[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐀 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇
"𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑑𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛."
—𝐽𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑛

𝐈
— 𝐷𝑖𝑒𝑔𝑜 —

𝑊𝐸𝐷𝑁𝐸𝑆𝐷𝐴𝑌. 8:15 𝑎𝑚 . . . (𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛).

"𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄."

Diego shifted his gaze from his knife and to Klaus as he raised his hand up to catch everyone's attention.

Klaus stirred on his spot on the stool at the bar counter, where everyone surrounded him. He shifted his gaze between the four other adults as he pointed out, "We all died fighting this thing the first time around. Remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point," Diego agreed as he played with one of his knives with his good hand and gestured towards him. "What gives us a win this time?"

Before anyone could answer, however, blue electricity began to spark at the ceiling overtop the bar counter, and a large vortex similar to the one from their first day appeared.

Diego immediately stepped in front of Mara, his eyes trained on the vortex as his grip on his knife grew stronger.

Then, someone fell out, landing with a loud thud on top of the bar counter.

"Je-Jesus!" Allison exclaimed, jumping backwards as Klaus fell back onto the couch behind him.

He slowly sat up, his eyes wide as they all registered the fact that Five was now laying on top of a heavy briefcase on the counter. "You guys, am I still high, or do you see him, too?"

"Five, where have you been?" Luther asked as they processed the boy's grimy appearance, with the dust and small pieces of metal that covered him from head to toe.

Five didn't respond, but rather slightly rolled over the briefcase and began to slip off.

Immediately, Mara jumped over the counter and caught Five before he hit the floor, her hands gripping him tightly as she helped him to his feet. "Are you all right?"

"Who did this?" Luther immediately questioned.

"Irrelevant." Five snatched the coffee that Allison had been holding and took a long drink from it before looking back up. "So, the apocalypse is in three days," he said haggardly, his eyes roaming over all of their surprised faces. "The only chance we have to save the world is, well, us."

"The Umbrella Academy," Luther clarified.

"Yeah, but with me, obviously." Five gave a mocking nod, rolling his eyes. "So if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together and get over yourselves, we're screwed. Who cares if Dad messed us up? Are we gonna let that define us? No. And to give us a fighting chance to see next week, I've come back with a lead." He dug out a crinkled, folded piece of paper and raised it up to show it off. "I know who's responsible for the apocalypse. This is who we have to stop."

Allison took the paper from him, unfolding it as everyone crowded around her to get a good look at the writing.

REASSIGNMENT: PROTECT HAROLD JENKINS.

"Harold Jenkins?" Allison questioned.

Diego looked up at Five, his eyebrows furrowed as he demanded, "Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?"