herself!"
 
"Okay, I take it back." Circe groaned.
 
"The only thing the Umbrella Academy knows about love, is how to screw it up." Klaus raised his flask. Circe raised the half empty bottle in her hand.
 
"Amen." Circe chuckled.
 
"How do you guys deal with this?" Vanya asked, "I mean, all of it. The time travel, seeing the dead, the end of the world."
 
"Well, I get really high." Klaus said, sitting down, "Allison... Allison... Lies to herself." Allison kicked a chair towards him. "Circe likes to... Uh... Kill people." Circe threw the empty bottle at Klaus, which shattered on the floor. "And you suppress your emotions deep, deep down until you... Blow shit up."
 
"Yeah, I'd really like to not do that anymore." Vanya said.
 
"Well you've got six days, missy." Klaus smiled.
 
"What the hell are we supposed to do in six days?" Allison asked.
 
"Fuck up our lives in the 60s before saving the world and leaving it all behind to go back to 2019?" Circe suggested.
 
"I'm gonna tell Sissy that I love her." Vanya sat up straight, "I don't want any secrets."
 
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! You're right." Allison realized, "Yes, cause, you know, if... If it's all gonna go tits-up, the least I could do is be honest with my husband!"
 
"Oh... Does that mean I'm gonna have to face my cult?" Klaus asked. Circe sighed as Vanya smiled at her.
 
"And that also means..." Vanya's voice trailed off. Circe frowned.
 
"No."
 
"Yes."
 
"He doesn't even like me like that!"
 
"So you admit that you like him?" Vanya teased, "Weren't you just saying that honesty builds trust?"
 
Circe sighed, rubbing her face, "Fine. But Klaus still has to face his cult."
 
"I just hate group breakups. It's why I stopped dating twins." Klaus sighed.
 
"This family's amazing!" Vanya said, raising her arms up high. Klaus and Allison chuckled as Klaus walked up to the woman and put his arm around her.
 
"C'mon, Vanya!" Allison smiled, "You too Cici!"
Circe and Vanya both joined the drunken group and laughed together as they squeezed into a big hug.

_____________________________________________________
 
"Five?" Circe called out. Five turned and frowned.
 
"What're you doing here?" Five asked. Circe shrugged.
 
"I got a letter from this old dude." Circe said as they both walked up the glass stairs together.
 
"Hm, makes sense." Five nodded, "So do you think the rest of our family got the letter?"
 
"I dunno, I went back to Elliot's place and the letter was just handed to me." The girl explained as she entered the elevator and ruffled her hair slightly.

"Well, you look nice." Five said. Circe turned to Five.
 
"I... Always look like this?" Circe said. Before Five could say anything, the rest of the family suddenly filed into the elevator. After a while, a foul scent filled the enclosed space.
 
"Oh..." Allison gagged after sniffing the air.
 
"Oof." Five and Vanya spoke disgustedly.
 
"Luther!"
 
"Oh, my God."
 
“I’m killing myself.”
 
"Sorry, I'm nervous." He apologized shortly followed by the elevator dinging and all of them fighting for breath to get out of the elevator and away from Luther.
 
"Alright, when dad gets here, I'll do the talking." Five said as they entered a restaurant called the 'Tiki Lounge'.
 
"I've got a few questions myself." Diego said. Circe took her coat off and sat next Five, brushing out her hair with her fingers nervously.
 
"Hey, we don't wanna scare him off." Five said, "He might be able to help us stop doomsday and get home."
 
"No, Five. We need to figure out why he's planning to kill the president." Diego disagreed.
 
"This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile." Five insulted as all of their family members sat down at the circular shaped table.
 
"Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking." Vanya said before looking around and grabbing a (probably plastic) shell off of one of the tables, "Here, whoever has got this conch shell gets to talk."
 
"Why is Vanya having to use her nanny skills on grown adults?" Circe asked to herself, cracking her back on the chair.
 
"Vanya, we don't have time for a debate." Five said, clearly stressed. Whether it was seeing his father again or the end of the world, no one really knew. But Cici knew that he had his thinking face on.
 
"Maybe I should lead." Allison said, taking the conch shell from Vanya, "We all know I'm a much better public speaker than the rest of you."
 
"Okay, Daddy's girl." Diego commented.
 
"Oh, jealous, Number Two?" Allison asked mockingly.
 
"Hey, no numbers." Diego snapped, "No more bullshit we're Team Zero."
 
"Umbrella Academy sounds better." Circe said and Diego turned to her.
 
"I thought you hated it?" Diego asked and Circe shrugged with a ‘I know but it sounds badass.’
 
"It has a nice ring to it." Circe said and Diego sighed.
 
"Uh, Diego and Circe." Luther interrupted, "You don't have the conch." He smiled innocently. Whether it was a fake one that was mocking them or a real one, Circe couldn't tell.
Diego nodded before grabbing it from Allison's hand and launching it away, causing it to shatter. Suddenly, the door opened to reveal... Reginald Hargreeves.
 
The old man quickly wasted no time into getting seated, "Not only have you burglarized my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occasions, called me..."
 
Klaus sat down next to him with a martini in hand, obviously drunk, and smiled. "Hey, Pop. How's it hangin'?"
 
"... Dad." Reginald said with a frown, "My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB,

certainly

not M15, so... Who are you?"
 
Everyone opened their mouths, but nothing came out as they didn't know how to explain to him that they were his... Future children.
"We're your children." Five said, adjusting himself in his seat. Reginald turned to him sharply. "From the future. In 1989, you adopted us and trained us to fight against the end of the world. Called us the Umbrella Academy."
 
"Yeah, and you were an asshole of a father." Circe mumbled under her breath and Five kicked her leg. She winced and kicked him back before Reginald spoke again.
 
"Why would I adopt seven-"
 
"Eight. One of us isn't here." Allison said.
 
"Dead." Diego said, which seemed to speak enough words on its own, "One of us is dead."
 
"Yeah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba." Klaus suddenly said and everyone turned to each other, if he was talking to himself then Ben was definitely there... Somewhere, "Enough of that now."
 
"Enough of that now. Regardless, what would possess me to adopt seven ill-mannered malcontents?" Reginald asked curiously.
 
"We all have special abilities." Circe said
 
"Special? In what sense?" Reginald asked curiously.
 
"In the superpower sense." Luther sighed, probably remembering how Reginald shanked his heart earlier the following year.
 
"Called me old-fashioned, but I'm a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence. Show me." Reginald said.
 
"Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden." Allison scoffed, taking a sip of her drink from the tiki cup.
 
"We're not circus animals, okay? We're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement." Luther said, clearly aggravated. He spent so long being Reginald's number one, his top child, and then was thrown out when he went to him for help.
Circe felt... Sad for him. Even if she was never close to him, she'd feel bad for anyone who felt as if their life was just thrown away.
 
Diego suddenly throws one of his knives, aiming for Reginald, but nearly misses him as he's able to angle it to one of the wooden beams. The knife gets stuck in the wall with a metallic thud.
Reginald purses his lips, clearly not fazed, before writing something down in his notebook that Circe noticed he had earlier.
"What are you writing?" Diego asked.
 
"You are zero for two, young man." Reginald said and Allison snickered. Diego's face turned to anger and he quickly went to go over to him before Five teleported to him and stopped him.
 
"Stop." Five whispered.
 
"Now that is interesting." Reginald commented.
 
"Alright, quick run-down." Five said and started to come back to his seat. "Luther: Super strength, Klaus can commune with the dead, Allison can rumor anyone to do anything-"
 
"Except she never uses it." Diego said as he sat down.
 
"I heard a rumor that you punched yourself in the face." Allison said and Diego's eyes turned white before he punched himself.
 
Vanya and Circe looked at each other with a smirk before Reginald asked Vanya, "And you?"
 
"Uh, maybe we don't take Vanya for a test run." Luther said.
 
"Oh, yeah, that's probably not a good idea." Klaus said, his voice starting to slur from the drinks.
 
“I say it’s a great idea.” Circe chimed in with a smile.
 
"It's fine." Vanya said as she picked her fork up, "I can handle it."
 
As everyone started to protest against it, Vanya clinked the glass and seemed to aim the sound towards the large fruit display in the middle of the table. 
Circe chuckled as Vanya looked at her with a smile before the fruit splattered on everyone, Circe hiding herself from the fruit by ducking down.
"Oops." Vanya said with a mischievous smile. Circe clapped before taking a sip of her drink with a satisfied smile.
 
"You, young lady." Reginald pointed to Circe, who brushed a piece of fruit off of her shoulder. "What can you do?"
 
"Telekinesis. Or gravity control. Whatever you’d like to call it, I suppose." Circe said as she snapped her fingers and the exploded pieces of fruit seemed to float back onto the table.
 
"Impressive." Reginald muttered and wrote another note down into his notebook. For some reason, Circe felt off. Seeing her father after years and years was messing with her head, she was older now (at least mentally) and she felt as if she knew that her childhood was... Wrong.
And she couldn't help but use that wrongness and turn it into anger... And using that anger into her power which made it harder to control. It hurt her.
 
The girl's hand shook slightly as she dug her nails into her thigh. Five noticed and took her hand into his. Circe breathed in slowly, trying not to scream as Diego argued with his father.
"That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's gonna get shot." Diego said as he placed a picture of Reginald to the... Present Reginald? Circe was sort of confused.
 
"Well... I suppose you've solved it. You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot. Is that what you want to hear? You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy?" Reginald asked and Circe watched Diego's face turn from anger to... Loneliness. To sadness. "This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head."
 
Circe clenched her hand around Five's and her eyes had a slight yellow glow to it. She felt... Angry. She hadn't felt like this since Luther suffocated Vanya and locked her in a room.
 
"You're w... Wrong." Diego stuttered, tears falling down his eyes as he sat down. Oh god that stutter broke her heart even more...
Circe started to speak before Five shook his head. Despite her better judgment, she held her tongue. If she got too mad, she might actually blow Reginald's head off.
 
"Look, forget about the president. We have a catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it." Five said and Circe sighed as she saw Diego's tears.
 
Circe sucked in a shaky breath as she took a sip from her drink. Too many emotions for one to handle tonight. Maybe she should've just stayed home.
 
"Men will always be at war with each other." Reginald said.
 
"No, this isn't just some war. I'm talking about a doomsday. The end of the world." Five said.
 
"Well... You're the special ones, aren't you? Why don't you band together and do something about it?" Reginald asked.
 
Suddenly, Klaus started choking and Circe felt something shift in the world. Like a cool breeze, but something familiar. "I'm..." Klaus gurgled.
 
"Out with it, boy." Reginald said.
 
He started gasping, as if he needed air, before saying something Circe couldn't believe, "Ben!"
 
Klaus panted harshly before falling to the floor. Five felt Circe stiffen in his hand as he saw her seem to... Freeze. As if she was deep in thought but her thoughts were going faster than she could calculate.
"Well... Thank you for coming. I've seen about enough." Reginald said as he stood up and started to leave, walking over Klaus's unconscious body.
 
"No, I..." Luther's voice trailed off before he gritted his teeth and slammed onto the table before standing up and ripping his shirt to reveal his ape body. "Look at what you did to me! Look at it!"
 
"Oh, shit. Why?" Five muttered and Circe's other hand started to dig into her thigh.
 
"You in the culottes and you with the short hair. A word, in private?" Reginald said to the two holding hands.
 
They quickly got up, Circe pulling her hand away from his as they followed him to the elevator.
Five looked at Circe as he gestured to Reginald and Circe rolled her eyes. Five raised his eyebrows expectantly and she sighed.
"You two. Come." Reginald said as the elevator doors opened and they went to the bar. "You two seem to be the sensible of the bunch." Reginald said.
 
"That's because we're the oldest." Five said and Reginald made a confused face. "Y'know, technically, I'm older than you right now."
 
"Oh... That's so weird to think about... I don't wanna think about that, Five." Circe sighed as she took a drink of her martini.
 
"Cognac?" Reginald asked as Five smiled slightly.
 
"Just a smidge."
 
"I think you two get along well." Circe said, "Maybe you should've just invited him instead of all
of us."
 
"The other night you quoted Homer at me. Why?" Reginald asked.
 
"You forced us to learn it as kids." Five said, adjusting into his seat.
 
"In the original Greek." Circe added.
 
"This world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline."
 
"Worlds end. Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on."
 
"We can do something about this one." Five said determinedly.
 
"Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control." Reginald quoted.
 
"Except we're not all men." Circe crossed her arms with a slight smile.
 
"We need your help, all right? You're our last sane option. Otherwise, I- We gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make." Five said.
 
"She came back?" Circe asked and Five nodded with a sigh. "I think she's still flirting with you, Five."
 
"Yeah, you think?" Five sighed, taking a sip of his drink before turning back to Reginald. "What do you know about time travel?"
 
"In theory?"
 
"In practice."
 
"I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing-" Reginald was interrupted by Circe.
 
"As an acorn." She finished, "We've both heard it millions of times. Five more than me but every time he tried, I was there."
 
"What transpired when you tried traveling before?" Reginald asked.
 
"I botched it." Five admitted.
 
"How?"
 
"I jumped too far forward, got stuck in the future for 45 years in an apocalypse.
 
Then I jumped too far backwards... Except this time I brought my entire family with me." Five sighed and Circe nodded.
 
"Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities. Start small. Seconds, not decades." Reginald said.
 
"Seconds?"
 
"Mhm."
 
"Look, no offense, but I need a bit more time for what I'm trying to accomplish." Five said, getting a bit more agitated.
 
"Seconds could be good. The world could end, and you'd find out what causes it by that point. You go back in time for a few seconds, and kill it before the world actually ends." Circe said and Five sucked in a breath. She was sort of right, wasn't she?
 
"The young lady is correct. So much can change in a matter of seconds. One could overthrow an empire. One could fall in love." Five risked a glance at Circe, who smiled, before turning back to Reginald. "An acorn doesn't become an oak overnight."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

After that fiasco of a family reunion, both Five and Circe stayed at the bar in silence. Five’s eyes flickered to hers, then away again, like he couldn’t bear to look for too long. Her breath caught every time he did.
 
 “Are you worried about the apocalypse?” Circe asked, breaking the silence.
 
“I always am.” Five said, his eyes were glazed over as he seemed to be thinking about something. But it definitely wasn’t the apocalypse. 
 
“We’ll be alright, Five.” She said quietly as she reached out slightly for his hand and he flinched.
 
 “Don’t,” he warned, though the strain in his voice betrayed him. 
 
Circe didn’t move, didn’t pull away. “Why not?” Her voice was soft, but there was a challenge behind it. “What are you so afraid of?”
 
He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. His hand didn’t fall away, allowing for Circe to hold his hand. The space between them felt impossibly small now, the heat of his body almost brushing against hers, but still not quite.
His hands came up, framing her face, his fingers trembling just slightly as they brushed against her skin. He stared at her, and in that moment, everything else fell away.
Her breath hitched, her lips parting in anticipation, and for a second, neither of them moved. Circe stayed silent as they remained in eye contact. She swallowed before Five asked, "Can I kiss you, Cici?"
 
Circe's eyes flickered to his lips, "I'd like that." She smiled as their lips met in a gentle collision, a delicate brush of silk against silk, as if the world had momentarily paused to witness their shared intimacy.
 
Circe felt as if her body was on fire as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Time seemed to stretch and contract around them, each second extending into infinity filled with the subtle, electric crackle of shared breath and unspoken words.
Five sighed as he placed his hands hesitantly on her waist, he liked this. Forgetting about the apocalypse and just being with her. He hadn't kissed anyone, except for Delores. But he liked knowing that he kissed the girl he liked- no, loved- the most.
 
The warmth of the kiss radiated outward, an echo of heartbeats that quickened and then slowed, like waves lapping gently at the shore.
When they finally parted, it was with a lingering sense of something precious, a delicate sigh of unvoiced feelings, leaving behind an imprint of longing that lingered between them.
Circe and Five were both breathing heavily as they stared at each other in shock before Five smiled slightly, “You taste sweet.” He said, brushing her dark hair out of her face.
 
“I find that sweeter things taste good with a little bite.” Circe smiled and Five scoffed with a flushed face. She giggled and Five pulled her in for another kiss.

_____________________________________________________
 
"Just in time for a nightcap." The Handler smiled at the two as she opened the large green doors for the both of them.
 
Five paused before closing the door as The Handler handed the two of them two drinks. They both didn't reach their hands out to have the drink so The Handler simply put the glasses down on the coffee table.
 
"To be clear, we take out the board..." Five sighed, he really didn't want to do this. "You get me and my family home. No more doomsday, no more apocalypse. Is that correct?"
The Handler set down her glass on one of the side tables and lied on the bed with a smile, "That's the deal."
 
"Then we're in." Five said and The Handler held up a sheet of paper. Circe walked forward and grabbed the piece of paper.
 
The two of them opened it to reveal a location.

The Lonely Lodge Inn, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1982.

_____________________________________________________
 
Circe and Five both entered the lively Lonely Lodge Inn in Oshkosh. They both turned to each other before they went up to a woman fiddling with the welcome table. "Excuse me." Five said.
 
The woman looked up and smiled at them, "Uff da. You snuck up on me there. If you're looking for the cookies, we don't put 'em out till 3:00."
 
"We can hardly wait." Circe smiled, "Do you happen to know where the Midwest Soybean Society is meeting?"
 
"Sure do. Muskellunge Banquet Room." The woman pointed to the back, "You looking for your mom? She in for the convention?"
 
Circe noticed the vending machine in the hallway and nudged Five. He nodded before turning back to the lady. "Hey, could we get some change?" Five asked as he handed her a five dollar bill, not answering the lady's question.
 
"Oh, sure, I'll just look in my purse." The woman exhaled softly as she dug through her fanny pack, "Only a nickel and a couple of dimes. Oh! You... Are... In... luck, you two." She said and handed Five some coins.
 
Five chuckled softly, getting lost in his thoughts, "You know, some say the best luck is to die at the right time." Five said.
 
"Couldn't have said it better myself, now, let's find the meeting room." Circe said, "Wouldn't want to be late, hm?"
 
Five smiled as Circe held his hand and they both went over to the vending machine down the hallway. Five stopped in front of the vending machine and entered a few coins but the Fudge Nutter got stuck in the machine.
"I would kill for a candy bar right now. Or chips..." Circe muttered as Five shook the vending machine.
 
"Stupid mother fudge nutter!" He yelled, still continuing to shake the machine. "Fucking fudge nutter!" He continued. He kicked the vending machine. He broke the fucking vending machine.
He grabbed 2 fudge nutters out of the machine, giving one to Circe and putting the other in his pocket. "Don't tell anyone about this." He mumbled.
 
"I would never." Circe said sarcastically as she opened it and started to take a bite.
 
They continued walking down the hallway as Circe pointed to the ax, "Get the ax, I'll get the knife." She said and picked up a knife by the cake table. Five nodded and picked up the ax from the wall.
 
"No powers?" Five asked.
 
"I haven't used a knife in a while." Circe said as she spun the knife in her hand, "I'm a bit rusty."
 
"You could shank them with a pen." Five suggested with a smirk as he held the ax. Circe shook her head with a smile.
 
"You know I'd never shank anyone." Circe said. Five shrugged.
 
"That's... Debatable." He said as they both entered the room and walked through the enormously long hallways before getting to the meeting room.
 
"You!" A man with a fish tank for a head exclaimed, "Call security!" Circe looked to Five and he shrugged before slicing the woman's hand off just as she was about to call security.
 
Circe directed the cake knife towards another woman, hitting her and running over before stabbing the two other people next to her with a chuckle. "For some powerful board, you're pretty weak." She taunted.
 
After Five had finished off with the rest of the board they both went quiet so the Fish businessman thought we had left.
The fish peered over the table as Five teleported above the table, ax in hand. "She sent you, didn't she?"
 
"Does it really matter now?" Five asked.
 
"Whatever she offered you, I will double it, triple it." The fish man pleaded desperately.
 
"I'm not doing this for money." Five spoke.
 
From behind Circe, she heard a lady screaming before getting tackled to the ground. "Get off me!" She yelled.
 
"You're gonna pay for that vending machine, little misses." She spoke, holding her down while she tried to fight back.
 
Circe groaned before stabbing her with the cake knife in the side and bashing her head onto the table. As Five watched her in confusion (maybe shock), he let the fish man get away. "Don't get distracted now, Five." Circe said as she took the cake knife from the woman's side and ran after him.
 
Five teleported in front of the Fish man as he backed away. The fish man turned around only to see Circe with her knife, crossing her arms. "Surely we can come to some form of agreement that benefits both parties. Quid pro quo? WHat do you say?"
 
"Why not?" Five shrugged before hitting him in the side, "Here's your quid."
 
Circe ran up and kicked the man down to his knees with a smile, "And you're pro."
 
"No! No! Please don't!" The fish man whimpered as he was on his knees.
 
"Here's your quo." Five said and bashed the fish tank head, water and glass spewing onto the floor as the fish flopped on the floor.
 
Circe went up next to Five as she bent down and waved at the orange fish, "How's it going Nemo? Hope we didn't give you too much of a rough time." She mocked before taking out a water bag from her pocket (That surprisingly didn't pop during the chaos) and plopped the fish in.
Circe turned to Five before pulling him in by his tie and kissing him before pulling back. Five froze, shocked. "You taste like blood." She gagged before wiping her face and walking away, fish in hand. "Well, let's take Nemo back with us and get our family out of the sixties."
 
Five didn't say anything before snapping his head towards her, "You can't just- Wait-" Five sputtered, running after Circe as she laughed.

_____________________________________________________
 
Five was digging blood out of his nails as Circe helped him wipe blood off of his face. "You're like a mother."
 
"I'm your girlfriend." Circe said, "There's a difference." She said as she flung the rag onto the ground, "We'll wash off later, right now we need to..." Approaching footsteps interrupted Circe and she scoffed softly.
 
"Well?" The Handler asked and Five handed her the water bag as she gasped, "AJ!" She cackled before looking down, "You know, you're really starting to fill out those tight little shorts of yours."
 
Circe almost choked at the comment The Handler made and covered it with a cough.
 
"Why so quiet?" The Handler giggled, "Thought you'd be buzzing after this morning's slaughter. Especially you, Cici. Must be nice to... Kill people. I think we'd be very good friends."
 
"It's Circe." The girl said, crossing her arms.
 
"All this killing... I'm done with it." Five suddenly said.
 
"What? Am I supposed to take that seriously?" The Handler scoffed as she pulled out a tissue from her tits and licked it before wipi
ng his face. Circe gritted her teeth.
 
"What I did today, I did for my family. I did it to save the world." Five said.
 
"Please. Spare me your little assassin with the heart of gold routine, will you?" The Handler smiled before handing Five a briefcase, "Here. Per our agreement, this will get you, your siblings, and your...

girlfriend

back to 2019. You have 90 minutes."
 
"You said nothing about a time limit." Circe frowned.
 
"Actually, you have 89 minutes and 30 seconds. Better hurry." The Handler smirked as she looked at her watch.
 
"This is impossible, okay? Our siblings are scattered across the city." Five said angrily.
 
"Nothing's impossible. You proved that this morning when you killed the board." The Handler said.
 
"Yeah, because they were pussies." Circe said, crossing her arms, "We need more time."
 
"Any more time and people will start asking questions. The sooner you get home and out of this time period, the better off we'll both be, so, tiktok, tiktok." The Handler mocked before Five sighed and grabbed Circe's hand, teleporting them away.

_____________________________________________________
 
Circe locked herself in the bathroom and pulled off her shirt before changing into a blue turtleneck and black pants. She fluffed out her hair and exited the bathroom.
 
"Luther, you get Allison." She heard Five's voice say, "Diego, Klaus. Me and Cici will get Vanya. We meet back in the Arrival alley in 77 minutes."
 
Circe nodded as Luther and Diego both jumped, "How did you get into the bathroom?"
 
"I was here before you guys." She pointed before catching one of the watches that Five threw at her.
 
"I've synchronized these watches." Five said as he started to leave, Diego suddenly interrupted.
 
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. You both show up drenched in blood and expect us to believe everything's gonna go back to normal if we go home now?" Diego asked.
 
Circe wiped blood off of her cheek, "You wanna see Mom again, Diego? Just work with us, alright?" Circe asked and Diego paused.
 
"What about Dad? What about JFK?" Diego asked.
 
"Diego, we have a chance to go home and make things right. We are taking it." Five walked up to him aggressively as Diego stayed silent.
 
"I have to say goodbye to Lila." He finally said.
 
"Lila doesn't give a shit about you, Diego! She never did. She's one of them. She's a member of the Commission." Five said.
 
"No way. Not possible."
 
"She was just using you to get to me. You're the Oswald of this story, my friend. The goddamned patsy." Five walked away.
 
"You don't know what you're talk..."
 
Five teleported in front of him, "If you don't do this, I'll kill you myself. Got it?" Five whooshes away.
 
Circe looked at Diego, "Diego, why do you even like her anyways?" She asked.
 
Diego swallowed, "I look at her the way Five looks at you."
 
Circe paused before saying sympathetically, "You love her, don't you?"
 
Diego simply nodded and Circe walked up to Diego with a slight smile, "You have five minutes. Five minutes then get Klaus and meet us back at the alleyway, alright?"
 
Diego breathed out shakily before hugging her tightly, "You're a good sister, Cici."
 
Circe nodded before Five teleported back, grabbing her hand and teleporting the both of them into a blue car. "I just don't get it, what about her is so important? They've known each other for only a fraction of their lives!" Five exclaimed as he made a turn down the road.
 
"I talked to Diego." Circe said, "You have to sympathize with others, especially our family." She said, "I asked him why he wanted to say goodbye to her, and he said that..." The road turned shaky as the road changed from concrete to gravel and dirt. "He said he looks at her the way you look at me."
 
Five paused, "He likes her?"
 
"He said he loves her." Circe said, "And you know that Diego was never good at hiding his feelings away."
 
Five was about to say something before another blue car rolled past. Vanya was looking out the window and Circe looked at her with a face of confusion before both cars jerked forward to stop. "What are you doing here?" Vanya asked as the three of them both got out of their cars to speak.
 
"Looking for you. We're going back to 2019." Five said.
 
"What are you talking about?" Vanya asked.
 
"Look, I don't really have time to explain right now, but I found a way home. All right? We have 30 minutes to leave." Five said as he headed back to the car.
 
"What about my friends? I can't just leave them here." Vanya said and Five turned back.
 
"Vanya, you don't have a choice in this, all right? Doomsday will happen if you don't come with me." Five explained and Circe crossed her arms, pursing her lips.
 
"Okay, then I'm bringing them with me." Vanya said.
 
"They belong in this timeline."
 
"Says who? Sissy deserves a life where she doesn't have to pretend to be someone she's not. And Harlan? There's a name for what he has. We can get him the help he needs." Vanya said desperately.
 
"Vanya..." Circe said.
 
"Look, a mom and her eight-year-old son are not gonna screw up the timeline, Five! They're insignificant!" Vanya yelled angrily.
 
"No one is insignificant. I'm sorry, all right? But we can't take that risk. They have to stay. Come on." Five said, turning back.
 
"Why do you get to decide? You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place." Vanya argued back.
 
"If I did nothing, we would all be dead right now, thanks to you." Five said back.
 
"They're coming with me." Vanya said, putting her foot down.
 
"Vanya, do not test me right now." Five scoffed.
 
"That's funny. 'Cause I was just about to say the same thing." She said and Circe heard a high-pitched tone echoing through the air and Five's power whooshing around as well.
 
Circe snapped her fingers and both of them were separated by an invisible force. "You two are acting like children. Vanya, you have to say goodbye to Sissy and Harlan or else they'll die. Five, we're going to go check on everyone to see if they have their people."
 
Five grunted and Vanya nodded before both of them separated, Circe following Five to the car. The two cars drove off into different directions.
 
"You're too soft, Cici." Five said, "We don't have time to be soft."
 
"I care for them. They make me stronger knowing I have something to fight for." Circe said.

_____________________________________________________
 
Of course they didn't come, all of them didn't come except for Klaus and Luther. Circe sighed as Five kicked a cardboard box in the alleyway in frustration.
 
"I could try bringing them here." Circe suggested.
 
"It's too late for that! It's every sibling for themselves now." Five said angrily before going back inside.
 
"Did Five just get meaner?" Klaus moaned as he rubbed his head.
 
"Klaus, go check on Allison, okay? Make sure she's okay. Find the others and we'll meet back here. I'll- We'll handle Five." Luther said to Klaus.
 
Klaus grunted and sighed, "Thank you, Cici." He exhaled as Circe helped him up.
 
"What happened there?" Circe asked and Klaus sighed.
 
"Ben possessed my body. I feel so... Violated." Klaus groaned. Circe pursed her lips before nodding.
 
"Well, tell Ben I said Hi and that if he should stop possessing you without your consent." Circe said as Klaus nodded.
 
"You hear that Ben?! OUR SISTER IS FORGIVING YOU! BUT NOT ME!" Klaus shouted and stumbled away to go find Allison.
 
Circe sighed before entering the apartment complex and going to Elliots. As she entered she saw Five and Luther arguing loudly. "No, that's not correct! I won't be able to do anything!" Five exclaimed loudly.
 
"We've never given up before-"
 
"We?! I've been carrying all of you on my back throughout this whole thing!"
 
Circe sighed as she flicked her hand and Luther was pulled away from Five, "You all act like children! We'll figure this out, for now. We sleep on it."
 
"We don't have time to sleep-"
 
"Sleep on it! Vanya is missing, Allison is missing, Klaus left, Ben is dead. We're getting over it and moving on." Circe said as she raised her hand and sat Luther onto the couch, "We'll figure it out, we always do."
 
Five huffed and Luther nodded before Circe let go of the both of them, dropping her arms. "I want something to drink." She muttered and headed towards the coffee pot.
 
Five sat down at the table, his head in his hands as Luther lay down on the couch to try and go to sleep. The girl opened the cabinet to find a bottle of wine, which was weird because why would Elliot of all places put wine in a random upper cabinet?
 
She shrugged it off and poured the wine into a coffee mug, too lazy to find a wine glass anyways before sitting down next to Five.
 
They both stayed silent as Five sighed, "I've got a plan." Circe turned to Five and he took it as a chance to elaborate more, "My future self, well... My old self... Is going to be here soon. I'll have to talk to him."
 
Circe nodded and Five pointed to the drink in her hand, "Can you pour me some?" Five asked. She nodded and got up to pour a mug of wine for him as he continued to talk, "The problem is that I might go crazy and this isn't exactly the best time to go insane."
 
"You're already insane, Five." Circe chuckled as she handed him the mug. He took a sip before speaking once again.
 
"Right, but still. Old me will be guaranteed to have a briefcase that brings us all back." Five explained and Circe nodded.
 
"This reminds me of when you used to ramble to me about quantum physics and time travel." Circe muttered and took a sip of her wine, "Is that the plan?"
 
"Yes." Five nodded, "That's the plan." Five smiled.
 
Circe smiled slightly, "Sounds great. Looks like we have a plan, Mr. Five." She teased.
 
"Well, Miss Cici, if you do, be so kind..." Five handed her the mug, "Just get me the whole bottle."
 
"Oh, so you're being a wine hog, hm? I thought you didn't like wine." Circe said and grabbed the bottle of wine from the counter, throwing it to Five which he managed to catch, "You seem like a whiskey sort of guy."
 
"Well, what can I say? People have layers." Five smiled and took a swig of the wine bottle.
 
"I still want some by the way." The girl pointed to the bottle before taking a drink of her wine once again.
 
"Come and get it, love." Five teased and Circe widened her eyes, cocking her head to the side.
 
"Love? That's new. What should I call you then, Five?" She asked and Five chuckled. He set down the bottle onto the table and leaned in close with a smirk.
 
"Whatever you want."
 
"Well- I... I don't really- Um-" She sputtered as she turned red and looked away. Five chuckled.
 
"That's payback for what happened in Oshkosh." Five smirked. She rolled her eyes.
 
"That's... Not fair." She huffed and took the wine bottle, pouring more wine into her mug before setting the bottle back down, "But seriously? Love?"
 
"What? You're my girlfriend, I can't say that I... Love you?" Five asked and took another swig of the wine bottle. His face was starting to get slightly red.
 
Circe paused before smiling, "Fine. I'll take it. It's better than any other nicknames anyways." She smiled, "It's cute."
 
"Hm, thanks. Thought of it myself." Five said.
 
"You sure The Handler didn't call you that when you were still in the commission?" Circe teased and Five groaned.
 
"Not right now, Cici." Five sighed and she giggled.
 
"Alright, alright. I'll stop." She smiled as she brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "'M so tired... Running around Texas isn't exactly relaxing..."
 
"Well, my retirement bucket list is still open for you to join." Five said and Circe smiled.
 
"I never said I'd never join." She said and laid her head on the table with a sigh.
 
"You should go to sleep in the bed." Five said.
 
"I'll be fine." She smiled and buried her head into her arms, choosing to sleep on the small wooden table instead.
 
After a while of silence, Five could hear Circe's breath had slowed meaning she had fallen asleep. He set the empty bottle of wine onto the table as he saw her sleeping. He brushed her hair out of her face and stood up, kissing her head before going to sleep.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"What's with the baby powder?" Circe asked, walking out of the bathroom after changing into a white blouse and brown pants.
 
"It'll help with the itching." Five said as he shoved baby powder down his shirt.
 
"What itching? There's itching? What the hell is going on here?" Luther asked as Five shoved baby powder down his pants before his face turned into shock, "You do have a plan."
 
Five exhaled sharply, " Well, it's a desperation move, but... Since our brain-dead siblings are incapable of meeting a simple deadline, I got no choice." He said, grabbing his blazer and pacing through the living room.
 
"No choice about what?" Luther asked as Circe came up next to him.
 
"I have to find myself." Five flicked his watch open before closing it and shoving it into his pocket, "I just arrived in Dallas 15 minutes ago."
 
"Should I be worried about you?" Luther asked.
 
"His past self that joined the Commission is here to make sure the president is assassinated." Circe said.
 
"Oh! So, wait, you're

old

self is out there." Luther realized with a smile.
 
"Precisely." Five exhaled.
 
"What, just walking around Dallas?" Luther asked. Clearly, he thought a time traveling assassin should be more discreet.
 
"Walking around Dallas with a briefcase that can get us home." Five said as he started to stretch and Luther gasped.
 
"Oh, my God. Five, you're a genius." Luther said.
 
"However, there are two significant problems with this plan. Problem number one: I am a trained assassin, arguably the most dangerous assassin in the space-time continuum. If I know me, I'm not going to react kindly to bumping into myself." Five said, pacing around the room, "Problem number two, and this is the real fly in the ointment here: you're not supposed to exist in close proximity to yourself in the same timeline. The side effects can be disastrous."
 
"Side effects? What sort of side effects?" Luther asked.
 
"You never said there were side effects, Five." Circe crossed her arms.
 
"Well, according to Commission Handbook Chapter 27, subsection 3b, the seven stages in paradox psychosis are... Stage one: denial, two: itching, three: extreme thirst and urination, four: excessive gas, five: acute paranoia, six: uncontrolled perspiration, and seven: homicidal rage."
 
"Homicidal rage?" Luther repeated, shocked. Circe and Luther both shared eye contact thinking the same thing. Five's homicidal rage was already big enough, what would happen if the last side effect hit him?
 
"Yeah." Five sighed.
 
"Jeez, I don't know. This maybe isn't such a good idea." Luther said, now doubting the plan.
 
"It's a Hail Mary. But what choice do we got, Luther?" Five asked.
 
"I don't know, you already seem a bit squirrelly if I'm being honest." Luther said and Circe nodded.
 
"He's right, you're acting a bit more..." Circe twirled her finger on the side of her head, "Cuckoo."
 
"Look, Luther, Cici, I'm gonna need you to help me get through this one, all right?" Five said, going over towards them and placing each of his hands on one of their shoulders, "I... I need a spotter."
 
"A spotter?"
 
"Yeah."
 
"What is that?" Luther asked. "Like, a wingman?"
 
"In case the paradox psychosis gets too severe, I need you both to help me stay on task, all right? So, whatever happens, whatever I say, we need to get that briefcase." Five said. "Okay?"
 
"Okay." Luther said and Circe nodded before placing her hands on his shoulder.
 
"Five."
 
"What?"
 
"Just breathe, we'll be fine." Circe said and Five sighed.
 
"Well, if worse comes to worse, we use you against him." Five said and Circe did a double-take.
 
"Excuse me?"
 
"If this Five is like me, which I know he is, then he probably still has feelings for you. We'll just 'kill you' and then he'll be in so much shock that we'll take the briefcase." Five shrugged.
 
"I... Don't think that's how it works." Circe frowned.
 
"Wait, you two are together? Since when?" Luther asked.
 
"A few days ago, be happy you're the first to know." Circe said before turning to Five, "Just remember to breathe. Now, c'mon, let's go."
 
Five and Circe started to walk away before turning back, "Luther! C'mon!" Five shouted and Luther nodded, chasing after them.

_____________________________________________________
 
"Well, there I am." Five spoke as they walked into an Irish pub.
 
"Why don't we just grab the briefcase and run?" Luther questioned looking between Five and Circe. Though she wasn't paying attention as she scrunched her face at the pub.
 
"Out of all the places old you could pick, it was an Irish pub?" Circe muttered.
 
"We're trained to guard these briefcases with our lives." Five continued. "Plus, it's the inherent paradox where this gets tricky. I'm endangering my existence just being in the room with myself."
 
"Huh... What do you mean?" Luther questioned.
 
"Luther, try to keep up before I kill you." Five said. "If old me doesn't travel back to 2019 like he's supposed to, the whole thing unravels itself. I cease to exist. You got me?"
 
"I get you." Luther spoke, smiling nervously.
 
"So our best chance is to talk with him, to reason with him. He'll understand. Trust me. I know myself better than, uh..." He sighed, itching his neck. "Better than I know myself."
 
"You just itched your neck." Luther pointed out. "That's stage two of paradox psychosis."
 
"No, I didn't. I didn't itch my neck." Five replied defensively.
 
"Denial is stage one." Circe commented.
 
"I am fine, okay?" He spat walking over to his older self. "Let's stay on task, shall we?"
 
"Wait!" Luther spoke, grabbing a hold of him. "Maybe I should go first."
 
"Why?" Both Five and Circe questioned.
 
"Well, you'll freak him out. Bumping into your own tiny doppelganger? He will lose his shit. Just let me break the ice."
 
"That's actually smart Luther, well done buddy." Circe spoke, patting him on the back with a nod.
 
"Okay." Five agreed.
 
"Okay." Luther spoke walking over to the older/younger Five as Five stressed out.
 
"Hey, you okay?" Circe asked, putting a hand on Five's shoulder.
 
"Just stressed about meeting myself, you know. The usual." He chuckled nervously.
 
"Hey, it's okay. Worse comes to worse, you kill me and we're all good." Circe smiled, "Just remember to breathe, you're going to give yourself a panic attack."
 
Five nodded, letting out a shaky sigh before breathing in slowly with a slight smile. "All right."
 
Luther spoke, calling us over as Five jumped us behind one of the wooden beams before peaking out. "Hey there, stranger."
 
They had all sat down at a table, Luther next to visual grandpa and Circe sat next to mental grandpa. "Well..." Luther sighed as both Fives stared each other down. "This is nice, isn't it? The four of us, together like this."
 
"No." Both fives spat.
 
"I, for one, think Luther has a great mindset." Circe grinned, taking a sip of her drink.
 
"Somebody explain to me how it is that I'm having a pint of Guinness with my younger self." Other Five questions still staring down Five.
 
"Older, actually." Five corrected. "I'm you, just 14 days older."
 
"I have pubic hair smarter than you." Other Five spat, making Circe chuckle at the remark. "How's that possible?"
 
"Don't encourage him." Five turned to Circe before turning to Other Five.
 
"I can explain. You see, one hour from now, on the grassy knoll, before the president is killed, you break your contract with the Commission. I already know you're thinking about it. All those years in the apocalypse, we never stopped worrying about our family. Well, today, you are going to do something about it. Today, you are going to attempt to time travel forward to 2019. However, you are going to screw up the jump and end up in this twip of a body, trapped forever, small, pubescent." Five explained.
 
"Okay, how did Cici end up as her younger self too? And even if I was to believe you, what am I supposed to do about it, not jump?"
 
"No, no. I need you to jump. If you don't jump, I cease to exist." Five sighed. "And Cici died. Anyway, what I need from you is to jump correctly."
 
"I'm listening."
 
"The first time through, I got the calculation wrong. That's how I ended up in this body. But now, I know the correct calculation." Five spoke, eyeing the other Five intensely.
 
"What is it?"
 
"I'll be glad to tell you..." Five smiled evilly, both of them were sweating profusely now. "In exchange for that briefcase you're holding under the table."
 
"Yeah, yeah, so you go back to 2019, as planned, but this time with the right math, so you remain a full-grown man. In exchange, we get that briefcase that you no longer need." Luther explained looking to Circe to see if he got it right, she gave him a smile and thumbs up.
 
"Timeline restored, paradox resolved." Circe smiled and the other Five seemed to... Freeze. It's probably been a while since he heard her voice. She still had the same smile he remembered.
 
"Everyone goes on existing happily ever after." Five spoke, making the other Five's head snap back to him.
 
"That's quite a bit to take in." Other Five spoke a little dazed.
 
"What do you think?" Five questioned knowing he had confused the fuck out of him.
 
"I think..." The other Five sighed. "I need to piss."
 
"Oh." Luther spoke as the other Five walked away to the bathroom. "Well, besides the flop sweat, I think that went pretty well, am I right?" Luther spoke, wiping Fives face with a towel.
 
"No, no, there's something... Something doesn't feel right about this." Five spoke, slapping Luther's hand away.
 
"What do you mean?" I spoke kinda concerned because of how much he was fidgeting.
 
"I don't trust him."
 
"But he's you."
 
"Exactly." Five spat.
 
"But this could be stage five of paradox psychosis." Circe rationed, "Acute paranoia."
 
After Luther went to go talk to the other Five, Circe suddenly stood up and Five turned to her with confusion. "Something wrong?" Five asked and Circe nodded.
 
"I just felt something weird." Circe said, "Like... A shift of reality or... Something changed." She said, breathing harshly.
 
"Hey, hey, hey. What happened to breathing?" Five placed his hand on Circe's.
 
She slowed her breathing and nodded before sitting down and taking a sip of her drink, "I dunno, I guess all of a sudden I'm paranoid." She chuckled slightly, "But still. I'm... Just... There's an anxious feeling I have."
 
Five nodded, squeezing her hand and she squeezed it back before the other Five came back with Luther. "We good?" Five questioned when the other Five came out of the bathroom followed by Luther.
 
"We're good." Luther repeated with an almost nervous tone making Circe eye him suspiciously.
 
"You got a deal. We gotta hurry. Kennedy's en route. Less than an hour until showtime." The other Five spoke.
 
"Why are you so anxious to get going all of a sudden?" Five questioned, standing up slightly. "Weren't in a hurry before." Five spoke also suspicious of Luther and other Five's sudden eagerness.
 
"Relax." Past Five spoke. "You're getting paranoid."
 
They all exited the pub and started walking down the street, Five yelling at everyone around them as Luther and other Five talked to each other. Circe sighed to herself before hitting his arm.
 
"Dude, we need to get the briefcase. No one else here matters. Focus." Circe said and Five groaned.
 
"Hey brother, Cici. How you guys doing?" Luther spoke as he stood next to Five smiling awkwardly.
 
"He's gonna kill me, isn't he?" Five spoke as they walked down the stairs.
 
"What? What, him?" Luther laughed nervously. "He's gonna kill you? Yeah, right. That's ridiculous."
 
"You know, you're a terrible liar, Luther." Circe spoke up as he laughed nervously.
 
"You're a worse liar than you are a spotter." Five added.
 
"Okay, whose fault is that? What good is having a spotter if you won't even listen to him?" Luther admitted putting away his fake smile.
 
"So you admit you're conspiring against me?" Five spat.
 
"Do you admit that you're suffering from paradox psychosis?"
 
"All I'm suffering from is bracing clarity about you and your murderous intentions."
 
"Look, it's not like he's gonna "kill you" kill you. He just wants to kill a, um..." Luther sighed trying to find a word. "Version of you."
 
"But he is that version, Luther." Circe grimaced.
 
"Hey, I don't love it, either, but he's actually got a pretty good plan." Luther said as they reached the end of the stairway and started walking on the road.
 
"What? The one where you guys off me and then jump to 2019 to save the world?" Five spoke. getting more and more angry.
 
"Yeah- Wait, how did you know that?"
 
"Because I'm him, and that is exactly what I would do if I were trying to kill me!" Five yelled, clarifying for
his stupid monkey brain.
 
"Okay, all I know is we've got one Five too many, and you're the one acting like a maniac." Luther spoke between Five and Circe.
 
"Luther, you shouldn't have said tha-"
 
"Maniac? Luther, you have seen nothing. If you want a maniac, I will show you maniac." Five said, leaning into Luther as his face turned red.
 
"Okay, as your spotter, I think the best thing I can do for you right now is put you out of your misery." Luther spoke.
 
"Okay, Luther, listen. I know your feeble mind only responds to age and authority, so listen very closely. Yet again, you are experiencing daddy issues, this time with your own brother, which honestly is making me a bit crazy. But remember this." Five sighed. "I'm 14 days older than him. I have seniority here. So it is

me

you should be listening to, Luther.
I'm the daddy here
!"
 
"How's it going?" Luther smiled nervously at the people walking by hearing Five's whole speech. "Five, please, you're being unseemly. Look at you."

The three of them started walking again, picking up the pace to match past Five's. "I admit there is a possibility that I may not be in my fully... Right mind right now."
 
"Okay, good."
 
"But whatever he's got, the other ones got it too." Circe pointed to the other Five.
 
"You three quit grab-assing. We're here." The other Five spoke as we walked over to a grassy area with a fence overlooking the grassy knoll.
"This is my favorite part." The other Five spoke, getting his gun ready. "The calm before the storm."
 
"Look. The briefcase." Five spoke about jumping before Circe put a hand in front of him to stop him.
 
"You won't be able to get there in time."
 
"Of course I will. This is our only chance." Five spoke.
 
"Hey, uh, just remind me... What was the final stage of paradox psychosis again?" Luther questioned.
 
"Homicidal rage." Five spoke nonchalantly.
 
"Right." Luther laughed before he realized what that meant and his smile immediately dropped. "That's great. Five, listen to me. I-" Before Luther could finish or Circe could stop him, Five jumped.
 
"No. No! Circe couldn't you have used your whole power thing on him?" Luther spoke looking at her.
 
"I’m entertained!" Circe admitted, watching Five try to take the briefcase.
 
"Oh... shit." Luther spoke as Five failed to get the briefcase and the other Five was now holding a gun to his head.
 
"Bad idea, shit-heel." He yelled.
 
"Stop it! All right? The both of you. Pull it together." Luther yelled grabbing the gun from the other Five which made him jump slightly. "Now, Kennedy is gonna be coming around that corner any minute. Okay? So, everyone, let's just take a deep breath... Now, we're all family here, okay? So can we all just try to get along for a few more minutes?"
 
"You want it?" Five spoke looking at the other Five. "Go ahead." He replied.
 
"What's that?" Luther spoke looking to all of them before one kicked him in his crotch. "Shit."
 
"Now... Where were we?"
 
As Luther grabbed his crotch in pain, Circe watched both Five's fight as they attempted to kill one another. It was quite entertaining actually, she was kind of glad she let them do it.
They did this for a while until Luther finally didn't feel pain in his crotch and spoke up. "Would you please-" Luther tried to speak before getting kicked in the stomach by both Five's. "Hey!" Luther yelled. "I'm getting really sick of this!"
 
After a while, Five and Old Five teleported in front of each other again. "Getting tired yet?" Other Five spoke.
 
"I can do this all day."
 
"Guys, this has to stop." Luther yelled.
 
"Eat shit, Ape Man." They both yelled as they spatially jumped towards each other creating some sort of explosion.
 
"It's alright Luther." Circe spoke from behind Luther as she patted his back.
 
"Hey! Assholes!" Luther spoke, grabbing the gun. "I'm done listening to you both." He yelled pointing the gun at them. "I'm in charge now."
 
"Now, Luther! Shoot him!" Past Five yelled.
 
"No! Luther, shoot him!" Current (?) Five yelled.
 
"Shoot him!"
 
"No, Luther, shoot him."
 
"Luther, shoot him!"
 
"Luther, shoot him."
 
"Now, Luther!" Past Five spoke as Luther aimed the gun at current Five.
 
"Luther..." Current Five pleaded.
 
Circe straightened as her hands raised slightly, "Lut
her, what're you doing?"
 
""I'm sorry, buddy." He spoke keeping the gun on Five before he hit the other Five in the head knocking him out. Luther was thrown away as Circe gasped.
 
"Sorry!" Circe shouted and helped him up, "You're just really convincing!"
 
"Uh... That hurt..." Luther sighed.
 
"Ever think you should be an actor?" Circe asked with a sheepish smile.
 
"Open the portal!"
 
"Don't even think about it." Luther spoke, aiming the
gun at Past Five who had just awoken from his slumber.
 
"Into the vortex you go, asshole." Five spoke pointing at the portal in front of him.
 
"Fine! But give me the math. So I don't end up looking like Tiger Beat over here." He yelled.
 
"You stand next to the vortex and I'll tell ya." Five spat. Looking into the portal, Circe saw all of them.
 
"Why do I look so much better in 2019?" Circe mumbled, looking to herself.
 
"Go! Closer!" Five yelled.
 
"This is close enough! Now give it to me!" The other Five replied.
 
"It was a typo."
 
"Typo?"
 
"We put the decimal in the wrong spot in our proof of the existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields of fixed degree. We wrote down five-point-seven. It should be..."
 
"... Zero-point-five-seven. Son of a bitch. I knew that didn't look right."
 
"All right... I guess this is it."
 
"This is it. Go."
 
Out of the portal came an extinguisher that Klaus had thrown hitting Luther in the head.
"No!" Five yelled as the other Five went to get the briefcase.
 
Circe grabbed it trying to get it before the other 2 did. Instead they both snatched it from her grasp. Fighting over it.
 
"Five! It's shrinking!" She yelled.

"The crowd yells.... And there's the president of the United States."

"We did it!" Luther yelled after he had kicked the other Five into the portal cutting the briefcase in half.
 
"The briefcase, you idiot." Five yelled.
 
"What? Hey, you know what? A thank-you for preserving your existence would be nice."
 
""A thank-you."" Five mumbled in disbelief.

"And here they come. The presidential car is moving out..."

"Guys! Here he comes!" Circe yelled as she looked over the fence.
 
"Look, there's Dad." Luther spoke pointing to a man with a black umbrella. "What do we do?"
 
"Uh-oh."
 
"Yeah."
 
"Oh, shit. Diego." Circe widened her eyes. Diego tackled a man not realizing it wasn't Dad and behind him he heard shots.

"KLIF bulletin, from Dallas, three shots reportedly were fired at the motorcade of President Kennedy today, near the downtown section. This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss... that cannot be weighed..."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"How's Cici doing?" Vanya asked Five and he shrugged.
 
"She's not doing her best..." Five sighed.
 
"Remember when Ben died?" Klaus asked and Vanya nodded, "Well, it's like that but all over again." He crossed his arms with a sad expression.
 
"This is all my fault. He should've let go." Vanya said.
 
Five paused before saying, "Well, maybe you should go talk to her." He said.
 
Vanya nodded before going upstairs and into one of the guests' bedrooms in Elliot's house, knocking on the door.
"Hello?" Vanya called out.
 
"Just come in Vanya." Vanya came in cautiously as she sat beside her sibling, their hands intertwined, offering a silent connection that spoke louder than any comfort she could give.
 
Circe's shoulders trembled with sobs, and Vanya pulled her closer, wrapping her arms around them in a protective embrace. She didn't try to speak right away, there was no rush to fill the silence.
When the sobs began to subside, Vanya gently whispered, "I'm here… I miss him too." Her voice was soft, a fragile thread weaving through the thick fog of sorrow, "I'm sorry, Cici."
 
Circe rested her head on Vanya's shoulder, a simple gesture of solidarity. "We'll get through this together," Circe muttered, "It's not your fault, Vanny."
In that moment, there was no need for grand gestures or profound words. The sister's presence was comforting, her quiet strength a reminder that even in the depths of sorrow, they had each other to hold on to.
Circe breathed in and exhaled with a slight smile. "Thank you Vanya..."

_____________________________________________________
 
"I'm coming with you. I'm not letting you do this alone." Circe smiled at Vanya, who had left.
 
"What?" Vanya said, confused.
 
"You're my sister, whether you do things for me or not, I'm doing this for you." Circe got up in the front next to Vanya.
 
"So, so, so..." Klaus spoke getting in the back, leaning his head forward so he could talk to Vanya. "Ben, huh? Gone forever. Isn't he?"
 
"He traded his life for mine... While he saved the world in the process." Vanya spoke looking to Cici with comfort in her eyes and then to Klaus.
 
"Pfft. Show-off." Klaus chuckled slightly. "But did he... Say anything about... Me?"
 
"He wanted me to tell you that he was too scared to go to the light. It wasn't you that made him stay." Vanya spoke.
 
"Oh, that little shit-heel." Klaus scoffed. "All these years, and I thought it was my fault that he didn't take his ticket to heaven."
 
"Look, I'm sorry, but... You should get out, 'cause I need to-" Vanya spoke assuming that's all Klaus wanted to know.
 
"Oh, no, I'm coming with. I can't let you two face the unknown alone, right?" He smiled at both of them.
 
Beside Klaus entered Allison and Diego. "Got room for two more?" Allison asked with a smile.
 
"What about the Commission?" Vanya questioned looking back at the both of them with a confused look. Clearly they were more important than her girlfriend and her son right?
 
"Well, might as well do some good before we die horribly." Diego spoke, making Circe smile slightly.
 
"Whoo-hoo!" Klaus cheered sarcastically.
 
Next to Circe, the car opened to reveal Five. "Five, you... You don't have to-" Vanya tried to speak.
 
"I know. You owe me one, sis." He spoke looking at Circe. "Children ride in the back."
 
"Mind you I'm only a few years younger than you, old man." Circe crossed her arms with a smirk and Five sighed.
 
"Yet you still act like a child." Five smirked.
 
"You can go in the trunk for all I care." Circe frowned.
 
"Fine, move over." He said, sitting next to her. He steadied himself as he closed the door, his hand on her leg.
 
"Guys, I don't know what to say." Vanya spoke with a smile plastered on her face.
 
Next in the car came Luther squishing himself into the back making the car sink to the floor. "Anyone makes a fat joke and I'm outta here." Luther said, making them all smile. With that Vanya drove off ready to save her girlfriend's son, half the car scraping on the road as they went.

_____________________________________________________
 
"Something feels wrong again, Five." Circe whispered as the scraping of the car disguised her voice.
 
"What is it now?" Five asked.
 
"It's just... The air feels wrong. It's cold but warm and everything feels tingly... Like electric currency sort of tingly..." Circe said.
 
"Could it be because of that?" Five asked as the car stopped and pointed to the large stormcloud showering thunder and rain over a barn.
 
"It could be but... It probably is." Circe smiled, trying to reassure herself. Five took her hand into his.
 
"We'll be fine. We're gonna get Harlan out of there and we'll just... Go back to whatever it was that we were doing." Five smiled.
 
They all got out of the car, staring at the mini sort of hurricane powering up above the large barn. If Vanya's power could do this, what else could she do? Circe couldn't wait to find out for some reason.
"You think whatever's going on inside is causing the cold front?" Diego asked as they got out of the car.
 
Sissy burst out of the barn, shotgun in hand, and ran at us. She cocked the gun and aimed at us. Five grabbed Circe's wrist. "Get back! All of you, just get the hell back!"
 
"Sissy!" Vanya yelled, holding her hands up. "Hey! Hey, what's wrong?"
 
"Carl." Sissy said, looking at each of them in turn.
 
"What did he do to you?" Vanya asked. Sissy shook her head.
 
"He's, he's dead. Harlan tossed him aside like a rag doll. Same way you sent those policemen flyin'. What did you do to him? Vanya what the hell did you do to my son?"
 
"We don't have time for this." Diego said, walking towards the barn. Sissy aimed her gun at him.
 
"Where ya think you're goin'?"
 
"To help your son." Diego said.
 
"Sissy I found my family." Vanya said. "These are my brothers and my sisters."
 
Sissy looked confused. "Adopted." Circe added with a slight smile.
 
Sissy lowered her gun and looked at Vanya. "Were you lyin' to me, the whole time?"
 
"Of course not." Vanya said. "Look, I didn't know who I was. But I do now. And we are not the monsters they say we are. We did not kill the president. We are not terrorists. We're not here to hurt anyone."
 
"Then... Who are you?" Sissy asked.
 
"The only one who can help Harlan."
 
Harlan was suspended in midair, shaking and whimpering. A huge tower of energy surrounded him, glowing blue and gold. It swirled around him like a whirlwind, blowing us all back. "Harlan?! Harlan it's Vanya!" She screamed over the noise. "Look, Harlan, I know you're really scared, but I can help you! I need you to listen to me okay? Can you do that?"
Harlan didn't respond. Vanya activated her powers and stepped inside the tower of power. She stood in front of Harlan and looked up at him. "Careful." Five warned her.
 
"Uh, guys?" Klaus said, looking out the door. "What?" Diego asked as he walked up behind Klaus. The rest of us followed and, of course, it was The Handler and Lila.
 
"Oh shit, it's the girl who shanked your heart." Circe chuckled and Diego jabbed her side.
 
"I liked it better when you held your tongue."
 
"Well, I liked it better when we were in 2019 but we can't all have that, can we Diego?" Circe smiled mockingly and Diego scoffed.
 
Circe, Five and Diego went to talk to them. Diego said he needed to have words with his ex-girlfriend so he tagged along. The Handler was laughing and talking to Lila when we walked over. "I love the smell of that fresh country air. Don't you darling?"
 
"Makes me wanna vomit." Lila said absently.
 
"What do you want?" Five asked the woman.
 
"To watch you suffer." Lila snapped back at him.
 
"Hi, Lila." Circe smiled and Lila smiled back.
 
"Hi, Cici."
 
"When'd you two become friends?" Diego asked me.
 
"I dunno, her calling me Cici sounds right." Circe shrugged.
 
"You're too easy to win over." Five sighed.
 
"What about me?" Diego asked.
 
"You're not even worth my wrath." Lila snapped.
 
"Easy." The Handler said. "We're here on official business."
 
"And what business is that?" Five asked.
 
"As the head of the Commission I've decided to eliminate the criminals responsible for the assassination of the former board of directors." The Handler said.
 
"Yeah, right. We didn't kill the board." Diego said.
 
"Actually, Diego, that's not entirely accurate." Five said and Diego rolled his eyes. Of course it wasn’t ‘entirely accurate’.
 
"What about the one who paid them to do it?" Circe asked, crossing her arms.
 
"The investigation came to the conclusion no such person exists." The Handler said. "You didn't tell them?"
 
Five shrugged.
 
"The only reason why the investigation found 'no such person exists' is because you're the one that held the investigation in the first place." Circe crossed her arms.
 
"Oh, Five... Cici." The Handler said.
 
"It's Circe."
 
"What the hell did you do?" Diego asked the duo quietly.
 
"What I had to do to get my family home." Five snapped. "Until somebody renegaded on our deal."
 
"Somebody wouldn't have renegaded if somebody could've met a simple deadline." The Handler said.
 
"That somebody should've mentioned when the deal was first formed." Circe snapped back with a glare.
 
"I take back what I said, don't hold your tongue." Diego whispered to the girl next to her and she kicked his shin. He winced.
 
"Alas." The Handler shrugged.
 
"You set us up to fail." Five said.
 
"Dudes, I can't believe you killed the board of directors." Diego said. "You have no idea how messed up the Commission is right now."
 
"Messed up? Who's saying that?" The Handler asked.
 
"Everybody." Diego said. "Christ, even the janitors think it's going to shit."
 
"That's not all they killed.” Lila said.
 
"What are you talking about?" Five asked.
 
"The many people you killed over the years Five, we were assassins." Lila said.
 
"You gotta be more specific Lila."
 
"Don't play dumb you prepubescent pieces of shit." Lila snapped.
 
"Enough." The Handler said, putting her briefcase down. "The point is, all of you are going to die today. Hmm?"
 
"Oh, well I don't like your chances." Diego said.
 
"Eight of us, two of you."
 
"You know you're right. Let's change that." The Handler snapped her fingers and millions of Commission agents appeared behind her.
 
"We just had to say something, didn't we?" Circe muttered to herself.
 
"So what do we do now?" Diego asked.
 
"Well we got two choices." Five said.
 
"Fight and die now or run and die later. Either way we're food for worms."
 
"Preference?" Diego asked.
 
"I say run." Circe said, squeezing Five's hand and he squeezed it back.
 
"Same." Five said.
 
"Alright," The Handler said, checking her watch. "Let's get this over with shall we?" She pulled a red handkerchief out of her pocket and we turned and ran.
 
"Run!" Five yelled.
 
"You don't say!" Circe yelled back. The gunfire started and Circe and Five ducked instinctively.
 
"We're not gonna make it!" Diego yelled. Five grabbed his shoulder and jumped us ahead. A small tractor was a few feet ahead of us. "Five I think I'm gonna puke." Diego said.
 
"No time!" Five said.
 
"Do it later!" Circe yelled. They dived behind the tractor and huddled together behind the huge wheel.
 
"JUMP IT TO THE HOUSE MAN!" Diego screamed.
 
Five grabbed his knee and his hand glowed blue. It faded and Five tried again. "Shit I'm out of fuel. I'm too tired." Five said.
 
"I can create a shield but only for a couple of seconds, I'm not too good at defense though." Circe compromised before Diego spoke up.
 
"Go! I'll-I'll cover you." Diego said suddenly.
 
"What? Diego-" Five called as he stood.
 
"Diego, no!" Circe yelled.
 
"GO!" Diego yelled.
 
They stood and ran before Circe looked over her shoulder and saw bullets slowing to a stop in front of Diego. He had his hands out in front of him, he threw them to the side and the bullets did the same.
"Since when can he do that?!" Circe exclaimed.
 
"No idea." Five said. They reached the house and Circe kicked down the door, slamming it behind her. She looked out the window in time to see the bullets heading straight for them again. Five grabbed her and pulled her down just in time.
 
They hid under the table, covering their heads and ears as it rained bullets. Suddenly, they stopped. Cautiously, Circe and Five crawled out from under the table and looked out the now smashed window.
Vanya was in the air, glowing blue and floating. The Commission army was dead on the ground, only The Handler and Lila were still standing, a force field similar to Vanya's around them.
It faded and Lila glowed blue exactly like Vanya. She rose up off the ground and mimicked his explosion. This time Circe grabbed Five and dragged him down. They both jumped back under the table. A second later Luther came through the ceiling.
 
"Luther! Are you alright?" Five asked, crawling out from under the table.
 
"You okay, Luther?" Circe asked.
 
"I think I swallowed my tongue." Luther groaned. Luther stood, slowly and looked at us. "What the hell just happened?" Luther asked. "What was that?"
 
"She must have redirected Vanya's energy wave." Five said, looking over his shoulder out the window.
 
Circe stayed quiet, her flight or fight senses starting to kick in. This whole time she'd been in the 60's she's been stressed and going slightly crazy, she couldn't be unraveling

now.

She fiddled with her hands as she tried to find a solution to how Lila could possibly redirect Vanya's energy blast like

that.

"I've got it! She-"
 
"Watch out!" Five yelled, shoving Luther and Circe aside. A second later the ceiling collapsed and buried Five.
 
"Five!" Circe and Luther said in unison. They knelt down and started moving bricks, trying to dig him out. There was a
woosh and Circe looked over as Luther stood. Lila had appeared in the living room.
 
"What are you?" Luther asked.
 
"Someone who wants to kill your brother." Lila shrugged. 
 
Luther nodded. "That's understandable. Diego can be a lot to handle."
 
"I was talking about Five."
 
"Equally understandable. We've all been there." Circe said as she stepped back slightly.
 
"Even so, they're family. So you're shit out of luck." Luther said.
 
"Luther don't-!"
 
Luther threw a punch and Lila caught it. He punched again and she caught it, again. Both times she didn't even flinch, she smiled. "How is this possible?" Luther asked, straining.
 
"You gotta believe in yourself big boy." Lila said. She dropped his fist and punched him, sending him flying through the wall and into the garden.
 
She turned to me, "Y'know, you're pretty tolerable." She said and Circe nodded. "You've figured it out, haven't you?" She grinned.
 
"A theory that I found somewhere inside my head." Circe said and Lila nodded.
 
"Well, let's test that theory out." Lila said, raising her fists with a smug smirk.
 
"It's not safe to use on people I care about." Circe stood up, brushing her pants off.
 
"Well, Snuggle Muffin, what's stopping you from using it on me?" She asked.

"Diego still cares about you. And I care about my brother." Circe said and the girl could see Lila's face falter slightly.

Bingo.

Circe grinned before lunging forward and punching Lila straight in the face, she jumped back just before Lila could punch her. She knew that Lila still had Luther's super strength, and she knew that she could probably suffocate her like Luther did to Vanya.
Lila charged forward, her fist swinging toward Circe. She dodged swiftly, barely a breath away from Lila's blow. Lila was relentless, throwing hit after hit, each one more powerful than the last.
Circe could feel her frustration growing with each missed strike, and she used it to her advantage. In a split second, Circe struck. She darted forward, aiming not for Lila's body, but for her balance.
 
A swift kick to the back of her knee sent her toppling forward, and before she could recover, Circe followed up with a series of precise blows to her pressure points.
Lila turned and punched her right in the side of her face, Circe's head rang loudly in her ears as Lila walked up to her and stepped on her throat. She gasped, choking and wheezing for air before Lila suddenly stopped and left her on the floor. 
For a while, Circe struggled to get up. Whether the punch had given her a concussion on her throat, Circe couldn't tell. When she went to Five, he was crawling out from under the bricks. Outside Allison was on the floor, Luther was giving her mouth to mouth.
 
"What happened to Allison, Luther?" Circe asked.
 
"Lila rumored her to stop breathing." Luther said. Circe's hand clenched on her thigh, her knuckles turning white.
 
"Woah, woah, woah." Allison placed her hand on Circe. She turned to her in confusion. "You're..." Allison waved her fingers around and Circe nodded.
 
"Lila can copy our powers."
 
"Why you didn't use your powers on her?" Luther asked.
 
"Did you hear what I just said, Luther? She’ll just copy mine.” Circe rolled her eyes, "We should go check on Sissy and Harlan."
 
"We have bigger things to worry about, Cici." Allison said but Circe stood up anyways.
 
Circe entered the barn where she’d last seen Harlan and Sissy, looking around before going down into a basement.
"Vanya?!" Sissy shouted.
 
"It's Circe." The girl said, "I'm... Vanya's sister."
 
Sissy sighed, "Is she okay?"
 
"No, but I was just here to make sure everyone was alright." Circe said. Sissy went up to her with a desperate look.
 
"Harlan's getting upset again, he wants Vanya and..." Sissy sighed as Circe saw a shield covering Harlan.
 
Circe walked over to him and knelt down, "Hi, Harlan." No response so Circe just continued talking. "I think you're scared right now, is that right?" Circe asked and Harlan nodded. She smiled, "Sometimes I feel scared too, but I know everything's going to be okay. It's all gonna be over soon." Circe smiled as Harlan rocked back and forth.
 
From behind her, Circe heard Sissy yell and before she could turn around, a bullet was shot through her head. "You're a very very

very

important person in this timeline, Cici." The Handler smiled, "Too important."

_____________________________________________________
 
Harlan still sat in the corner, the shield around him powering back up but not as powerful this time. Circe sat against one of the crates before turning to Sissy, "Sissy, we need Vanya."
 
Sissy nodded before shouting for Vanya. As soon as she called out for her, Vanya quickly came down the stairs as well as the rest of the siblings. Five ran to Circe and hugged her tightly.
"Where were you?!" Five exclaimed.
 
"Down here, trying to calm down Harlan. Why?" Circe asked and Five hesitated.
 
"I thought you died for a second." Five sighed. Circe chuckled.
 
"I would never. Not without everyone else." She smiled as Vanya entered the shield unscathed.
 
"Harlan? Harlan! Whatever it is I gave you, I can take it back, okay? We just, we need to stop this." Vanya said, placing her hands on Harlan's arms. Harlan whimpered as Vanya placed her hands on Harlan's knees.
 
As if she was a vacuum, Vanya seemed to suck out whatever she gave to Harlan and absorb it back into her body. For a second, the sound seemed to go quiet before Harlan looked around in slight confusion.
A moment of silence passed by as all of them looked at Vanya proudly before Sissy ran to Harlan and hugged him tightly with a cry.

_____________________________________________________
 
"Thank you for trying to help Harlan." Sissy stepped forward to Circe with a grateful smile. 
 
“It was nothing. Just doing what I was taught to do.” Circe nodded before walking into the living room to see Klaus giving a kiss to two of his dog tags. She sat down on the bright yellow couch.
 
“Are those yours?” She asked quietly and Klaus nodded with a smile, his eyes glazed over.
 
“His name was Dave.” Klaus said quietly and rested his head on her knee, "He was nice." He said, "Too nice for someone like me."
 
"Well, maybe you two cancel each other out. Opposites attract." Circe said with a small smile.
 
"What, like you and Five?" Klaus snickered, expecting Circe to push him away or retort back. She didn't.
 
"Yeah, like me and Five." Circe stood up, brushing off snow from her teared pants, "We're going in a bit, I think Five's gotten one of the suitcases from the dead commission people lounging about outside."
 
"Wait, are we just gonna ignore that or-" The door slammed before Klaus finished his sentence.
 
Circe's shoes crunched in the snow and the rips in her pants made the cool air brush through quicker as she slightly shivered. She was definitely not dressed for the cold.
 
"Cici." Five said behind her, briefcase in hand, and she turned around with a slight sigh.
 
"Five." Circe walked up to Five, putting her hands behind her back with a bright smile, although her neck was sort of red from Lila's foot.
 
Five smiled and kissed Circe softly, "Are we going then, love?"
 
"Thought that was a nickname that you called me when you're drunk." Circe smiled as they both started walking through the snow together.
 
"It's a nickname I'll call you in private." Five corrected and Circe chuckled softly. They walked together, gathering all of their siblings throughout the farm before meeting in the back. It was now dark and chilly, Circe exhaled and could see her frosty breath.
"Everyone ready?" Five asked.
 
"Let's do it." Luther nodded.
 
"Okay." Five nodded and started to open the briefcase.
 
"Wait!" Klaus said. He ran away and over to the porch, grabbing a cowboy hat discarded on the fence.
 
"Fifty bucks if we leave him here." Diego muttered.
 
"Half that and I'll leave you here." Circe said, crossing her arms with an unimpressed look.
Klaus came back and adjusted his hat. He nodded and put a hand on Circe's shoulder, the other he held Luther's with. Five opened the briefcase and they headed back to 2019, back to their normal lives.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Monkey boy"Luther's half monkey. That's basically all there is to him either than him technically causing the apocalypse in our 2019." Knife guy"Diego likes knives. I'm surprised he doesn't have a knife kink but maybe Lila can figure that out for herself." The liar"Allison is a liar and I will suffocate her to death." Spirit squeezer"Klaus is sweet, and depressed. Which is why we're basically twins." Circe's boyfriend/Apocalypse drug addict"My boyfriend of, like, two days I guess. He's pretty cool and an adrenaline drug addict." Dead"Our Ben is dead. That's all I have to say about him." Bow-tastic"I'm happy for Viktor. And I'm happy that after so many years of suffering, he's happy." Five's girlfriend/Floaty fingers"I'm not very important. I can make stuff float but that's basically it." Copy paste prodigy"Lila can copy all of our powers and she's Diego's girlfriend. She's also surprisingly chill too."