[Preface]
In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-three extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who'd previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, "To save the world."
[Timeframe: Present Day}
The Earth is nothing more than a molten rock with a thick layer of ash. How this happened, a chance beyond knowing — the moon encountered a beam so extreme in power that it penetrated past the surface and into the core, completely discombobulating the overall structure and composure. In an adverse reaction the moon broke to pieces and those pieces came down to Earth in the most menacing ferocity, annihilating all life forms entirely.
Suspended in time are one ghost and six humans, 6 of which are transforming from their adult shapes to their child forms; the fifth is already there. Who are these people, you may think? They are the 5 remaining members of The Umbrella Academy, time traveling back to a time before all of the bad things began to happen — to a place where at least they are all together as a family before the world was no more.
[Timeframe: Mid- 1990s]
The sky begins to weave and wobble; the Earth is shaking in all direction; the sky begins to part and seven young humans fall from the sky and into their backyard. Quite disheveled, they appear to look around checking their own continuity as well as their siblings around them. These kids are unlike any kids — they are special in the means of gifted with extraordinary talents. As they begin to remember who they are and where they came from (decades forward and decades back) they realized their mission for returning as this age — to prevent the apocalypse from happening.
Number 5, stands up and shakes off the dust and grumbles that he needs to work on his landings better. The rest of the group stares with angst in his direction and all sigh in sync showing their combined exhaustion and frustration within the moment. In a direct and gruff tone, Number 5 stammers that “It’s a complicated process alone just to move through time alone but to not only move through nearly 3 decades and also with the 5 — well 6 of you, it’s a miracle we all made it in one piece!” The rest of the team roll their eyes, begin to stand up and dust off from the fall on the ground. They take the next measures and walk into the house, greeted by no other than Mother with a tray of lemonade and cookies of course.
As the children enter the kitchen, a light kettle screams in the background. Mother asks, “Now how was your time outside today, children? Are you ready for your lessons, today?” Before the children can answer, Mr. Pogo, a talking chimpanzee, quietly says, “this way, children. Young Vanya you know where to go. Your Violin is in the study — please focus on your violin while the extraordinary ones practice their abilities”. In a fraction of a second, young Vanya (aka Number Seven) has Mr. Pogo suspended in air using her ability to translate sound into energy. Mr. Pogo, completely bewildered, demands “..to be let go and brought back down to the earth at once!”.
All attention is on young Vanya in this moment. She didn’t have a choice to be brought back to this time in decades past and had fainted in decades forward as the result of extending too much energy and being the cause of the world ending — and in this very moment she was at the same mental space as decades forward where she wanted to ruin all who either held her back, discouraged her greatness, or shamed her in any way. She had full control on her powers and was keen on proceeding with her mission to destroy anyone who stood in her was.
Young Allison (aka Number 3 aka Rumor) advances towards Vanya and proceeds to calm her down, reminding her that they love her and have travelled back in time in order to fix the past. Vanya softens and releases Mr. Pogo from her energetic holds, and then begins to break down. All of the pain and anguish of the past memories flood in and she begins to panic in her overwhelm, unsure of what is happening in that very moment. Mother approaches her and begins to attempt to console Vanya, bringing her to the present, having her look around at her environment that was consistent with older memories and also to her siblings who distinguishably look much different and younger than she remembers.
Some time passes and Young Vanya is able to discern that she’s not currently in the same timeframe as she last remembers and begins to ask questions surrounding her last memory of playing first chair violin in the orchestra and not really remembering much more. She proclaims that she feels disoriented and really confused to be in this younger body and feel so much different than memories of past timeframes — all is mis-sorted and the room becomes still.
At that very moment, Number 5 interjects in a very abrupt manner that she was responsible for the end of the world and that he brought all of the family back to this timeframe to prevent the future from happening and saving the world from ending. Vanya’s eyes widen and she looks even more overwhelmed than prior and begins to speak when the children’s father, Sir Reginald (aka Monocle) enters the room demanding to know what all of the commotion is about. Allison looks to Luther (aka Number 1 aka Moon boy) for direction as he has the closest relationship with the Monocle.
Everyone simmers their commentary as Luther begins to share with the Monocle what has happened in present time and past time and how Vanya has discovered her abilities even though she was told that she did not have anything extraordinary to provide the team when they were last young. It is now where all of the present and past information begin to make sense to Vanya as she begins to speak she only asks one question, pointed at the Monocle. “Why?”, she asks. “Why did you treat me as though I was ordinary when I am indeed extraordinary?”
Sir Reginald darted his eyes in her direction and simply stated, “this needed to happen in order for you to build your strength to the greatest ability. Knowing that Number 5 would be able to bring you all back with all of the information gained over the years, I was confident that you would return with a harness of your gifts and leverage them out of love verses the fear and pain you needed in order to build up the strength to unlock and build muscle around. I is a true gift to be able to see you in full strength and ready to take on the challenges that face us presently”.
With that, Vanya’s entire body and overall energy dropped and she appeared to melt. “All this time I thought I was a burden; a mundane figure that you just dealt with. It’s the reason I wrote the book to begin with — I felt so much on the outside of everything. I observed everyone from the outside and interpreted myself as an outsider when I wanted to belong so much. I felt so conflicted over the years, wanting to be close but not understanding the space around which I could be. It wasn’t in my conditioning to do so, so I found other way to fill my time and days.”
It was in that moment that Vanya felt belonging for the first time in her whole life — both decades forward and decades back. It felt like a new life; the world seemed different in some way and there was a subtle excitement that became present. That was also unfamiliar. Not just the feeling of excitement, but feelings. That was new due to the removal of medication for anxiety. Feeling was new and not so extreme at this point. What a wonderful opportunity, she thought. This is definitely going to be something else.
All 7 children followed Mr. Pogo into the training room and began to prepare for their next mission. Sir Reginald stood stoically with a glimpse of a simple smirk appearing on his face. His plan had worked out after all and he was feeling a bit excited to work towards his mission and save the world from ending.
THE END