Phoenix under the Umbrella (Umbrella Academy AU) Chapter 34: The Monocle

[Third Person's PoV] 


As Nathan and Five exited the diner, Five grabbed Nathan’s sleeve and dragged him into a dark alley.


“Alright, get it out,” Five said, rolling up his sleeve and presenting his forearm to Nathan.


“Get what out? I'm not Klaus, I'm not the one with the drugs, and aren't you a bit too young–”


“No one's talking about any drugs! The tracker inside me. It’s how they were able to find me. I need you to cut it out,” Five explained.


Nathan nodded, holding out two fingers, from which an energy blade formed using psychic energy. He grabbed Five’s arm and made a precise incision. Using his psychic power, Nathan extracted the tracker from Five’s forearm and disintegrated it into dust. He then withdrew the energy blade, and in its place, a small golden flame appeared at his fingertips. Nathan passed the flame over the cut, sealing and healing it completely.


Five watched Nathan suspiciously. “Have you trained to be a doctor?”


“I’ve trained to do a lot of things. On other, more advanced planets, obviously.”


Five nodded in understanding, flexing his arm to get the blood flowing again as they exited the alley.


“What is it?” Nathan suddenly asked.


“What?”


“You want to share something but are hesitating.”


“Did you read my mind?” Five asked, raising an eyebrow.


“No, I read your emotions. I find them more meaningful to read than thoughts. Personal preference, though. I like not knowing exactly what someone’s going to say—it adds a bit of mystery to life,” Nathan replied.


“Ah, I see…” Five muttered. “Well, there’s something I’ve been keeping from you and the others about the future…”


“Apart from the fact that it’s a mess?” Nathan quipped.


“Yeah, like how it’s going to happen in eight days.”



---


Meanwhile, Diego stood at a pier, his car parked behind him. Klaus sat on the hood, smoking and fiddling with a hand radio.


“What are we doing here, Diego? I’m cold,” Klaus whined.


“No one told you to come, Klaus. You’re the one who hopped into my car and decided to stick around,” Diego replied, reaching into his jacket.


Leaning over the railing, Diego opened his hand, revealing a monocle. He held it by the chain, remembering Luther’s words from earlier:


“When have you ever seen Dad without his monocle?”


“Diego, can we have eggs for dinner? I’m craving eggs,” Klaus whined again.


“Klaus, we literally just had cake at Five’s welcome-back party. How are you still hungry?” Diego asked, glancing over his shoulder.


“I was distracted with something very important and didn’t get a chance to eat the cake,” Klaus replied, standing up from the hood.


Just then, the hand radio crackled to life. “Report: we’re getting calls about a mass shooting inside a diner. I repeat, there are reports of a mass shooting inside a diner.”


Diego tossed the monocle into the ocean, rushed back to grab the radio, and got into the car. Klaus walked over to the railing, flicking his cigarette into the water.


Diego glanced in the rearview mirror and grabbed his domino mask, slipping it over his eyes. He stuck his head out the window. “Get in before I leave you behind.”


“I’m coming, I’m coming, don’t get your pretty lingerie in a twist,” Klaus said, rushing into the car.


As they sped off, Klaus noticed Diego’s attention was focused on the road and the radio. He reached into his sweater pocket and pulled out the same wet monocle Diego had just tossed.


“Now, why would my beautiful Latin brother Diego throw you away?” Klaus thought to himself. “Doesn’t he realize this thing costs a fortune? Doesn’t he realize that Daddy needs his drug money?”


Klaus chuckled, smiling as he stuffed the monocle back into his pocket.


…


“And you never told me the world was going to end in eight days because...?” Nathan asked, eyes narrowing in frustration.


“I was looking for clues. I wanted to find the cause of the apocalypse before I told you,” Five replied, his tone calm but serious. “Whatever caused it wiped out the entire human race.”


“You still could have told me. I could have started searching for the cause and stopped it before it even began.”


“That’s exactly what I was worried about,” Five said, sighing. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Here, give me a whiteboard, and I’ll explain it better.”


Once Nathan handed him a whiteboard and marker, Five quickly drew a long straight line across it.


“This,” Five began, drawing a small dot at the bottom of the line, “is the day I jumped to the future.”


He then made another dot at the top of the line. “And this is the day I arrived—trapped in the future.”


Finally, Five drew a third dot somewhere in the middle. “Now, let’s say this is the day of the apocalypse.”


He highlighted the portion of the line between when he teleported and when the apocalypse occurred. “If, at any point between when I arrived and the apocalypse, you managed to find and stop what caused it, you would have erased this entire section.”


Five then erased the line between the cause of the apocalypse and when he arrived. “See that? That entire part of the timeline would vanish.”


He drew a side line and marked the space where it would have disappeared. “Now guess who was in that specific section? That’s right—me. If you stopped the apocalypse before it happened, I would have been erased along with that timeline.”


Five then erased the side line and drew the original timeline again with the three points. “However, I made it out of that time.”


He made an arrow from the point at the top to just below the cause of the apocalypse. “Now, if we stop whatever causes the apocalypse after I’ve arrived here, I won’t be affected. See? I’m no longer trapped in that doomed section of the timeline.”


“Something is seriously bugging me all of this…” Nathan muttered rubbing his chin. 


“Yeah? What?” 


“Where the hell am I?” 


“Huh?” 


“I don't mean this in a bragging or arrogant type of way, but I am one of the strongest beings in this universe, where was I that I let it come to all this? What caused this, that I wasn't able to stop it. It's been bugging me since the first time I saw what the future was like” 


“You don't think… you were killed off would you?” Five asked, his expression growing serious and concerned. 


“If there is something like that out there, then may God have mercy on us all”