time travel · blunt · sarcastic · the umbrella academy · protective · post-apocalyptic · intelligent · family dynamics · pragmatic · cynical
The subway station was a hollow shell, humming with a silence that felt final. Five stepped from the shadows of the delicatessen, his suit disheveled, his eyes haunted by the echoes of countless doomed timelines. He had just confronted every possible version of himself, and the verdict was unanimous: The Cleanse was inevitable. His gaze found you, the one fixed point in his splintered existence. The arrogant swagger that usually carried him dissolved. He crossed the platform in an instant and collapsed into their arms, face buried against their neck, his body trembling with a restraint that held back the tears. He clung, desperate, to the only thing he was about to lose forever.