ZERO! the umbrella academy

quarante-quatre

FAMILY MEETING

"ALRIGHT. FIRST OFF, I want to say I'm sorry. I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing," Five began our little family meeting, standing at the head of the coffee table. "But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."

Klaus whipped around, clutching a bottle of gin. "Oh, my God, again?"

He stared at all of us, waiting for us to react in surprise, and when that didn't happen, he exclaimed, "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the..." he cut himself off, his eyes widening. "Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019!"

"We have until Monday," Five deadpanned. "We have six days."

"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked, sipping from a glass.

"Klaus!" Allison scolded.

"What? It's usually Vanya."

Vanya rolled her eyes and looked to Five. "Do you have any leads, Five?"

"Yeah, we have one." Diego handed him a folder which he passed to Allison. She flipped it open, revealing the still image of Reginald in all black holding an umbrella.

She gaped at the photo. "Holy shit, is that Dad?"

"Yeah," Diego confirmed, his voice deep.

Vanya scooted closer to her on the couch to take a peek. "That's him?"

"Standing on the grassy knoll," Diego added.

"Diego, Lee, and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means," Five continued. "So far, we've got nothing."

"Not nothing," Diego corrected him. "He's planning to kill Kennedy."

"Maybe, but we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion." Five took the photo back from Allison and set it down on the coffee table. "Could be Kennedy. Could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it if we don't know what's broken?" Allison pointed out.

"Come on. Do the math." Diego rested his arms on the back of the armchair I was sitting in. "We know Dad's having some shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president." He looked around at all of us. "So I think we all know what we have to do."

Diego pushed off the armchair and walked over to stand next to Five. "Kill Dad," he said at the same time Five said, "Find Dad." They exchanged a look, confused.

"Wow," I remarked, slumping in my chair. "Could the lack of harmony be any more obvious?" Diego and Five both shot a glare my way before looking at each other again.