ZERO! the umbrella academy

quarante-huit

THE DAY THAT NEVER HAPPENED

I WOKE UP IN Diego's bed.

Diego had spent the night on the floor. Luther barged into the room and called a family meeting. We went downstairs, numbed ourselves with coffee, and argued like usual.

Except there was no Five to save us this time.

"We need to figure out what causes the apocalypse." Luther leaned back against the bar. "Now, there are loads of possibilities: nuclear war, asteroids, but I'm thinking this is about the moon, right?"

"Goddamn it, could you shut up about the moon for five seconds?" I pressed my fingers to my temples. From the looks on Diego, Klaus, and Allisons' faces, they were just as sick of it as I was.

He shot me a glare. "Dad must have sent me up there for a reason, Lee." He turned back to the others. "And I was giving him daily updates on the conditions. I sent field samples. So, the first thing we need to do is find his research."

"Hold on. Hold the phone," Klaus butted in. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around, remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point," Diego spoke up, tossing a knife into the air behind the bar. "What gives us a win this time?"

"Five," Luther said his name, and it was like a shot to my heart. I gripped onto the edge of the bar for support to keep my legs from turning to jelly beneath me. Diego was the only one who noticed my struggle and placed a comforting hand on the small of my back.

"Last time we didn't have him. We weren't all together," Luther continued, but I could only half-hear him over the buzzing in my ears. "This time, we'll have the full force of the Umbrella Academy. That's what we need."

"So, where's Five now?" Allison looked at me expectantly.

I swallowed hard, pulling myself together enough to respond with a cohesive answer. "He had a plan to change the timeline. He'll be back soon." I hope, I mentally added. I sounded more like I was trying to reassure myself than any of them.

Diego took his hand off my back, and I felt cold. "I'm going after Hazel and Cha-Cha." He started for the archway into the foyer.

Luther stood up straight. "What, right now?"

"Hell, yeah." He didn't slow his pace. "Three days, and I'm losing light by the minute."

"Wait, Diego," he called out to him, and Diego stopped in his tracks to look back at him. "Look, I know you want to avenge your fallen friend, but we got a bigger problem here."

"She wasn't just some friend, Luther," he spat, and I could hear the venom in his tone. "If I'm gonna die, I need to know I killed those bastards first. Stop making it about you."

He marched out of the room. Luther opened his mouth to say something else, but I slapped a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I'll talk to him," I told him, my eyes glued to Diego's retreating form.