Grand Theft (The Umbrella Academy)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Connor

Five and Fleur walked down the hallway of the apartment complex. "Room 9.. 10.. 11.. and Room 12," Fleur counted as they went. The door was already cracked upon arrival.

"Five, Connor, I've been waiting for you," the familiar voice of the Handler called. "Just the two of you? Disappointed that Haddock won't be joining us though I must say." They entered to find the Griddy's waitress tied up and gagged.

Fleur shot him a concerned glance. He returned it but went back to his steel stare. He has more than enough on his plate right now than to be worrying over someone other than his family. "You must really like donuts." Five put his hands in his pockets.

"Help me!" Agnes muffled through the cloth.

Fleur paced a few steps. "You're alive?" Her eyes continuously flickered to the Griddy's waitress. She contemplated whether or not she could save her with minimal consequences, but this set up seemed to easy.

"Yes. It appears that way." She sighed. "It's been a while."

"Not long enough." She crossed her arms. Didn't matter if it was years or seconds. She hated the likes of her.

"Three days," Five responded to the Handler.

"For you, maybe. But for me, it's been a lot longer since I've seen those adorable little shorts and those lovely blue eyes."

"Well, you've had time to heal," Five stated.

"Luckily, for the three of us, time is the one thing my organization has an abundance of." She flourished her hands with a smile. The woman was proud of her organization. Proud of the power she held. It was everything to her.

"Got your message, by the way." Five slowly paced a few steps. "Nice packaging."

"Fortune cookies aren't exactly Commission protocol though. I'm surprised." Fleur lifted a brow. She had no idea what she was talking about but it made her lucky guess sound smart.

"There have been... a lot of changes since you left the Commission. You three really did some damage. The briefcases were all but destroyed, to say nothing of the... highly trained personnel you killed. After all, what is an institution if not for—"

"Why did you send for us? What do you want?" Fleur turned her nose up. Her eyes bore into hers but the Handler didn't show the same hidden fear of her as she did the first time they met. Despite Five being right beside Fleur, her leverage as Haddock called him, the old witch looked her dead in the eye.

That should've been her first clue.

"To be happy. To have a simple... unfettered life, to do the work my superiors require. But... your being here, well, it complicates all that." She sat down on the couch and waved for them to also, but they responded with lips curled in disdain.

"Billions of people will die tonight. You can change that," Five spat.

"Tonight, tomorrow. So little difference in the scheme of things. Don't you remember the Commission's raison d'être?" She lightly threw her hands up. "What's meant to be is meant to be, or, as I like to say, que será, será." Fleur scoffed.

"It's bullshit in any language," Five snarled. "Why did you call us here?"

"I wanna offer you a choice. Everyone's going to die tonight, but... unlike the rest of the world, you have a way out." Fleur shifted uncomfortably. "You can abandon your family and skip ahead to the apocalypse, take a walkabout for a few decades, wondering if I'll comeback and offer you a job again, or you can stay here, with your family. And die a horrible death."