THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
fractured || five hargreeves x reader

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: IT WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT

Written By: peachyhxlland

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Viktor, Allison, and Luther entered the Hargreeves estate and were even greeted by the head of security before they came in. They were taken aback to find the head of security to be friendly and to inform them that they had been anticipating them. The three entered the mansion and looked around while hearing someone playing the violin.

Viktor watched in amazement as the woman in the living room played the violin with skill, but he kept his expression neutral. The violinist sensed the presence of the three and ceased playing as they approached. She grinned as she turned around. She fixed her gaze on the trio. "What a pleasure to finally put faces to names."

With great enthusiasm, the woman set down her violin and walked over to the three of them. "You must be Allison." She walked towards Allison and placed her hands on her arms. "I've heard so much about you."

Allison became confused. "You have?"

"Yes!" The woman replied in joy. She turned to look and approach Luther. "And Luther... my little space boy. I finally get a chance to properly thank you for watching over me on the moon."

"Oh!" Luther grinned at her as he felt at last a sense of relief and that his mission on the moon wasn't for nothing. "It was nothing."

The woman turned and walked towards Viktor. "Dear Viktor." She said. "I understand we share a passion for the violin."

Viktor stared at the woman and smiled hesitantly. "It's more of a love-hate thing for me, but..."

The woman smiled. "Come." She invited the three to enter the living room and sit down as she took the violin and bow to place them in their proper places.

Viktor glanced at his companions. "Okay," He said haltingly. Viktor and Luther hesitantly sat down on the couch while Allison sat on the armchair of the couch. "Is, uh, Reggie home?" Viktor asked the woman.

"I'm sure he's puttering around somewhere." The woman reassured. "Let us get to know each other a bit first." When the three hesitated again, the woman smiled encouragingly. "Go ahead. Don't be shy. The chef will be cross if you don't." The woman took a glass teapot and smiled warmly at the three. "Tea?"

"Oh, um, yes, please." Luther quietly said like a shy little boy.

The woman gladly poured some tea into four cups and gave the three cups to Viktor, Allison, and Luther. The woman took her cup and sat on the other chair. The room was soon filled with uneasy silence and awkwardness as the three still hesitated to interact with the woman despite her radiating a welcoming and motherly aura. The woman decided to start the conversation. "Must be quite cold in Canada." She told Viktor.

Viktor slightly shrugged. "I mean, yeah. I mean, it can be." He answered rather awkwardly. "The summers are quite pleasant."

The woman looked at Luther. "And Luther, what about you? What do you do?"

"Oh! Um..." Luther set his cup down. "I'm a professional dancer."

Allison, who was drinking her tea, suddenly spat out her drink.

"A dancer?" The woman gasped. "How wonderful!" She praised, earning a wide smile from Luther.

Viktor fixed his gaze on the woman, wanting to get to know her better even though he was aware of who she was. "You're Abigail, right?"

Abigail nodded. "Why, yes, Viktor. Were you unsure?"

"So you know about (Y/n)."

Abigail continued to smile as she fixed her eyes on Viktor. Not knowing if they should be frightened or intrigued, Allison and Luther turned to look at Viktor and then at Abigail. Abigail gave a nod. "Of course. Such a wonderful child."

"If she's so wonderful, why did you let Reginald continue experimenting on her?" Viktor questioned while Allison and Luther patiently waited for Abigail's response. "You act so motherly and kind, but we've heard what you did to her."

"What he did to her," Abigail corrected, her smile slightly breaking. "He's my husband, and believe it or not, I convinced him to make his experiments at least safe for her. He insisted on the experiment, and I couldn't change his mind," She explained. "The only convincing I could do is to make it painless for her."

Viktor stared at Abigail for quite some time, causing Abigail to sigh. "I have my sincerest sympathy for (Y/n). The way she talks about all of you all so high and mighty. She has missed you all so much." Viktor's stare seemed to soften as Abigail smiled. "You've all done so well for yourselves. No thanks to your father, I might add."

"I heard that!" Reginald's voice boomed, startling everyone, including his wife. All three of them straightened themselves up and Allison settled her cup down on one of the snack tables nearby. Reginald came into the living room, looked at Luther, Allison, and Viktor, and Abigail got to her feet. "My chief of security informs me that the tiny hamlet of New Grumpson, Maine, is still smoldering in the wake of your colossal ineptitude."

"Reggie, darling, please." Abigail sighed while Reginald gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Tell me everything I want to know now or suffer the consequences." Reginald told the three.

Right away, Viktor became enraged and stood up, enveloping himself with his powers. "You first!"

Allison grabbed Viktor's arm. "Hey, hey." Allison soothed, trying to calm Viktor down.

Reginald nodded in realization and understanding. "Ah!" He exclaimed while Viktor turned off his powers. "So it's true. I suspected you couldn't have done all that damage au naturel. But how?"

"Reggie, enough," Abigail demanded, earning surprised looks from Viktor, Allison, and Luther. "Is this really how you treat your guests? Threats and interrogations? Now, sit down, and we'll have a conversation like a civilized species."

Allison tilted her head in awe. "Guess we know who wears the monocle in this relationship." She commented in a low voice.

Reginald and Abigail both sat down on each chair. Abigail looked at her husband. "Tea, darling?" She asked politely.

Reginald shook his head. "No, thank you, darling." He responded back with politeness.

While Allison was weirded out by Reginald's sudden submissiveness under his wife, Reginald began to ask questions. "If I may be so bold as to ask, how did you regain your powers? Why did you destroy the town of New Grumpson? And what have you done with the girl?"

Luther started to speak. "Well, it's kind of a long story, but it all started when we were approached by Sy Grossman." He explained.

Abigail remained quiet while Reginald shook his head. "I'm unfamiliar with the name."

Luther frowned. "Oh."

"You know what, Reg?" Allison called out. "I think the real question is why you'd build an entire town to hold a girl prisoner? Why did you build a whole Truman Show for her?"

"Her name is Jennifer," Reginald replied. "And I wasn't holding her prisoner. I was protecting her."

"Protecting her from what?" Viktor asked.

"From all of you, naturally."

Allison chuckled mirthlessly. "So she is one of us." She concluded as she crossed her arms.

"I'm afraid not," Reginald stated. "She's nothing like you. In fact, she's your complete opposite in every way imaginable. And she has more power than all of you eight put together."

"Eight?" Luther asked dumbfoundedly. "We're... nine all together." He told Reginald as he included Lila as well.

Reginald stared at Viktor, Allison, and Luther. "I think you all know why I excluded her," he stated with an intense gaze. "She has reached beyond her capacity, beyond exceeding such imaginable power."

"You did that to her." Viktor stated with spite in his voice.

"That was not my intention," Reginald replied. "Believe it or not, everything I did was to protect everyone and herself. All I'm trying to do is to keep her powers intact."

"Well, from what I see, every Reginald we encounter is a selfish asshole who only caused more harm to my sister." Viktor hissed. "If it isn't obvious to your alien brain, your efforts only cause her harm."

All heads turned to hear the guard yelling as the front door swung open. "Hey!" The guard yelled out to the three trespassers who barged into the estate. The guard gave up as the trespassers, who were revealed to be Five, Diego, and Lila, came into the living room, and the guard gave up. Diego presented the document that he discovered inside the Keepers headquarters. "We need to talk about Ben."

Diego started discussing the contents of the file, and the others listened attentively. "In Moldovan." Diego pointed his finger to the file. "From Moldova. And it's mostly redacted." He added before giving the file to Allison.

"Great." Allison huffed. "So we can't read it or see it."

Lila was left standing between Reginald and Abigail while Five approached Diego and took the spot next to his brother. "From what I can tell, this document is from our original timeline," He explained. "It explains how Ben died. It refers to it as the Jennifer Incident."

"We already know how Ben died." Luther told Five.

Five put his hands in his pockets and stuffed them, looking at Luther as he motioned for further clarification. "Okay, then. Tell us."

All eyes gazed upon Luther as they waited for him to tell how Ben died. "Well, it was a tragic accident." Luther began talking. "Ben, our Ben, died because we failed as a team. Nobody was responsible, and..." It seemed as though he was trying to memorize a script until he faltered suddenly while trying to recall the next words. All of his words appeared scripted.

Five cocked an eyebrow as he stared at Luther. "And what?" He asked, urging Luther to finish his sentence. Luther's expression turned puzzled, as he had forgotten all about it. Five glanced across at Allison. "Allison, how did Ben die?"

Allison stared at Five before talking. "It was a tragic accident," She replied, repeating the same words that Luther had said a moment ago. "Ben died because we failed as a team."

"Failed as a team." Luther joined in, as he and Allison said the last words in unison.

Diego joined along as he, Allison, and Luther began reciting the same words together. "Nobody was responsible, yet we were all responsible. Ben Hargreeves represented the best of us. Ben was the Umbrella Academy."

When they had all finished speaking, Luther let out a faint gasp, and Viktor had absolutely no idea what was going on. With her arms folded, Lila cast a downward glance at Reginald. "What kind of sick party trick is this?"

Five sighed. "Okay, can any one of you remember how Ben actually died?" He looked at his siblings, but they seemed confused and lost for words. "Anything?" He asked once more.

Viktor shrugged. "I... I wasn't there." He confessed.

Five glanced at Viktor and nodded. "Well, neither was I, but the rest of you were. You think you'd remember something about the death of your beloved brother, but you don't."

"Klaus might." Viktor told Five. "But we can't find him anywhere."

Five shrugged. "He might have had the same response. Besides, we don't know if our Ben actually said something to him about his death."

Luther shook his head as he became frustrated. "What the hell is going on here?"

Five turned to face Reginald. "Well, isn't it obvious?" He asked everyone. "Someone's been playing putty with your hippocampus."

Diego crossed his arms as he agreed with Five and looked at Reginald. "Messing with our memories." He realized, and the others turned to face Reginald, including his wife.

Reginald raised his hands in defense. "As fascinating as this may be, I assure you I haven't the foggiest notion of what this is about."

"You know something, old man." Diego accused as he walked towards Lila to stand beside her and confront Reginald.

"You are speculating about the actions of a completely different version of myself from a completely different timeline." Reginald explained. He then realized something after his statement. "That said, it does sound like something I might do."

Allison dropped the folder to the coffee table and scrunched her face. "There we go." She huffed and crossed her arms.

"There may or may not have been a certain clandestine project with a certain clandestine intelligence agency."

Five stared at him intently as he clenched his jaw in annoyance. "Human experiments on the mind," He stated. "I should have known."

"Psychological warfare was all the rage in the '60s, but it was only a brief contract. Immensely lucrative."

"So you can erase memories?" Luther questioned.

"With the human mind, anything is possible, young man." Reginald replied to Luther.

"Did you use it on her?" Five queried as he gained Reginald's attention back to him. "Experiments on the mind?"

Reginald shook his head. "Of course not, my dear boy. Her mentality is too fractured for me to take a test on. Yes, I tried to get into it to see how she had been doing, but I didn't do any experiments that could harm her psychological well-being."

Five scoffed and clenched his fists tightly underneath his pockets, unable to trust Reginald's words alone. "If you can erase memories, then you'll have to restore them," He told Reginald as he pointed his finger at him. "Because you, old man, you're gonna make my siblings remember again about each and every memory to do with Ben's death. Because if you erased the Jennifer incident, that means there was something important enough that you'd take the time to get rid of it."

"I will do no such thing!" Reginald exclaimed. "Right now, we need to track down the girl before it's too late."

Abigail stretched her arm out to take her husband's hand. "Reggie, please."

Reginald extended his hand to grasp his wife's hand back. "Darling, this is messy work. It could take hours, days."

"Whatever chain of events has been set in motion is ultimately your handiwork." Abigail looked at everyone. "Whatever timeline it happened in, help them." She looked back at Reginald. "Please."

Reginald looked at his wife and then at everyone else in the room, contemplating for quite some time.

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I MADE A TYPO AND IM CRYING 😭😭😭

This is butter 2.0 😭😭😭