Control {The Umbrella Academy} *Complete*

Chapter 1

March 25th, 2019

"Leta?" The lanky blond sat on a bed in the middle of her studio apartment. The voice had come through her door, seeping under the cracks, wriggling their way to her ears. She raised an eyebrow, revealing an icy orb as she glared at the plywood surface.

"What is it?" Her other eye peeled open as the door creaked open. Her gaze landed on the man as he stared back at her. Sitting all alone in the middle of a silent room, a pair of earmuffs strapped to her head. "Do you need something Diego?" She asked, looking his leather clad form up and down with uncharacteristic irritation.

His eyes were wide. They were sad, she could tell. He always looked sad these days, but not like this. She reached up, plucking the muffs off her ears, looking him dead in the eyes.

Her heart dropped as his thoughts ran through her head.

The words rang through her head before they even had the opportunity to pass his horrified lips. "He's dead."

Diego walked slowly over to her, the silent room rapidly filling with every shock of sound within a hundred miles. Her blood rushing, pounding in her ears. He lifted the headphones from the ground, her head bending over slightly as he slipped them back over her ears. "Lee. I'm sorry. He died peacefully in his sleep. I looked at the report myself." She looked down at her hands, fingertips shaking as they clasped together. Leta glanced up at him, not sure what to do. Diego sat down beside her, hands tapping as he thought.

She nodded, sliding over. "I guess that it's time, them." Diego nodded, solemn even as she seemed calm.

"To go back?"

She stood and marched past him, her footsteps nearly silent, like a ghost, as if her body was skimming just above the earth. He didn't stand left kneeling in front of her mattress, unable to think of what to do. "He's really gone." She muttered. "About time."

*~*

Allison Hargreaves, household name and international superstar, stood on the doorstep of her childhood home. A place she had never dreamed of returning. The door opened slowly, heavy just as she remembered, weighted with despair, desperation, or ancient oak and iron she couldn't tell.. The foyer was tall, empty, pristine. Just as it was when she left so long ago. She could remember nearly every bit of her torcherous childhood within these walls. And she had returned of her own free will. The heavy weight left her fingers but did not leave her chest.

She hadn't been there more than a moment when the voice hit her ears. "Hey Allison." Her heart fluttered, turning to see a woman emerging from the sitting room. Her body was drowned in a black cardigan, almost dragging along the ground as her short, gaunt form emerged to see the vibrant, lively other.

"Leta, is that you?" She slowly walked forward, looking at her. The two hadn't been in the same room in over a decade.

"Yeah, who else would wear these?" Leta gestured to the ridiculous headset resting on her ears. "No one with eyes I can tell you that." She snickered at her own humorless joke, "I've seen you in all the papers you know."

Allison smiled a bit, unable to think of a better response. "Well, it's not all fun and games. I heard you and Diego still see each other?" She raised an eyebrow, Leta letting out a small laugh. She shifted a bit making Allison let her go.

"Not exactly. I rent an apartment across from his, I help him out sometimes. You know, patch him up." Allison let out a sarcastic laugh.

"He's still running around in that spandex vigilante getup then?"

Leta nodded, minorly amused herself. "Yup. Still trying to live up to your Dad's hero status. Even if..." Leta dropped her hands, fiddling with the string around her wrist.

"Hey, we got time to talk about all of this. I know you never really felt at home here, but you're always welcome." She nodded, Allison patting her arm gently.

"I hate to intrude-" the door closed abruptly behind them, a familiar femanine voice joining the chorus.

"Vanya! I thought you wouldn't come!" Allison sprung towards her sister wrapping her in a hug. Vanya smiled, Leta did not.

"I couldn't miss Dad's funeral." She said, raising her hand to Allison's shoulders, gently moving her away.

"Hey Leta, long time no see?" Leta looked at her. She tried to ignore it, but words were not something easily forgotten. Especially to her. All she could see was the cover of a book plastered to her face.

Her lips parted and quickly sprung back together like a fish sputtering to breath when pulled onto dry land. Funny how they never suffocated of their own accord. She was never good at confrontation. "Vanya. Glad you could come." It was meant as a statement but came out as an unsure murmur. Leta moved her eyes down to inspect her hands, trying to find her composure. "Excuse me."

The blond turned swiftly on her converse heel and darted up to the second floor of the building. What to find, she didn't know, but she was going to look. As long as it was somewhere away from her.

The same floorboards creaked now as they did when she was a kid. Two steps to the right, forward five, next on the left and so on. It was like a dance only she knew of.

When they were still young, Diego would teach her to sneak down these halls. And she would teach Klaus, so they could steal from Reginald's massive alcohol stash and drink till the day turned upside down. Not one board was different. It was easy to move without a sound. Without it catching her notice but she found the end of the corridors, the massive red doors barracading away a life, or at this moment only its vestiges.

The office of Reginald Hargreeves.

And the door was ajar.