Phoenix under the Umbrella (Umbrella Academy AU) Chapter 40: His Name was Dave

[Third Person's PoV] 


A few minutes earlier…


Nathan and the others began eating breakfast in silence, each person slowly picking at their food while glancing at Five, who was trying to feed Dolores.


Allison and Luther exchanged awkward looks before shifting their gazes to Five.


“So, does anyone have any plans for today?” Nathan asked, breaking the strange silence.


Everyone shook their heads and shrugged, clearly having nothing in mind.


"Alright, geez, sorry for asking you prudes," Nathan scoffed.


"We really don’t have anything planned. It’s not our fault," Vanya said, shaking her head.


“I’m going on a date with Dolores to show her the city… of the past,” Five said, holding her hand like it was the most normal thing in the world.


“Sure, you go do that, buddy,” Nathan said in a supportive tone, stuffing his mouth with food.


Suddenly, Nathan slowed his chewing, a confused expression crossing his face.


Noticing his shift, the others looked at him oddly. “What’s wrong?” Ben asked.


“It’s Klaus… I lost connection with him for a second,” Nathan replied after swallowing his food.


"Isn't that normal? Didn’t you say it happens when he’s walking between the living and the dead? For Klaus, that’s practically an everyday thing,” Vanya asked.


“In other words, he’s probably drugged up again. It’s a miracle he hasn’t overdosed on all that stuff,” Allison said, shaking her head.


“No, this time it’s different. I can usually still feel him, even when he's out of it. Something’s off,” Nathan said, wiping his mouth and pushing his chair back.


“I thought you were mad at him?” Five asked, giving Nathan a strange look.


Nathan sighed. “Doesn’t matter how mad I am. That dumbass is still my brother,” he said, ruffling his hair and stepping to the side.


“Need me to come along?” Phoebe asked.


“Nah, I got this. I’ll just check on him and be back,” Nathan said. His eyes glowed bright green as he made two signs with his hands, which took on a pinkish hue. He spread his hands apart, creating a portal in front of him, and stepped through.


The portal closed behind him, leaving the others staring at the now-empty spot.


"Does anyone else wonder how he does that?" Luther asked, genuinely curious.


Phoebe sighed, summoning a paper and pencil with a wave of her hand. She drew two points labeled A and B.


“Alright, let’s say point A is where Nathan is, and point B is where Klaus is,” she began. Phoebe folded the paper so the points overlapped. “Using the connection he has with all of you, Nathan uses that as a reference point and…” She jabbed the pencil through the paper, puncturing both points. “Our telekinesis is strong enough to rip a hole through the space between A and B.”


She burned the pencil and paper with a flick of her fingers and clicked her tongue in frustration. "Why do I even bother explaining to you ungrateful bastards?" she muttered, standing up. “I’ll be waiting for Nathan in his room.”


As she left, Vanya looked around in confusion. “What was that about? We didn’t say anything. Why did she get so mad?”


Luther sheepishly raised his hand. “That might’ve been my fault… While she was explaining, I thought, ‘It was a rhetorical question, she didn’t need to answer it,’ and I guess she heard me.”


“Nice going, Luther,” Ben teased, scoffing.


…


As Nathan walked through the portal he created, he was taken aback by everything in sight: the bloody walls, the dismembered body parts. But what truly shocked him was Klaus’ state.


Nathan felt all the grief, anguish, and powerlessness Klaus was experiencing as he curled into a ball of self-hate.


“Klaus?” Nathan asked with concern, as he had never sensed so much emotion from Klaus since their father locked him in the cemetery.


Klaus practically crawled upward and tackled Nathan into a hug. Nathan had to take a step back, which surprised him, but he pushed his shock aside and put a comforting hand behind Klaus' head as he sobbed in Nathan's arms.


Nathan felt Klaus clinging to the back of his shirt as he cried out all the emotions he was feeling. “I got you... don't worry, brother, I got you.”


After a few minutes, Nathan began to calm and soothe Klaus’s emotions. He grabbed Klaus’s face and looked over his body, noticing all the changes that had occurred in such a short time. “Klaus, what happened to you? Talk to me.”


“Can’t you… just read my mind? Then you'll know…” Klaus said, looking down in sadness.


“I could… but I want to hear it from you. Tell me yourself. I want to hear from my brother what he went through,” Nathan said, sitting on the bed and patting the space next to him for Klaus to join.


Klaus walked over and plopped down, even through his sadness offering Nathan a small smile. “If I asked you to make me a blunt to numb the pain I’m feeling, would you do it?”


Nathan stared at Klaus for a moment. Klaus looked down and shook his head. “Forget it… I was just—”


Klaus’s eyes widened as he saw smoke and smelled what it was. He looked toward Nathan in shock.


*Cough* *Cough* “Goddamn it!” *Cough* *Cough* Nathan coughed as he handed the blunt to Klaus.


Klaus’s eyes widened, his lips trembling with emotion. His brother—the one most opposed to drugs, who always reprimanded him for doing drugs—was doing this for him.


Klaus took the blunt and began to smoke. “Would you believe it if I told you this is the first drug I’ve had in a year?”


“I’d be inclined to say no… but I can see you’re serious. Have you really been sober for a year?”


Klaus looked at Nathan with a sad smile. “Crazy, right? I guess that’s what happens when you fall in love…” he said, passing the blunt back to Nathan.


Klaus pointed to himself. “I fell in love like crazy… Me. In this life, I never imagined I’d fall in love with someone, let alone someone falling in love with me. It was magical… addicting, really.


“He made me a better person, which I didn’t think was possible. But he did it. I was someone when I was with him. I wasn’t just a number, or a strange drug addict with powers—I was someone. He made me think about the future. I didn’t need drugs when I was with him. He was the drug,” Klaus said in the softest voice Nathan had ever heard from him.


“What was his name?” Nathan asked, matching Klaus’s tone as he handed the blunt back.


Klaus took a long drag. “Dave… His name was Dave. I met him when I was drafted into the military. We were bunk buddies…”


There was a long pause as Nathan sensed Klaus’s surface thoughts—explosions, gunfire, trucks driving, shouting.


Klaus blinked, shook his head, and handed the blunt back to Nathan. “I picked up some magical briefcase from the two guys torturing me, trying to get information out of Five…”


“What?” Nathan narrowed his eyes, looking at the dismembered parts scattered around.


“Yeah, don’t worry. I took care of them… as you can clearly see. I picked up their magical briefcase and found myself transported to the past, right in the middle of the Vietnam War.”


“Oh, Klaus…” Nathan said in shock and concern.


“Yup… I was there for an entire year. Now I can officially say I’m older than you by a whole year. Haha, isn’t that great?” Klaus said with a smirk as he took the blunt Nathan handed him.


Klaus’s smirk faltered as Nathan heard him mentally screaming Dave’s name, pleading with him to get up.


‘Looks like he has some sort of PTSD from what he went through…’ Nathan thought feeling pity for what his brother had unfortunately gone through.


“I’m sorry, Klaus, but there’s something I don’t understand. Why can’t you use your power to see Dave?”


“Heh… Tell me, do you think reincarnation is real?”


“Yes,” Nathan nodded without a single doubt.


“When Dave died… he went toward the Light. Beyond the land of the dead. I saw it myself. I saw him walk through, and I was powerless to stop him. I can’t conjure the ghost of someone who’s gone beyond the Light. I unfortunately found that out the hard way…”