The Umbrella Academy Hidden Fates Of Darkness By BrokendreamsxoZ

Chapter Three - Tick Tock

Sat on a bench in the middle of a natures park overlooking a pond. 

Five drank a strong black coffee and took hungry bites of a peanut butter and marsh mellow sandwich. 

He had spent the best part of the morning enjoying the things he was sure he would never get to do again. 

But also looking to see the similarities and differences of this new timeline. 

it may of looked like he was doing nothing important and nothing  of great value. 

But he was actually thinking carefully and calculating the future events and the outcomes of those events. 

He had jumped forward in time quite a lot this morning. He didn't go far just days, and weeks ahead to see if the end of the world would be sooner rather than later. 

But either he was jumping to not the right time and needed to go further or Nobody was very good at hiding what she wasn't ready for him to see. 

"you have a questions?" 

The coffee Five was holding  jolted out of his hand and onto the floor. 

Annoyed, he checked his shorts to make sure the coffee hadn't stained him. 

"what are you doing here?"  

"Don't worry these visits won't be frequent i could just see you getting frustrated over the answers you don't fully have yet so i thought i would come and help"

"help?" Five almost chuckled. 

"i sense a hint of .. whats the word .. hate ... no .. ungratefulness.. no that's not it .. distain .. hmmm are you regretting your decision?" 

"you could say that" Five looked away from her uncomfortable. 

"well you could always say you wish to cease to exist but your not going to say it .. you still are hoping for a way to outsmart me" 

Five looked back to see her gleeful expression. 

She was enjoying this, it was just a game to her. 

"go on then your questions" she encouraged with a smirk "ask me" 

"we don't age? but others do?" 

"yes" she nodded 

"but the timeline resets so anyone we have known they reset with the timeline"

"maybe" 

"that's not a straight answer" Five frowned 

"well if they always reset with the timeline then you will never truly experience great loss" 

"smart answer, but... my family resets every time right?" 

"yes .. but are you sure you want that? your going to have to see them and yourself die over and over again in so many painful and brutal ways while others around you that you have come to know and be friends with or fall in love with or helped won't always reset with you surely that would drive one if not all, to madness" 

Five thought this answer through. It was too late to go back on the deal now. But all he needed was time to figure a way out of it. He was outmatched and maybe outsmarted. And he was scared of Nobody. But he had all morning to think and what he realized was not so long ago he had considered the only way to save everyone was for him and his family to cease to exist but now they had been brought back to a different timeline that didn't affect the one great timeline so maybe it wasn't about ceasing to exist maybe it was about  finding a way to change the perfect one timeline into getting it to accept him and his family.  Allowing them both to co-exist. 

And if there was a powerful enough source that could create and form a timeline. Maybe there was another powerful source that he could control that could allow him and his family to exist in the one timeline. 

Five saw Nobody smoothing out the wrinkles in her black dress. He realized he had been silent for far too long. 

"how often will the apocalypse happen?" 

"I'l  make new terms to the deal, you save the world from an apocalypse and i will give you and your family and this world about ten or eleven years of peace each time so once every ten or eleven years  a new apocalypse will happen and you'll never be able to time jump exactly before the  apocalypse,  but i will allow you to jump forward in time to the day of the next apocalypse  where there will be hints and clues as to what caused it. If at any point you fail at saving the world and the timeline has to be reset the next apocalypse will happen in ten months and it will keep happening every ten months if you keep failing to save it and the only way to reset the timeline to peace for the next ten to eleven years is to save it,  do you understand"

Five nodded. 

"so you just saved the world,  so enjoy the next ten or eleven years" getting up from the bench Nobody picks up the spilled coffee cup from the ground. 

Five stands up too . 

Knowing what he was about to do she turned away from him and walked over to a bin to get rid of the coffee cup. When she turned back round. 

Five had teleported back from the future. His unform was steaming with grey smoke, his hair disheveled, his eyes brimmed with tears, his expression filled with rage. His fists clenched tightly, shaking with fear and anger, and grief. 

And when his eyes met Nobody's, he saw her grinning at him as she walked in his direction there wasn't a single ounce of sympathy coming from her. 

"i think i'l call myself Nora" she flashed her white teeth at him ,  before leaning down to whisper in his ear "tick, tock goes the clock"