Thirteen ┃ Five Hargreeves ┃2┃

XXIX - Rewinding Time

Number Five gasped softly as he felt a hot, searing pain eating away at his stomach. He was sprawled across the hay-covered floor, looking up at the wooden ceiling of Sissy's barn, barely breathing.

"Oh, good. You're still alive." The Handler totted over to Number Five after shooting him and the rest of his family. Moments after, she had shot Lila purely out of spite. "Lucky you. You got to see how this all played out." She lifted her gun so that it was pointed at Number Five's head. Taking a trembling breath, Number Five tried to lift his head as much as possible without injuring his stomach further.

With a loud, heart stopping bang, The Handler gasped. Much to Number Five and The Handler's surprise, the woman had been shot directly in the chest. With the very little strength she had left, she turned her body around, to see that the shooter was one of The Swedes. She looked at her hired assassin with shock and betrayal, before he landed several more bullets in different parts of her body. As she collapsed to the ground, Number Five fought to keep his own breath whilst The Swede loomed over his body. As the boy laid on the ground, anticipating his own death, he couldn't help but think of Reginald's words.

Start small. Seconds, not decades.

Number Five used whatever remaining strength he had left to channel his powers. Energy thrummed around the boy and his hands glowed blue and the time-space continuum began to shift. Number Five watched the world work in reverse right before his eyes. The Swede backed away from the boy and the bullets he had shot at The Handler returned swiftly to the barrel of his gun. He witnessed The Handler, Lila and the rest of his family's deaths become reversed as time went backwards. Each of them returned to their normal state that they were in only two minutes before. The Umbrella Academy were back to talking down Lila, The Handler was approaching the barn and The Swede was nowhere to be seen.

"We can be your family, if you let us. Right?" Number Five heard Number Eight say once again. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his short-term time travel had worked. He quickly ran to the door of the barn, preparing to stop The Handler from shooting him and his family once again. As she entered the building, just on cue, the boy managed to wrestle the gun off of The Handler and point it towards her.

"It's true, isn't it? What Five said." Lila looked towards her adoptive mother with watery eyes. The Handler held her hands up innocently, glaring at Number Five, who was pointing the barrel of the gun directly at her chest. "Answer me! Is it true?"

"Well-" The Handler began, but she was quickly littered with bullets once again by the Swede. The woman grunted softly as she felt several wounds begin to bleed from her abdomen, before she collapsed to the ground. Her body was heavy and lifeless.

Lila, who was in a complete state of shock, instinctively sprinted towards the briefcase that The Handler had left behind. With a quick glance towards The Umbrella Academy, she disappeared from the barn in a flash.