Who Is Nicky?

Number Five woke up in a strange place. Looking around, he determined he was alone and figured it was best to find out where he was, and how to escape. The room was a mess, and there were two bunk beds, so other people must be kept here too. Where they were, Five had no idea. He walked up and tried the door, surprised when the knob twisted. He carefully left the room, as quietly as possible, and made his way down the hall.

The last thing he remembered was holding his siblings hands as he desperately tried to save them from the impending apocalypse. He knows he isn't the best brother, but at least he tries, right? He loves his siblings, he doesn't show it well, but it's true. Painfully true to be honest. On the subject of his siblings, where were they right now? Were they safe? Did they know he was missing? Were they looking for him? Did they even care?

He walked down the stairs, and noticed a door that likely led outside. He was walking toward it until he heard children yelling from a room nearby. Against his better judgement, he followed the sound into a small kitchen. Once the door closed behind him, a woman seemingly greeted him.

"Oh, good morning Nicky. I was just about to go wake you up," she said as she picked up a plate of pancakes and set it at an empty table setting. A tired man sipping on coffee and 3 fighting children had already sat down and began eating. "You'll have to hurry because we're running a bit late," She looked up at him. "What are you wearing?" Five looked down and saw the uniform he had worn every day of his sad pathetic childhood.

"The Umbrella Academy uniform?" Five replied. The lack of recognition on the woman's face was confusing, until it finally hit him.

Before he could speak, however, the boy with longer hair asked, "There's a school for umbrellas? Since when? And how do you fit into the uniform? I mean you're scrawny, but not that scrawny."

Five rolled his eyes, and sighed. "It's from a book I read," he scoffed at the child's idiocy. He didn't know it was possible to be dumber than Klaus.

"Oh, that's nice. What's it about?" The woman asked sitting down in another seat.

Five didn't want to answer, so he changed the subject. "I'm not hungry, I'll just have some coffee," he walked over to the pot, pouring himself a cup.

"Okay, but we don't have any sugar or creamer," she replied, looking at him, once again, confused.

"Did I stutter?" Five turned around and leaned against the counter. At this point one of the kids –the girl- piped in.

"You hate black coffee, Nicky," She accused.

"No I don't" He instantly responded. Five took a sip out of his mug, and it was surprisingly not awful. "Guess I didn't have to kill anyone for that decent cup of coffee." He mumbled to himself.

The shorter haired boy looked up at him, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing," Five answered. The other boy didn't respond, so he started connecting the dots. The woman had no idea what he was talking about when he mentioned the Academy, which was weird because she was definitely old enough to have at least heard about them.

While he was in the apocalypse he'd had the idea that if one were to find the right calculation, they could travel not only through time, but through dimensional barriers. With that ability, someone could travel to an entire different version of earth. When Five was trying to find the equation to get both him, and his family to safety, he must have found that calculation by accident. Problem was he had no idea what he'd done differently, and that was an important factor in getting him home.

These people were probably his double's family. His double who had been given an actual name, Nicky. This must be what life could have been if he was just a regular kid. No powers, no abusive billionaire father, no Commission, no apocalypse, just a happy family. Judging by the fighting, it wasn't perfect but nobody was dead, nobody was missing, just a few disagreements here and there.