The Umbrella Academy: The End

Paying the Piper

Five stood in his father's office while the man wrote in his blasted journal. As usual, Dad didn't look up, more interested in his own words than connecting with his children. If Vanya's book was correct, the habit never changed.

Five waited, knowing the old man's power moves. Make the children wait, show them they're not important. 

Pogo stood by Dad's side, saying nothing. He kept glancing at Five, emotion in his gaze. Five wanted nothing more than to sit with Pogo, talk, hangout. The chimp acted more of a father to him than Reginal Hargreeves. Pogo looked solemn, almost teary. Five let his eyes tear up for both of them.

Dad slammed his pen down. "Number Five." Finally, the anger.

Five kept his gaze on Pogo for a few more seconds before turning to his father.

"You left this house without permission. You openly defied my direct order. You time-traveled without scope, perspective, or skill. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I screwed up."

Dad scowled. "You most certainly did. How long?" He raised his chin, glaring down at the boy.

"Half a year." Five kept his gaze locked on his father's, not flinching. The man hardly scared him anymore.

"You're already fourteen." Dad tented his fingers. "And are now the oldest."

Five said nothing. Age was a number. Leading the Umbrella Academy was immaterial to saving his brothers, sisters, and the world.

"What did you find?"

"Nothing, sir. Nothing at all. Rubble and ruin everywhere. No people, no animals. It was a wasteland." He thought his father twitched. Telling someone the world ended in seventeen years was kind of a big thing. But Dad didn't seem fazed at all.

"Did you discover how it happened?"

"No, sir. No idea." Not true, and his father could guess, anyway. The man knew about Vanya's powers, and he still treated her like furniture.

"How did you get back?"

Five sucked in a breath. Should he tell? Why not? Dad couldn't do a thing about it. And Old Five didn't tell him not to share.

He swallowed. "My older self brought me." He left it there. His father didn't need to know about the briefcase.

Dad raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. How old was he?"

A loaded question. Five hedged. "I don't know. Old, as old as you."

Dad leaned over his desk. His eyes blazed with his death glare. "What did he tell you?"

Five shrugged.

Play stupid, he'll never know.

Dad always knew. Lying to him bordered on impossible, but Five did it anyway. The book and the envelope needed to be hidden outside the house. He'd never allow Dad to look at those.

"Nothing," he lied. "He handed me a sandwich. And said, 'I'm future you, and you gotta go home.' He teleported once to prove himself. Then he grabbed my arm, and we ended up here before I could finish my lunch."

Dad eyed him over the desk, saying nothing. The silent treatment was one of his favorite tricks to make the kids rat each other out. He must have read it in a detective novel. Wise to it, Five stood through the awkward silence, hands in pockets, rocking on his heels.

"Number Five." Dad's voice held serious authority.

Five repressed a laugh. Running from the house and time-traveling had been a rush of defiance. But this right here? This felt better.

"Okay, he did say one thing. I asked about the ruins. He told me if he brought me home, it'd fix everything." A nugget for Dad to chew on. Force the man to worry for the next seventeen years whether Five was telling the truth.

Dad snorted and stood from his desk. He'd never used corporal punishment. Most of them could sneak out from under a raised hand or use their powers. Dad's power was psychological. Vanya's book taught him that.

Now, with Dad standing over Five, trying to intimidate. Honestly, his future self wasn't much taller than his current 5'2" stature. Most men would be taller than him. Time to stop being annoyed by superior height.

He cocked his head to keep his gaze on his father's. Nothing was more intimidating or confident than eye contact. His own trick began to work. His father didn't look away and inched even closer. Two very menacing activities if you were vulnerable. And Five no longer was.

"Your ambition outranks your ability. You must learn your place, Number Five. You will be punished for your arrogance and insubordination."

A whiney protest sounded more like a fourteen-year-old. "I just spend six months eating old food and bugs..."

His father cut him off with a look. "You are grounded for the next month. You will stay in the house. Understood?"

"But..."

"And you will stay in your room except for meals. I do not want you convincing your siblings into doing anything similarly stupid."

Five's shoulders drooped, and his chin fell to his chest. "Yes, sir." He put as much defeat as was tolerable into those words.

Let the man think he won.

Five had alternative plans for the Umbrella Academy, and Reginald Hargreeves had no say in them.