Umbrella Graduation ♡ Five x Lila

0.1: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - ABBA

On the twelfth hour of October first, 1999; forty-three women around the world gave birth. This may sound completely mundane at first—you may think this happens everyday, but considering none of these women were pregenant when the day had initially began...It made for quite a mysterious case. Due to the fatal nature of this occurence - only few mother's miraculously surviving the sudden uturine, and vaginal stretching without the nine months worth of contractions to prepare the human body for birthing conditions - a lot of the world tried to keep this on the down low. Significant news outlets were paid not to cover the occasion, people who took part in the event were promptly given a Non-Disclosure Agreement to sign with a hefty payment that would undoubtedly cover medical bills, funeral services, or whatever else the families happened to be afflicted by. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was known far and wide as an eccentric billionaire, and explorer, so when he caught wind of the strange news he was fast to board flights all around the world to convene with these families - he could only hope to find them before any NDAs were signed, and he was willing to multiply any offers to these families by any amount in the name of science. Hargreeves' first act was to pay them without any reason; a measly one million dollars. If they asked why he would say it was compensation "for their precious time" or something calculated to sound reasonable, yet nothing quite made these less fortunate families understand Reginald handing out large sums of money like pocket change. Out of the forty-three families he spoke with, he was able to help all of them in one way or another, gain their contacts for regular updates in regards to their living situation and/or mystery children, and some of them went as far as to let Reginald take the children off of their hands. He went home with seven of them. They were named solely on what order he received these children in, and had been raised being referred to as numbers one through seven all their lives. The children went on to define themselves by their numbers...

     Number One is a leader, standing tall among his siblings, and above all else was an optimistic inspiration to the Hargreeves' family, and people all around the globe who knew of him. Number Two is an overachiever; always doing his best to try earn his spot as number two, but it always felt like he fell short due to his personality being a pessimistic opposite to his aspirational brother. Number Three is a cheat; using her ability to get things easier, and she could have honestly toppled the whole number system if it weren't for her being a child aching to conform - her biggest flaw was the fact she wanted to be the very best, but didn't think to make herself as such. Number Four is a failure, and that's putting it kindly. Considering they failed to harness the depths of their ability; they definitely suited a lower number, but at least they functioned to set an example their father could use against them to try bolster the team. Four was someone mentioned as an example of what they shouldn't be. Number Five is a balanced boy, intelligent, and something of a cheat himself. But what differed him from his sister was the fact he adapted rather than plain old used his ability to get whatever he so pleased. Number Six was a friendly child, but unfortunately died an honourable death in the midst of a mission. And number Seven is...An ordinary girl. Like any other. It was no wonder Seven was kept out of the spotlight.

These children were raised to make the best out of their super abilities, to bring fame to their family name as superheroes, and overall to build an honourable future for them all. His wife, and the Hargreeves kids' mother; Grace Hargreeves was a great help in nurturing the Hargreeves where Reginald couldn't. She made their youth feel like less of an experiment, and instead made it only partially an experimentation while simultaneously being a life. This was an unexpected benefit to Reginald too! The children were able to conform to the standards Reginald had anticipated for this experiment, and hence lead his findings in the right direction.

One thing that was most upsetting was the multitude of parents and carers of the other thirty-six children that Reginald hadn't adopted under his name - a sizeable portion of them had reached out to offer their children for more money, for fame, or not being able to handle the children's abilities. Reginald wasn't particularly sure how to handle the offers considering he had a meticulous way of parenting these gifted children that may not be as easy to replicate later in a child's life, so naturally he refrained from taking on additional children and compensated the families as need be. But the concern lingered in his mind...Could he take more kids into the Umbrella Academy? Would it be possible to test their level of capabilities, and consequently measure Reginald's own ability to take them in? Money is no issue here - rather the age that may be less easy to manipulate. Sure on an emotional level one can easily manipulate a child, but Reginald wasn't as certain on the physical manipulation of the brain that he tends to utilise for his experimentation. There was nothing else that would have halted him from immediately taking the offer for his own curiosity's sake.