chapter thrity-two: meet the sparrows

Nova was tired. All she wanted to do was sleep. Her ribs still ached and her ankle still throbbed. But now her head was spinning. She leaned heavily into Five who wrapped his arm around her waist. Luther said something but Nova's always sharp eyes caught sight of movement by the entryway. Her gaze narrowed at the woman leaning against the arch studying each of the Umbrellas carefully. Recognition dawned on her and she quickly nudged Five's side.

"What?" He whispered and she tilted her head towards the woman. She felt him tense beside her. Now Five never knew Nova when she was in her mid-twenties to early thirties but he had seen mission logs from her time at the Commission during that time. He knew immediately that the woman leaning against the arch was an older version of Nova. "Oh shit."

"And who are the weirdos on the balcony?" Diego yelled suddenly bringing Nova and Five's attention back to the conversation.

"They are the Sparrows," Hargreeves responded smugly. Before a trembling shook the house. Five's arm tightened around Nova's waist steadying her. "My children."

"I'm sorry," Five began as he turned both him and Nova slightly to face Hargreeves. "What do you mean, your children? That's not possible old man."

"Of course it is! I think I'd know, wouldn't I?" Hargreeves said and Nova tilted her head studying the other Sparrows as they joined Ben on the main parlor floor.

"Hold on a second, is she one of your children?" Nova suddenly interrupted as she raised an accusing finger in her older self's direction.

"Of course, she's one of his children and she has a name shortstop. It's Manuela, now stop pointing at my sister or I will cut your finger off," Ben snapped in Nova's direction. Suddenly Five turned to Ben with a deathly glare.

"If you harm so much as a single hair on her head I will have no problem turning you into sushi, Ben," Five growled and Nova squeezed his arm gently silently telling him to stand down even though he remained tense.

"Wait so everyone can see Ben too, right?" Klaus asked.

"Cute hat, Sundance," Ben responded sarcastically.

"They call themselves the Umbrella Academy, a group of scheming, perfidious malcontents who accosted me in the fall of 1963 when I was away on business in Dallas. Be warned, they claim to be my spawn," Hargreeves said directly to the Sparrows.

"Claim?" Alison asked before turning to her brother, "Look, Five, what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know yet but it's concerning," Five responded carefully.

"Um, I would just like to say I most definitely do not claim to be his spawn," Nova interjected as she glared at Hargreeves.

"Is he telling the truth?" Marcus asked.

"Not the part about us being perfidious," Vanya responded.

"No, we're amateur-fidious at best," Klaus added.

"Well, we're not really perfidious just really bad at communication," Nova corrected.

"Yeah, that," Diego agreed while nodding toward the girl.

"But we are his children," Vanya said steering the conversation back on topic. "This is our house."

"Yeah, yeah. We, uh...We grew up here. Except for Nova, she lived here for like a few years before she disappeared," Luther said.

But as Nova looked around while ignoring Luther's comment, she began to notice little differences in the parlor, like the color of the throw pillows, was different and the position of certain statues had changed. She realized they must've messed up the timeline more than she thought. Not to mention the alternate version of herself was standing only a few feet away and neither of them was experiencing any sort of paranoid psychosis.

"Yeah, yeah. We grew up here," Alfonso said in a mocking tone.

"I kind of think we would have noticed you. Well, actually she may have grown up here," Sloane began as she pointed toward Nova. "But I think we would have also noticed if Manuela had a twin."

"The name's Nova, not she," Nova interrupted glaring at the woman. "But I'm not Manuela's twin. Manuela is me from an alternate timeline."

"Basically what Nova is saying is that none of you belong here," Allison jumped in.

"Oh! Well then, I guess we'll just pack our bags and move out," Fei chuckled sarcastically although her laugh held no humor whatsoever. The floating cube in the corner let out a strange noise confusing Nova who had to do a double-take. Despite this, all of the Sparrows seemed to understand as they all chuckled at the cube's "words".

"You slay me, Chris," Ben laughed.

"I wasn't expecting company," A strained voice entered the room. Nova looked towards the archway and saw Grace had come in with a plate of cookies and a fearful smile on her face as if she was worried someone was going to reprimand her. "This was the best I could do on short...short...short notice." 

"Mom..." Diego whispered after gently moving Nova out of the way to get a better look at the malfunctioning robot.

"Mom? She's a robot, you perv," Jayme scoffed in Diego's direction and Nova glared at her.

"She's not a robot," Diego said with a frown on his face.

"Hey, don't call him that," Luther jumped in to defend his brother.

"Yeah, we're the only ones who are allowed to call Diego a perv," Nova added as she continued to glare down at Jayme.

"Or what?" Ben challenged.

"Come closer and find out!" Luther exclaimed welcoming a fight.

Nova couldn't help but groan. She could sense a fight coming but she was in no shape or form ready for another fight. The girl still hadn't fully recovered from the last fight they were in. When she dipped down into the well of power within her it was empty. There was no way Nova could fight. Hell, she couldn't even stand on her own without some sort of support. The others around her started arguing and she felt Five shifting restlessly beside her. She used her free hand and placed it on top of his own which was still wrapped securely around her waist. He looked down at her silently asking if she would be ok if a fight broke out and she nodded.

"Enough!" Marcus shouted over the ruckus getting everyone to quiet down. Nova narrowed her eyes when she saw Jayme spit something in Diego's direction. But she stayed quiet so another argument wouldn't break out. "Look, I don't know what circus you all escaped from or how you got past our security but we're done here. You all have thirty seconds to get out of our house."

"And if we don't?" Alison asked.

"Then we'll have to settle this the old-fashioned way," Marcus responded.

"Look, we just fought a literal army. This doesn't need to get ugly. Let's all just calm down, and let's talk," Vanya interjected trying to diffuse the situation.

"Vee, when do we ever get into situations that end in calm or talking?" Nova sighed knowing that there was no way they were going to avoid a fight.

"Psst Ben-er-ino," Klaus interrupted and Nova rolled her eyes.

"Klaus, not now," Nova hissed but of course, Klaus did what he wanted and ignored the girl. She noticed that Ben also seemed ticked off.

"You look so much better alive than you do dead," Klaus laughed before turning to Nova, "Novie, aren't I right? Well, except for the haircut."

"Meh, I think I preferred the hoodies and leather jacket look that our Ben had going on," Nova shrugged and Five could feel the jealousy bubbling up inside of him but he had to remind himself that Nova and Ben had been best friends and nothing more.

"What the hell did you two just say?" Ben seethed.

"Come on, come on. Stop with all the hostility, Mr.Grumpy-Pants," Klaus said dismissively as he walked closer to Ben. "Oh wow, nice scar. Muy macho."

"Shut your mouth!" Ben snapped.

"You shut your mouth, and just hug your brother..." Klaus exclaimed opening his arms wide but instead of responding verbally, Ben interrupted him by swinging a fist to his face.

"Ben!" Manuela exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, what the hell! You didn't have to do that," Luther exclaimed after he stepped out of the way to avoid Klaus who had stumbled over the coffee table.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I did!" Ben yelled back.

"This isn't going to end well," Nova sighed looking up at Five. Silently he agreed while pulling her to the side quietly while Marcus shoved Luther. Luther stumbled from the impact and landed on Klaus.

"Are you going to be ok?" Five asked her quietly as the fight broke out around them.

He kept glancing over his shoulder and his hand tapped against his leg restlessly. With a smirk on her face, Nova grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. She leaned up and quickly pressed her lips to his.

"Mi amor, I'll be fine," Nova said seriously staring deeply into Five's green eyes with her brown ones. She could tell he was about to say something so she removed her grip from his face and pushed his chest slightly. "Go help your siblings. I'll be waiting for you right here."

Nova's Spotify Playlist: Nova Perez's Epic Time Travel Jams

Manu's Spotify Playlist: Manuela Hargreeves' Post-Mission Jams

First Published: 07/12/2022

Edited: 09/21/2023

Aesthetic Change: 07/01/2024

Chapter Word Count: 1,548

Book Word Count: 76,617