His Only Hope

What's at Stake

You managed to force some food down at the lunch bar, your head still throbbing from earlier. You sat down heavily at one of the corner tables, holding your head in your hands and closing your eyes.

There were so many things you needed to do.

Talk to Oliver. Find out where Five had disappeared to and help him figure out how to stop the paradox. Hopefully meet up with Colleen and Mark and reunite the former with her son.

"Eight, you good?" Your head snapped up and you saw Diego standing in front of you, his eyebrows drawn together.

"Yeah, fine," you said absentmindedly. "Hey, have you seen Five?"

"Yeah," Diego replied, sitting at the table with you and spinning a dagger on his fingers. "He ran off with Lila to save the world or something."

"Of course he did," you muttered, rubbing your temples. "He didn't say anything else?"

"Well, he told me to tell you to stay here, and that he'll take care of everything." Diego laughed dryly. "Funny how they can't seem to trust us with anything important even though we've both saved their asses multiple times, huh?"

"Where are Allison and Viktor?" you asked, ignoring him even though he was right. And it stung.

"I have no idea," he replied.

"They went to meet with the Sparrows and made me stay here," Luther replied, coming around the corner with a banana.

"What?" you and Diego both burst, leaping up from the table.

"Yeah," Luther said with a shrug as he took a large bite of the fruit. "Allison called me 'Stockholm'. Not sure what that means."

"I have to go talk to one of the Sparrows," you said, turning and making your way toward the front doors.

"Hey, Eight!" Diego called, jogging after you and grabbing your shoulder. "Listen, okay? You're not gonna go charging into danger on your own."

"This is something I have to do myself," you replied, wrenching your arm away. "Stay here and make sure nothing big happens while everyone's gone. I know how to take care of myself."

"You have blood on the back of your head," Diego said before you could turn around, and sure enough, when you touched your hair your fingertips came away crusted with dried blood. "What the hell happened?"

When I slammed into the wall.

"It's probably from our fight with the Sparrows," you lied, beginning to walk away again.

"You little... stop running away from me! I'm trying to keep you safe!" 

You formed a shield around him without looking behind you and kept walking, ignoring how weak using your power made you feel. Nobody was around, so luckily they wouldn't notice your glowing force field in the middle of the room.

"I keep myself safe," you called back as he pounded angrily on the glowing walls. "Don't follow me."

As soon as you were outside, you dropped the shield with a gasp and began hastily walking the route back to the Sparrow's house - no. The Umbrella Academy. Your house.

When you arrived, your legs ached. It was a long walk, and being in a coma for more than a decade hadn't exactly made you very strong. When you made it to the academy, you saw Allison and Viktor talking to Ben and the girl with the sunglasses and short hair. You began hastily making your way toward them, but were stopped by a large hand on your shoulder.

You spun around, forming a shield around your offender - it was Oliver. You exhaled, mostly in relief, until he looked at his surroundings and scoffed.

"If you think I couldn't burn this down in a second, you're insane."