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Number Five woke up in a strange place. Looking around, he determined he was alone and figured it was best to find out where he was, and how to escape. The room was a mess, and there were two bunk beds, so other people must be kept here too. Where they were, Five had no idea. He walked up and tried the door, surprised when the knob twisted. He carefully left the room, as quietly as possible, and made his way down the hall.
The last thing he remembered was holding his siblings hands as he desperately tried to save them from the impending apocalypse. He knows he isn’t the best brother, but at least he tries, right? He loves his siblings, he doesn’t show it well, but it’s true. Painfully true to be honest. On the subject of his siblings, where were they right now? Were they safe? Did they know he was missing? Were they looking for him? Did they even care?
He walked down the stairs, and noticed a door that likely led outside. He was walking toward it until he heard children yelling from a room nearby. Against his better judgement, he followed the sound into a small kitchen. Once the door closed behind him, a woman seemingly greeted him.
“Oh, good morning Nicky. I was just about to go wake you up,” she said as she picked up a plate of pancakes and set it at an empty table setting. A tired man sipping on coffee and 3 fighting children had already sat down and began eating. “You’ll have to hurry because we’re running a bit late,” She looked up at him. “What are you wearing?” Five looked down and saw the uniform he had worn every day of his sad pathetic childhood.
“The Umbrella Academy uniform?” Five replied. The lack of recognition on the woman’s face was confusing, until it finally hit him.
Before he could speak, however, the boy with longer hair asked, “There’s a school for umbrellas? Since when? And how do you fit into the uniform? I mean you’re scrawny, but not that scrawny.”
Five rolled his eyes, and sighed. “It’s from a book I read,” he scoffed at the child’s idiocy. He didn’t know it was possible to be dumber than Klaus.
“Oh, that’s nice. What’s it about?” The woman asked sitting down in another seat.
Five didn’t want to answer, so he changed the subject. “I’m not hungry, I’ll just have some coffee,” he walked over to the pot, pouring himself a cup.
“Okay, but we don’t have any sugar or creamer,” she replied, looking at him, once again, confused.
“Did I stutter?” Five turned around and leaned against the counter. At this point one of the kids –the girl- piped in.
“You hate black coffee, Nicky,” She accused.
“No I don’t” He instantly responded. Five took a sip out of his mug, and it was surprisingly not awful. “Guess I didn’t have to kill anyone for that decent cup of coffee.” He mumbled to himself.
The shorter haired boy looked up at him, “What did you just say?”
“Nothing,” Five answered. The other boy didn’t respond, so he started connecting the dots. The woman had no idea what he was talking about when he mentioned the Academy, which was weird because she was definitely old enough to have at least heard about them.
While he was in the apocalypse he’d had the idea that if one were to find the right calculation, they could travel not only through time, but through dimensional barriers. With that ability, someone could travel to an entire different version of earth. When Five was trying to find the equation to get both him, and his family to safety, he must have found that calculation by accident. Problem was he had no idea what he’d done differently, and that was an important factor in getting him home.
These people were probably his double’s family. His double who had been given an actual name, Nicky. This must be what life could have been if he was just a regular kid. No powers, no abusive billionaire father, no Commission, no apocalypse, just a happy family. Judging by the fighting, it wasn’t perfect but nobody was dead, nobody was missing, just a few disagreements here and there.
Five’s thinking was cut off when the woman –Nicky’s mother probably- suddenly stood up. “Come on kids, we have to go. Finish up your breakfast and get moving!”
“Wait, where are we going?” Five asked.
“School, were else?” She replied, ushering him and the other kids out of the house, and into the car. Five was going to kill someone. Or maybe himself.
~~~~
Number Five was in the car, the backpack that had been shoved into his hands was sitting in his lap. He’d planned on ignoring the children, but they were talking about semi-important details he’d probably need to successfully pretend to be this Nicky kid.
“You’re so lucky. You get at least one class alone,” The girl said to the short haired boy. That’s good, he could just follow one of them to all his classes, breeze through the day, then find his way home.
“I know, for an entire 30 minutes it’s just Ricky. Not Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn, just me.” Ricky said smugly. Five drilled those names into his brain, Nicky would probably know his sibling names, so that means that he would have to as well.
“When do you even have your dumb smarty-pants class?” The girl asked.
“Last period, so I get to go without seeing your faces for a while before I have to return to sharing a house with you.” Ricky replied.
Their conversation carried on, but Five had gotten just about as much information as he needed. He figured the boy with short hair was Ricky, since he referred to himself in the third person, Dawn was a stereotypicaly girls name, and through the process of elimination, he figured the boy with longer hair was Dicky.
Five spent the most of the car ride trying to point out the issue in his equation, tuning out the never-ending arguing, something he already had a lot of experience in. When he gave up due to a lack of writing down his thought process, he began thinking about his own siblings.
The bickering was something Nicky’s siblings and his own have in common. The difference is while these ones argue about who is ‘better at the remote’, whatever that means, his siblings argue about whether or not they should lock their sister in the creepy basement dungeon they didn’t even know existed for their entire childhood, simply because she had powers they also didn’t know about.
They arrived at the school and filed out of the car. Nicky’s siblings continued to fight while Five just trailed behind them, weaving through students and teachers until they arrived at a small classroom with simple math equations on the walls. He sat down in the back corner, his new siblings opting to sit in the middle of the classroom.
The teacher walked in, and started the lesson. It was painfully easy and Five was bored, so he flipped the paper over and began to work out the issue. It is exactly the same as when he traveled back from his job in 1963, except the typo. Turns out he put the decimal in the wrong spot in his proof of the existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields of fixed degree. He wrote down 5.7, but it should’ve been 0.57. With that issue fixed it should have been perfect. He had to tweak it a bit, to count in the mass of 5, or was it 6, other people, but that shouldn’t have changed where he went. His hand had been furiously writing on the back of the lesson for most of the class period, when he heard the teacher yelling at him.
“-icky, Nicky!” His head shot up. “Why aren’t you following along with me?” Five couldn’t find the words to answer, so she took the paper from him. “What is this?” She asked turning around to block his attempts to take it back from her.
“It’s nothing,” Five said grabbing at his work, trying not to damage it. She brought it up to the front of the room, Five trailing behind her, still trying to grab the paper from her. She set it on the projector so that the whole class could see it.
Immediately, confused whispers filled the room. Ricky walked up to the front, and grabbed the page off the projector. “I recognize some of this. I was watching a YouTube video about this guy who theorized about a specific equation that could be used to time travel,” he said looking at Five incredulously.
Five snatched the paper out of Ricky’s hands just as the bell rang. He picked up his stuff and followed Nicky’s siblings out of the room. He overheard them talking about a substitute teacher they had for History today. They were super excited because he was really nice, and never yelled or ‘left a bad note for the teacher’. When they walked in the teacher had his back to the class, writing something about King Henry VIII on the board.
They all sat down, again in the middle of the classroom, while Five elected to be in the back corner. When the teacher turned around, Five had a heart attack, 3 seizures, and 4 and a half brain aneurisms. He couldn’t look away, due to his father’s eyes staring right back into his. But they were different. They were warm and kind, and it looked like he cared. Soon he began to walk toward Five, concerned, an emotion he’d never before seen on his father’s face. He supposed the intense fear he felt was also showing on the outside.
“Nicky, are you alright?” He asked crouched in front of the desk he was sat in. “You look scared, I know it’s been a little while, but I didn’t think you’d forget me,” he said with a chuckle.
“I couldn’t forget you if I tried,” Five said, distain filling his voice. He knew this man wasn’t his father. He knew he wasn’t the man who had caused him and his sibling so much pain. But he hadn’t seen his father in 45 years, and he knew he wouldn’t ever see him again, so he’d take what he could get.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, growing more and more confused by the second.
“Nothing. You just look like someone I used to know,” Five replied, barely managing to keep his hands to himself, as to not add another murder to his already extensive list.
“Maybe you should go to the nurse,” he said standing up. “Does anyone want to take him?” He asked the rest of the children. Ricky immediately volunteered, guiding him out of the room and down the hall.
“Where did you learn that equation? Why were you writing it instead of paying attention in class? You usually pay attention, why are you acting so weird today?” Ricky was just pestering him with questions and Five was ignoring him completely.
Eventually they arrived, and Ricky watched as the nurse checked to see if ‘Nicky’ was okay, so he could continue his questioning on their way back to class. Usually he would’ve had to leave, but he was a ‘concerned brother’ so the nurse let him stay.
“Well, it seems to me that you haven’t been sleeping enough. Lay down and take a nap, I’ll call your parents, and Ricky will go grab your stuff,” She said, gently pushing him onto his side.
He didn’t plan on falling asleep, he really didn’t, the bed was just very comfortable compared to what he slept on in the apocalypse. He’d hardly gotten the chance to sleep in the past week, busy trying to stop said apocalypse. When he woke up, it was to Nicky’s mother gently shaking him awake.
“Hey, you need to get up so we can go. You can sleep at home,” She said, rubbing his arm.
“Don’t need to, ’m not tired,” Five said standing up. He grabbed the bag Nicky’s father handed him.
“Alright, if you say so,” Nicky’s mother chuckled. They walked outside, and into the car. The second they got home, he laid down and passed out on the couch.
~~~~
The next time Five woke up, he heard a door open and close, then familiar voices he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He pretended to still be asleep until he could figure out who they were. Soon he remembered the events of that morning, and almost got up, until he realized they were talking about him.
“I think we should wake him up to get answers,” he heard Dawn say.
“No, the nurse said he was just really tired, that explains why he was acting weird. Lack of sleep messes you up,” Ricky replied.
“Okay, so sleep deprivation makes you suddenly know complicated math equations?” She retorted.
“No but we should still let him sleep, he needs it,” Ricky answered.
“He’s slept enough, he had most of the school day. I need answers, and I know you’re dying to get them too,” Dawn said, before he heard the thump of a heavy bag being put on the ground. “Dicky what do you think?” she continued.
“I think I need a drink,” Dicky said, soon after he heard Dicky go through the kitchen door.
Five groaned thinking about his siblings again, how that sounds like something Klaus would say. He knows Dicky probably didn’t mean something alcoholic, but the sadness remained. Don’t tell anybody, but he really missed his siblings. He only just got them back, and he’d already lost them agian.
“Great job Dicky, you woke him up,” Ricky yelled. Five felt the couch he was laying on dip, and he opened his eyes to see Dawn looking at him ready to ask a million questions, as well as Ricky.
“How did you know that equation?”
“Why were you so mean to Mr. Hargreeves?”
“What did you mean ‘You just look like someone I used to know’? You’ve never met someone that looks like him.”
“And another thing, I’ve never seen you so angry at someone. What did he ever do to you?”
Five groaned again remembering his own siblings throwing question after question at him after he told them about Harold Jenkins. Dawn was about to ask another question, when Nicky’s parents came downstairs.
“Quit harassing your brother, and get in the car. Your father destroyed his clothes doing laundry, and we won’t be able to find a sitter in time,” Nicky’s mom said, rushing down the stairs.
“Why can’t you stay home?” Ricky asked.
“You know he has no self-control. And don’t even think about asking to stay home alone, I still don’t trust you after you set the sink on fire last time,” She replied, ushering them out the door.
Five is again reminded of his own siblings, and their reckless behavior. Obviously Five didn’t finish growing up with them, so he’s not completely sure whether or not it happened, but he would bet good money that one of them at least almost set their furniture on fire.
They all piled into the car and made their way to the department store. Once they arrived, Five everyone got out of the car and made their way toward the store, Five walking behind them, not involving himself in their conversation. He looked up at the name of the store and suddenly got excited. They were at Gimbel Brothers, meaning Delores was probably there. If he was really lucky she might be similar to his own Delores, and he might be able to get help from her.
He began to walk faster to catch up with Nicky’s family. They had parked relatively far away, so it was a long walk, and Five couldn’t just run ahead of everyone else, because that would raise suspicion. He got bored, and decided to listen in to the conversation taking place in front of him.
“So Ricky, how was your new class?” Nicky’s mother asked. He still didn’t know either of his supposed parents’ names, which bothered him, however it wasn’t a particularly important thing to know, so he didn’t have to spend time actively trying to figure it out.
“It was great. I was finally challenged in class, and I wasn’t surrounded by ignorance,” Ricky stated, receiving a glare from Dawn, and a look of confusion from Dicky.
“That’s good to hear. What about you two, how was class without Ricky?” Nicky’s father asked.
“It was amazing, Ricky usually interrupts the teacher the whole time, but today it was finally quiet,” Dawn answered, while Dicky silently agreed.
“That’s great! And Nicky, how was your nap,” Nicky’s mother asked. Five had just been listening to the conversation, not really expecting to be a part of it.
He quickly recovered and answered her question. “It was much needed.” They soon arrived at the door and walked in, making their way to what was probably the clothing section. They had to go through the women’s before making it to the men’s. However, Five never completed the journey, stopping when he noticed a familiar face. He walked up to the mannequin he had loved for years.
“Delores?” He asked quietly. As far as he could tell there was nobody around, but you never know when someone is watching.
He got no reply, and was instantly disappointed. He decided for the sake of his sanity, he could at least pretend.
“I miss you. I know you’re probably happier here with your friends, but I really wish I could take you home.” His voice was just above a whisper. When he again, got no reply, he continued. “I’m trying really hard to get back home. I almost finished the equation in school, there is just a small issue I can’t quite figure out. Would you mind taking a look?” His voice still low, in case anyone came by. When she still didn’t answer him, he took out the paper he worked on in math class and showed it to her.
“I know, it’s not as neat as you would like it, but it’s still legible.” Five’s sentence was followed by silence, as he gave her enough time to read through, and find the issue. She didn’t reply, despite how much Five was hoping she would. He sighed in disappointment, before turning around to catch up with his family. After throwing one last glance at the mannequin that he had spent so much time with back in the apocalypse, he turned around to look for Nicky’s family. However, they had already found him and were, again, looking at him strangely.
“Nicky, are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Nicky’s mother asked. Five didn’t know how to answer that question and sound believable.
“I think I might need more sleep,” he answered, praying she would leave him alone. Luckily she did, and they went on with their shopping, Nicky’s family not-so-subtly shooting him concerned glances. When they got back to the house, Five was ushered upstairs into the room he’d woken up in that morning.
“Get some rest, Nicky. If you need anything, just yell okay?” Nicky’s mother smiled and him, and for a fleeting moment Five believed someone just might actually care about him. But then he remembered he wasn’t who she thought she was. She thought she was talking to her son. Five simply nodded and turned around, when he heard the door close he started searching the room for paper. He found a small stack, and brought it over to a desk in the room, and got to work.
~~~~
A few hours later he’d finally found the issue. He figured out what he did wrong, and how to get back home. He memorized the correct equation and made his way downstairs. He wanted to talk to Nicky’s parents before he left. The other children were in the living room, but Five spoke anyway.
“Hello Nicky’s parents. I never figured out your names, but I guess it doesn’t much matter now,” Nicky’s mother started to open her mouth, but Five stopped her before she could. “Usually I would have left without notice or explanation, however I felt the need to tell you you’re doing a great job as parents. My bar is pretty low, considering my father exploited me and my siblings for fame and money, and my mother is a robot, but I digress. Keep up the good work,” Five then walked over to an open area, and disappeared. Nicky, the real one, still in his pajamas and half asleep, reappeared in his place, with no memory of the entire day.
Five, on the other hand, appeared in a war zone. An older looking Hazel explained the dire situation to him, and sent him to earlier into the year 1963. Just 10 days before the apocalypse that he probably caused, and now had to prevent. Five once again made it his mission to save both his sibling and the world.