a mannequin and a boy • the umbrella academy ON HOLD

volume one, issue 9

Dolores thought her biggest negative withdrawal from being a mannequin would be the speech troubles for the first couple hours, but no- apparently, her body preferred the mannequin. Typical. Dolores always gets stuck with the bad luck. And now she's going through the end of the world, again, for the second time. Life could probably get better.

Her eyes drifted open to see a worried Klaus and a so-so Five gazing at her, trying to study all they could about her condition. She was laid down, on one of their beds (she couldn't tell whose,) and her body was kind of limp. Weak. Like it had been before.

"We don't have time to wait for her, Klaus. We have to go," Five whispered to Klaus, careful not to wake Dolores. Too late for that.

"Wait for me? What do you mean?" She asked, shooting up in bed with an awful headache. She had to whimper in pain, and Five immediately jumped to her side.

"Dolores. Calm down. We're just gonna go save the world, okay? I'll come back to you," he assured, his green eyes laced with the concern that was familiar to Dolores. She smiled softly, swinging her legs off the bed.

"Pain never stopped you, Five. I'm coming with you, to wherever you're going," she told him, standing up now. Her head was pounding as if she was sick, but she wasn't- at least, not in the normal way. She could at least deal with fever, but whatever she was feeling now was unfamiliar.

"You're a lookout. That's it," Five told her after pondering it for a long time. Klaus wanted to say something, but he didn't. At that moment, Dolores wondered where Ben could be, but she didn't question it as she squealed in glee, sharply taking the wind out of Five as she hugged him tight.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed, grinning as she stood back. She blushed, realizing what she had done. "I mean- sorry."

Five didn't say anything, just kept that same scowl he always had on his face. But Dolores could tell he kind of liked it.

"Let's go, we don't want to waste a moment."

And then, Dolores ended up on the lookout with Klaus and Ben. Ben was constantly asking her questions about their family- questions based on a theory, but hey, it was two "twins" reunited, so what's wrong with hope?

"So we went from some jam-packed action in a bowling alley-" Dolores scoffed, knowing she was only a lookout then too, but she actually failed as one, "- to looking out for nothing outside of some boring theater."

"Uh, guys? Do we not go in when there's a bunch of guys filing in there, all clad in black vests and holding guns?" Dolores asked, having noticed the long line of such men. She quietly cleared her throat, pointing discretely to them.

"Oh, yeah, we should probably go in now," Klaus mentioned, running inside a different entrance with Ben and Dolores in tow.

Dolores has never been a fighter, and that wasn't about to change soon- she had a gun held to her head already in the past day and a half, but she still wouldn't fight. Time seemed to slow, however, when she had to duck and cover under seats, narrowly avoid every bullet hurled at her, and crawl just to see Five. If he was even at the stage, trying to get to Vanya too.

"Five!"

"Dolores, what are you doing here? it's dangerous!"

"Do I ever listen? Besides, I'm a lookout- I have to warn you of these stuff. There's guys shooting at you, by the way!"

Five just rolled his eyes, but Dolores could obviously see a little grin on his face. He couldn't help it, her cheekiness amused him- he wished he had known of it sooner.

"Dolores, Vanya is currently out of control and I'm really not sure I can save the world this time. But I have an idea," Five yelled over the noise of the wind that had come out of the hole in the roof- which apparently had appeared? And all of the shooting guys from the commission were gone, too?

Dolores had no idea what happened, to be honest. She had gotten lost in Five's eyes, and his smile, and his surprising calmness in the situation.

"Everyone get up, I have an idea- We use my ability to time travel. But this time, I'll take you with me." Five sounded crazy, and he obviously didn't seem to know what he was doing- but Dolores knew less than to doubt him, though.

"You can do that?"

"I don't know. I've never tried it before." Everyone was doubting Five, but he knew this was all he had to do. All he could do.

"What's the worst that can happen? You're lookin' at it a 58-year-old man inside a child's body, so there's that."

"Well... I trust you," Dolores told him, taking his hand gently.

Everyone was slowly agreeing to it, and that's all Five needed. He began to lock hands with the people around him, hesitating as the circle closed. He took a moment to give one last, big hug to Dolores, letting himself relax as she hugged him back and also gently kissed his cheek.

"Okay, great. Luther, grab Vanya." Luther did just as he was told, careful not to hurt the already unconscious girl.

"Wait, should we be taking her? I mean, if she's the cause of the apocalypse. Isn't that like taking the bomb with us?"

"The apocalypse will always happen and Vanya will always be the cause, unless we take her with us and fix her."

Five began to generate the proper amount of energy he needed to time travel everyone in his family- plus Dolores- out of the apocalyptic world they were stuck in.

"Ah! It's working! Hold on! It's gonna get messy!" Five yelled, happy that it was working. Dolores grinned, proud of him- but her glee was short lived.

She found that, while all the other members of the family were being reversed in age, she was being reversed in form. Before long, a thirteen-year-old Luther was holding a same age Vanya, and the same old Five Hargreeves was holding a mannequin head- Dolores.

author's note
last chapter until the new season comes out- sorry for leaving y'all for like a long month and then just up and only giving you a bad chapter with bad writing. but hey, at least I'll improve while we wait for the new season! this has been a great time with y'all, thanks for reading!

question of the chapter: if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
my answer: Pay off family debts, and give the rest of the money to the trust of my parents.

that's all! thank you so much for giving this book a chance, I love you all so much.

edited on June 22nd, 2020- whew. I am so proud of myself. I did plenty. I'm sorry the editing took so long, but this book is officially completed until the second season comes out in a month. Stay tuned for volume two!