Oh, father tell me, do we get what we deserve?

Whoa, do we get what we deserve?

WAY DOWN WE GO

(a 'the umbrella academy' fanfiction)

SUMMARY

And they will run you down, down 'til you go, so you can't crawl no more...

***

If you met either Adeline Chen-Parson or Winona Chen on the street, you'd think they were two normal women in their early thirties—one with a thriving career as a writer in children's and YA fiction who works part-time at her wife's florist shop and a dedicated mother to her daughter, the other a flourishing tattooist with her own parlour and a string of relationships that never last for longer than a week, covered in tattoos with a death glare to match, with matching phoenix tattoos on their left wrists and a loving family who adopted Winona when she was a teenager. Just two average women.

But what no one knows is that Adeline and Winona aren't normal, that even Adeline hadn't met her parents until she was a teenager with Winona. That they worked hard to be normal.

Because on the seventh hour of the first of October in 1989, forty-three women fell pregnant and gave birth. What was unusual was that none of these women had been pregnant before. And that two of those women were Adeline and Winona's mothers.

And that every child born on that day had superpowers.

Nine, including Adeline and Winona, were adopted by eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. Not for the purpose of a family, no—instead, he wanted these children to be superheroes. He didn't enrol them into school, the siblings the only friends and social contact they had as they trained their superpowers, and didn't even give them names, just numbers, as Adeline was forced to deliver devastating blows with her sonic screams, as Winona was trained in creating horrific illusions so real that criminals still believed them true even after they were over and creating doubles of herself and make herself and others invisible with her illusions. And while competition was fostered between the siblings, Adeline and Winona stuck together, seeing each other as truly sisters, Winona using her powers so they could sneak out and enjoy the city, to escape the house of horrors.

That, as they grew older and after the disappearance of their brother, Five, they began to plot to run away and find their biological parents, in hopes one of their biological families would take them in, would be the true, loving family they always wanted. They would try to see if they could take their siblings with them, but they knew the truth—only they could escape.

The decision came when on a mission, after using her illusions to make them invisible and sneak away, Winona and Adeline watched Ben die.

Horrified at what they saw and knowing they had to run now, the sisters snuck aboard the ship invisibly and waited until they were all home. There, they got themselves ready to run and snuck into their sister Vanya's room, who'd been bunked due to not having powers, convincing her to run with them. And they almost succeeded, if Reginald hadn't caught them and sedated Vanya, hadn't threatened them and forced them to leave their siblings behind.

So, with heavy hearts, they did, running to Adeline's biological parents and sister, who welcome their long lost daughter and a new daughter in Winona with open arms. That they enrolled in a final year of high school and graduated, saying they were homeschooled and wanted to experience this last year of high school (it wasn't technically a lie). That when they turned eighteen, the sisters covered up the umbrella tattoo with phoenixes to symbolise rising out of the ashes of their trauma. That they worked hard on their respective careers and Adeline found love in her wife, Sophia, and years later they were married and had their first child, Matilda. And while their adoptive siblings had their numbers, little contact was shared. Because Adeline and Winona had done it. They'd escaped. They were free. Only the shadow of Reginald and his threats hovered over them.

That shadow disappears when they hear he's dead and, instead of going back to the academy for the funeral, they celebrate his death and finally being free. That he is, at last, gone, and with it any worries he could come into their lives and take it all away, the rest of their lives bright and wonderfully normal and mundane.

That comes crashing down when a day later, to the sisters' shock, their disappeared brother Five appears on Adeline's doorstep not a day over thirteen, talking about an apocalypse coming and bringing the whole family together, including them after their escape and years of healing from their trauma and living the normal lives and careers they worked so hard for.

Oh, and they had ten days to save the world. How's that for a time crunch?

***

... and way down we go

CAST

Chloe Bennet as Adeline Chen-Parson (Hargreeves)

Number 08/The Banshee

(Powers: Sonic scream, enhanced hearing)

Olivia Cooke as Winona Chen (Hargreeves)

Number 09/The Magician

(Power: Illusions, duplication (via illusions), invisibility (via illusions))

with

Nafessa Williams as Sophia Chen-Parson

Elodie Yung as Kat Chen

and

the tua cast as themselves

Mixtape

i. Way Down We Go — KALEO ii. I Think We're Alone Now — Tiffany iii. Never Tear Us Apart — INXS iv.  Don't Stop Me Now — Queen v. The Chain — Fleetwood Mac vi. I Know The End — Phoebe Bridgers vii. Run Boy Run — Woodkid viii. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) ix. Safe And Sound — Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars x. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) — Kate Bush xi. Under Pressure — Queen, David Bowie xii. Hazy Shade Of Winter — Gerard Way, Ray Toro xiii. Umbrella — J2 xiv. Fallout — UNSECRET, Neoni xv. Something On Your Mind — Karen Dolton xvi. We're Not Gonna Take It — Twisted Sister xvii. Believer — Imagine Dragons xviii. Dancing In The Moonlight — Toploader xix. Immortals — Fall Out Boy xx. Runaway — AURORA xxi. Thank You For The Venom — My Chemical Romance xxii. Seven Nation Army — The White Stripes xxiii. Happy Together — Gerard Way, Ray Toro xxiv. Family Line — Conan Gray xxv. Blood // Water — grandson xxvi. We Will Rock You — Queen xxvii. In The End — Tommee Profitt, Fleurie xxviii. Take On Me — a-ha xxix. Everybody Wants To Rule The World — Lorde xxx. Daddy Issues — The Neighbourhood xxxi. Control — Halsey xxxii. Somewhere Only We Know — Keane xxxiii. Sisters — Radical Face xxxiv. Smells Like Teen Spirit — Malia J  xxxv. I Did Something Bad — Taylor Swift xxxvi. Daylight — Taylor Swift xxxvii. This Love — Taylor Swift xxxviii. Mary — Big Thief xxxix. Kill Of The Night — Gin Wigmore xl. Party Rock Anthem — LMFAO xli. Celebrate Good Times (Come On) — Funktown America xlii. Like A Prayer — Madonna xliii. Survivor — 2WEI, Edda Hayes xliv. Celebration — Madonna xlv. Toxic — 2WEI, Edda Hayes xlvi. Paint It, Black — The Rolling Stones xlvii. Until We Go Down — Ruelle xlviii. The Kids Aren't Alright — Fall Out Boy xlix. The Family Jewels — MARINA l. End Of The World — Arcando, Neoni

Timeline

s1-s4 au

Warnings

This fic has mentions and descriptions of: childhood abuse and trauma, blood and gore, violence, swearing, death, deadnaming and dysfunctional/toxic sibling dynamics. This fic is rated Mature

Dedications

To my number one mutual, harringtonssss—we gave in to the voices together—and to everyone who loves this chaos superhero family. You all rule and we can all cry over these dysfunctional siblings and s4 finale together <333333

Author's Note

Hello and welcome one and all to the fiftieth example of my zero impulse control—AKA this fic!!

As you can tell, this is an Umbrella Academy fic! I love this show, but I never thought of making a fic for it... until s4 and my gal Mara posted her own TUA fic (I SOBBED during the end and the behind the scenes photos in the credits) And so, here we are in the TUA madness!

Adeline and Winona are my children who literally have the second Hargreeves brain cell Five loaned to them when he time-travelled and never got back and used it to run away and get out of that abusive household and toward Adeline's bio family and actually grow up to be functioning adults with flourishing careers—Adeline as a successful writer and Winona as a successful tattooist—and Adeline in a happy, healthy relationship with her wife and their daughter Matilda (Allison could never) and covering up their umbrella tattoos with phoenixes to symbolise rising and healing from their trauma and instead of going back for the funeral they throw a party celebrating Reginald's dead. We love to see it 🥰 

But they did try to take Viktor and would have tried to convince all their siblings to run if Reggie hadn't taken Viktor back and threatened the sisters :( You can bet there will be ✨ tension ✨ between all the siblings over that and Adeline and Winona living their best lives

And yes, Five's gonna drag Adeline and Winona kicking and screaming from their normal lives to deal with the apocalypse XD

Also, in the show, Viktor will be referred to his deadname and she/her pronouns in s1/2 until his transition in s3. And I'm gonna take a cue from Mara and refer to Klaus by he/they pronouns because that's what he goes by! And as for my OCs—Adeline is greyromantic asexual, both Winona and Sophia are lesbians, and Kat is bisexual!

I'm also not sure how often updates will be. They might be quick, but it depends on how often I can write and the inspiration, especially with how chaotic this show is and my other fics being on the back burner (especially my Stranger Things fics I want to finish before s5) (shrugs) But no promises!

One last note: I'm gonna try and rewrite aspects of s4, because those last episodes were a hot mess (I mean, they were trying to work with what they had since they were cut from two extra episodes, but you could tell) No promises if it will end same as the finale or not. Already can say Five and Lila will NOT be a thing, because... what the hell was that? (and my poor Diego x Lila heart could not take it) They will just remain as vitriolic besties, as they always should

Anyway... let's descend into the madness and chaos that is The Umbrella Academy!

GhostWriterGirl out!

Disclaimer

I don't own The Umbrella Academy or its characters, all rights go to Gerard Way, Steve Blackman and Netflix. I only own my OCs and their plot lines