Number One (a UA fanfic)

XII

Luther fluttered his eyes open. He noticed three things: He's in his old room laying down on his old bed, Reginald is sitting across him with Pogo and Grace, and he had no idea how he got there or why are they staring at him like they're going to a funeral.

"Dad?" Luther called out. "Mum? Pogo? Wh-"

"Relax, Luther," Grace said, breaking the silence between the three of them. "You must be exhausted and sore. You'll be ok, honey."

"Mum?" Luther called for her, feeling a bit uneasy in the guts. "What's going on?"

"Rest, Number One," Reginald interrupted. "The serum needs time to properly sit in."

What serum? Luther looked down his torso to reveal... not his torso. The torso and the arms were obscenely hairy, almost inhuman-like. The torso and the arms were unbelievably muscular (Luther is muscular but this is... not normal) and the skin was a few shades darker as compared to his face.

"What happened to me?" Luther asked. "Why am I like this?"

"I found you near-death at the doorstep of the Academy," Reginald answered. "We took the necessary measures to make sure our Number One doesn't die today."

"What?!"

"I've told you, you will not be able to survive on your own, Number One," Reginald elaborated. "You are not fit to live on your own. You nearly died today, had it not been my kindness, you would've been."

"I was holding up well on my own!"

"You placed all your faith on one person," Reginald countered. "You killed that person."

"Eden died?" Luther asked, feeling intense grief as he felt a hard punch had landed on his guts. His first outsider friend, his only outsider friend, died. "Where's his body?"

"You failed to protect your own ally, how can you be expected to protect yourself?" Reginald barked. "Perhaps you should stop dreaming about civil life and start focusing on what you were born for."

"What was I born for?"

"To be Number One," Reginald answered, his facial expression didn't change once. The coldness set an unease feeling in him. "You have always been best at serving. You always did all my commands perfectly and with no doubt. This is your true purpose in life. This is your true calling."

"To what?"

"To serve the world!" Reginald smirked. Pogo looked down. "What else were you born for? That friend of yours wouldn't even know you if you weren't Number One-"

"How do you know?"

"Why else would you be housed right after you escaped from here?" Reginald asked back. "You two were absolute strangers, were you not? Why would he ever take in a clueless 'holier-than-thou' fool who knew nothing of the real world?"

Luther rubbed his face as he ingested what Reginald had said to him. Why did Eden take him in? What was the purpose? He didn't know them beforehand and they didn't know him, it's not like he was the friendliest, after all.

"You're Luther Hargreeves, aren't you?" Eden smiled. "Number One with the super strength?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, you are definitely accepted here. Come on, follow me."

"How did he let you stay in his place?"

"The pronouns are they/them," Luther countered, catching sight of Reginald rolling his eyes but said nothing. "I came to their shop and asked if there's any vacancy there for me to work at, and they said there is."

"Seemed unlikely that you were accepted right away."

"I told him that I have super strength and I can help them with cargo," Luther elaborated. "I need a place to stay and herbs, spices, and flavourings aren't too heavy."

"Even you need to cower under Number One," Reginald comments. "Even you couldn't hide the fact that you're Number One. Proves my point, you can't live on your own."

"But they cared about Luther too!" Luther interrupted. "They asked all about me that's not connected to the Academy too! They took me out on games and stuff, we had heart-to-heart that's unrelated to you!"

"Did you really?" Reginald asked. "Or are you just assuring yourself?"

"What?"

"The human mind is very flawed, Number One," Reginald explained. "Things can be switched and can be falsified, even if you are a live witness. You had this bias that he's a good guy-"

"They're."

"That you turned a blind eye towards his weaknesses and the faults in his way," Reginald continued as if he wasn't interrupted at all.

"They killed my friend-"

"Death is normal, people die every day," Reginald interrupted. "Number Six died and Number Five is lost, yet the Umbrella Academy goes on. The world goes on. No man is so important to stop the whole world for him which proves that care and love are all temporary, never truly eternal."

"But-"

"But we are family, Number One." Reginald cuts him. "We don't forget about Number Six or Number Five. We carry their memories with us each day, something other people will not do. They don't care about you, they only cared about the one who's going to save them. Let this be a lesson for you to break free from your wild childish fantasies."

Luther nodded. Reginald started to stand up from his chair and walk out the room with Pogo and Grace trailing behind him when Luther calls out, "Dad?"

Reginald didn't turn around, but he did stop. Luther takes this as his cue to speak. "Thank you for giving me a second chance."

"I have a mission for you," Reginald said. "I'll be sending you up to the moon. For how long I cannot say. I have the technology ready to accommodate you."

"What do I have to do?"

"You will need to send reports of the moon," Reginald elaborated. "On the soil, the sky, if anything changes at all."

"Alright, Dad."

"I'll be leaving you to rest, the serum needs to kick in," Reginald continued. "Rest, Number One."

Why should he stop being Number One?