Comes and Goes (in Waves) is a The Umbrella Academy fanfic series by hujwernoo, found here.
Summary:
The apocalypse happens, Five arrives in the rubble, and his entire family is dead.
However, one of them has power over ghosts. And even if being dead seriously sucks sometimes, Klaus is going to be there for his brother.
The premise is that Klaus remains as a ghost past the apocalypse, and his powers eventually allow him to manifest and interact with Five. Sibling bonding (Hargreeves-style) ensues.
Comes and Goes (in Waves) provides examples of:
- After the End: A large part of the story is set in the wasteland following the end of the world, where everything is dead.
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: Lacquer, an assassin, receives orders to terminate Number Five, and the Commission kills Ghost Klaus, who are all working for the same organisation.
- Bears Are Bad News: The drabble 'A Grizzly Murder' shows the origin of one of Five's mementos he keeps alongside Leonard's eye - he encountered a grizzly bear, and decided to kill it with only a sharp stick. While he actually manages it, it goes without saying that Ghost Klaus has a major Freak Out.
- Berserk Button: Never waste food in front of either of the brothers. They will gut you. Justified, due to how important food was during the apocalypse.
- Big Brother Instinct: Ghost Klaus eventually develops an enormous desire to protect Five, and Five reciprocates with the inversion.
- Companion Cube: Delores, naturally.
- Cuddle Bug: Ghost Klaus glomps Five whenever possible, even when his manifestation time is sharply limited. Over the years, he wears Five down into accepting, then even initiating hugs, which he considers his greatest achievement.
- A Day in the Limelight: The various drabbles in it comes and goes will sometimes focus on characters who don't get their own POVs in the main stories, such as Lacquer, the Handler, the Trainer, the other Hargreeves, and Dave.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Hazel is killed by Five in the motel room, and Cha-Cha dies several days early.
- Gloria, Dot, and literally everyone else at Commission Headquarters dies when Raithe goes on his rampage.
- The six people Five pinpointed whose death might avert the apocalypse all die, thanks to Harold Jenkins not coming to anyone's attention.
- Death Faked for You: Ghost Klaus being Deader than Dead was faked by the Handler to fool Five, the rest of the Commission, and even the readers into thinking him truly deceased.
- Despair Event Horizon: After an utterly relentless Trauma Conga Line, Five spirals into a depressive state similar to that at the beginning of the series.
- Deus ex Machina: At the peak of Five's Despair Event Horizon, it seems as if he is going to lay down and let the apocalypse happen, and probably fall into a permanent depression. However, just as Five gives up all hope and starts to lash out at his family, Ghost Klaus appears! And, he's wiped out the Commission, the last obstacle to preventing the apocalypse.
- Disability Immunity: Downplayed. Five gets shot in his right shoulder just before he travels back to canon. He has to deal with pain, but as he's already missing that arm, it doesn't impact his mobility.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Five loses his right arm in the second story, and it remains gone even after he travels back to 2019.
- Discriminate and Switch: Played for Drama. Five's vehement denials that he was in a relationship with Raithe come off as homophobic to Canon Klaus note , when it's really because he's
squicked at the incestuous implications. It's not helped that he can't bring himself to look at Canon Klaus anytime during the conversation. - Dissonant Serenity: Ghost Klaus is perfectly calm and emotionless as he massacres the entire Commission Headquarters.
- Double-Meaning Title: for the ones who need a hand refers not only to Klaus and Five's codependency, but also to Five losing his arm.
- Dramatic Irony: So very much in for the ones who try again.
- No one knows that Raithe is Klaus aside from Five, who's too traumatized to divulge details, so the siblings all assume he and Raithe were romantically involved.
- Five accidentally gives the impression he's homophobic when he reacts negatively to this.
- Canon Klaus is bewildered at the assertion that Raithe would get along with both Five and himself. Everyone automatically assumes Vanya would have the best chance of connecting with Five.
- And no one picks up just how painful Five's interactions with Canon Klaus are.
- It comes to a critical mass in chapter 13. Hazel and Cha-Cha kidnap Canon Klaus, and their scenes with him are virtually unchanged from canon... except their victim's assertion that no one will notice his absence is completely untrue, his belief that Five wouldn't come save him anyways is even moreso, and Cha-Cha's rant that Raithe (a future version of Canon Klaus) isn't secretly with them and has nothing to do with their job is so thick with irony it's a wonder that she doesn't choke on it.
- In Chapter 20, Sedgewick says that it's a good thing Ghost Klaus doesn't have Five's ability to teleport. Her words end up triggering a flashback and reminding Klaus that he can, in fact, do that.
- No one knows that Raithe is Klaus aside from Five, who's too traumatized to divulge details, so the siblings all assume he and Raithe were romantically involved.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After Five hits the Despair Event Horizon, he hops on down to Reginald's liquor cabinet. Naturally, Five later passes out.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Platonic. Ghost Klaus' last words to Five before his Last Stand are an affirmation of his love.
- Fantastic Science: The existence of ghosts changes physics as we know it, and both Five and the Commission use this in their equations, to disastrous effect.
- Foreshadowing: A bunch:
- Klaus is very surprised to hear that Five has no plans of leaving him behind when he travels back to prevent the apocalypse. Surely enough, Five ends up being unable to bring him along when it happens.
- Five threatens to figure out how to punch Klaus even when he's incorporeal several times. The Commission goes a little further than just punching.
- When Canon Klaus is kidnapped, Five briefly wonders if he should invite Vanya along on the search, before flinching at the thought of Hazel and Cha-Cha getting hold of her, and musing that if both she and Klaus died, he'd just curl up and wait for the apocalypse. When Klaus gets sucked away by the Briefcase, Five essentially does just that.
- In for the ones who need a hand, Five offhandedly mentions an incident where Klaus managed to teleport, albeit losing a week worth of time in the process. Two sequels later, we have ghost Klaus remembering this from where he's been trapped in a tank, and this is heavily implied (if not outright confirmed) to be how he will escape.
- For Science!: Seems to be The Commission's motivation for capturing Raithe instead of killing him - if he can be killed, anyway. He is kept in tortorous confinement and regularly experimented on in order to understand metaphysics.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Considering Five time-travels immediately after receiving severe wounds and watching his Living Emotional Crutch get murdered, he is nowhere near as collected as in canon. This convinces the Canon Hargreeves that there is indeed something very big going on, and they immediately offer assistance in preventing the upcoming incident.
- Five can't bring himself to accept help from Canon Klaus, which means the group that goes to MeriTech consists of Luther, Diego, Allison, and Five. This goes so badly that Five pushes Allison into using her rumors again, with the implication in later chapters that she's falling Off the Wagon.
- Since Five notices Canon Klaus has been kidnapped, and ropes Luther and Allison into looking for him, Allison never meets up with Vanya to inform her of Grace's death. Vanya finding out two days later via coming across her mother's corpse prompts a slap and an even more vicious What the Hell, Hero? than canon - ironically directed at Canon Klaus, who just found out himself and wasn't aware she didn't know.
- Since Raithe destroyed the Commission (and didn't think to look around for their information on the apocalypse while doing it), no one knows they should be looking for Harold Jenkins. This leads to a number of changes, such as the six people Five pinpointed as being tangential to the apocalypse dying, and Allison not going after Vanya. Also, due to coming back a day earlier than canon, a couple things from the Day That Wasn't remain, such as Klaus successfully contacting Dave, who wastes no time sticking around.
- Handicapped Badass: Five loses his right arm in the second story. It doesn't slow him down in becoming a Professional Killer in the least.
- Inexperienced Killer: Ghost Klaus is with the Commission for nearly a year before he kills anyone (and even then, it was an accident).
- In Spite of a Nail:
- The shootout at Griddy's still happens, although the siblings do know Five was there.
- Canon Klaus invites Vanya over to the house on the second day, but his phone call happens just as Leonard arrives for his lesson, so Vanya postpones coming over. This is even lampshaded in the author's notes at the end.aka: the chapter where Klaus and Ben almost manage to divert the apocalypse.
- Canon Klaus still gets kidnapped by Hazel and Cha-Cha, and opens the Briefcase to get dropped in the Vietnam War, meeting Dave in the process.
- A sibling still goes after Vanya even though no one knows Leonard is anyone of consequence - although it's Klaus who goes instead of Allison.
- It Gets Easier: Ghost Klaus muses about this during his time at the Commission.
- Later, he further reflects that he's lost any and all reluctance to kill people, and is in fact actually eager to do so, after he believes Five has died.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: The Commission refers to Raithe as 'it' several times in for the ones who try again. To be expected, as they're subjecting him to torturous inhumane experiments in order to figure out metaphysics.
- It's All My Fault: The equations Five started on to interact with ghosts? The Commission later uses them to terminate Ghost Klaus.
- I Want Them Alive!: Instead of killing Ghost Klaus, the Handler captures him, and uses him to learn about the intricacies of metaphysics.
- Jack of All Trades: Ghost Klaus picks up a truly mindboggling array of knowledge and skills during their time at The Commission, on top of his proficiency in medicine and survivalism. See Long List.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Ghost Klaus has shades of this at times. Even when he's barely able to focus on reality thanks to the amount of ghosts swirling around the Commission's training facility, he doesn't hesitate to decide that if Five is subjected to the same abuse Reginald heaped on them in their childhood, everyone in the building dies. Later, when Five's arm gets dislocated in training, Klaus grabs a knife and 'severs some very important tendons', displaying no remorse afterwards. And, even later, when Klaus believes that Five has been killed by the Commission, everyone in the building does die.
- Last Stand: when faced with Commission mooks armed with ghost-killing weaponry, Ghost Klaus launches himself into the fray in a last-ditched attempt to save Five.
- Living Emotional Crutch: While living in the apocalypse, the only person for Five to talk to was Klaus, and vice-versa. After eighteen years of this, it's only understandable that they develop a crippling codependency.
- Living Legend: Five and Klaus are renowned for their prowess as assassins.
- Long List: All the subjects Ghost Klaus dabbles in during their time at The Commission.He gains a lot of basic, introductory-level knowledge on a wide variety of topics, such as metalworking and leathermaking and fishing and hunting and autopsying and zookeeping and harp-playing and dog-breeding and geisha-ing and painting and sculpting and lap-dancing (turns out he was doing it wrong all this time, who knew?) and fabric-dyeing and castle-building and herb-gathering and alligator-feeding and engraving and chemistry and candle-making and forgery and wood-carving and acting and swimming and neurosurgery and hot-air-ballooning and silk-screening and quill-making and violin-stringing (he can bond with Vanya when he gets back!) and stamps and pyramid-robbing and clock-making and blueberry-picking and navigation and printing and Greek-fire-making and coal-mining and chocolate-tasting and sewing and secret-service-training and falconry and magazine-editing and a few other things.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Five and Ghost Klaus' usual strategy in their assassinations for the Commission.
- The Medic: Ghost Klaus takes to studying medicine in the apocalypse, since he is The Needless and can provide round-the-clock care whenever Five is hurt. It comes in handy quite a few times, and Five idly remarks at one point that Ghost Klaus probably qualifies as a fully-fledged doctor.
- Mercy Kill: A Commission grunt begs Diego to be put him out of his misery after the grunt confirmed that he was just part of an attack on the Number Five.
- Mistaken for Gay: Five and Ghost Klaus by most of their coworkers at the Commission, to the point where they barely even bother trying to correct it.
- Eventually done by the other Hargreeve siblings as well.
- Murder, Inc.: The Commission.
- The Needless: Klaus, on account of being a ghost, doesn't need to rest, eat, or even breath. It comes in handy very often, and Five muses how it's a good thing he doesn't have to stretch his meagre supplies in the apocalypse to cover another person.
- Never Found the Body: Ghost Klaus after being rendered Deader than Dead disappears in a flash of white light, again, on account of being a ghost.
- It was really because he wasn't actually dead.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In chapter 36 of 'for the ones who try again', Five convinces Raithe to summon Ben to find out where Klaus ran off to. Ben tells them where Vanya and Klaus are, and that Leonard is the owner of the eye. That's good, right? Except the next chapter reveals that Ben vanished at the exact wrong time, leading Klaus to make an outburst that breaks Vanya's trust in him and eventually ends with him dead.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Sedgewick's comment on how Klaus didn't have Five's teleportation abilities leads him to remember that he does in fact have them.
- Noodle Incident: Many.
- The Teleportation Incident is referenced several times as an experiment to see whether Ghost Klaus could teleport that went horribly wrong when he blinked out of existence for a week. It's heavily implied Five had a mental breakdown during this time.
- Klaus apparently flooded the bunker once.
- Whatever Klaus does during his second visit to the Facility.
- The Calhoun job, which cements the brothers' reputation in The Commission and gets referenced occasionally afterwards, is a complete mystery. Klaus himself admits he has no idea how they pulled it off. Notably, he mentions that he made use of a fourth of his Long List of skills mentioned above.
- Before the apocalypse, Ben apparently urged Klaus to desecrate his statue multiple times, including gluing a live octopus onto it. Klaus still has no idea where he got the octopus.
- Everything about Klaus' involvement with Carlos.
- No One Could Survive That!: The event that caused the apocalypse, though not explicitly written, is shown to have killed everything, and destroyed every city Five and Klaus travel to.
- Not So Stoic: Five breaks down sobbing when Ghost Klaus manifests for a second time and proves he's not a hallucination.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Ghost Klaus has no trouble saying this to Five, but he's speechless when Five finally reciprocates. They eventually become comfortable enough to casually drop it into everyday conversation.
- Of course, this really doesn't clear up their Relative Error situation.
- Pre-Mortem Catchphrase: Ghost Klaus, before the Last Stand, turns to say one final thing:"Love you, Five."
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Five recognises that all of the Hargreeves have this problem, and vows to try and fix it when he travels back to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. However, his massive trauma from witnessing Ghost Klaus being Deader than Dead regresses him into this mindset, and he can barely bring himself to interact with his siblings, neglecting to tell them anything more than what they can drag out of him.
- Played tragically literal near the end. Canon Klaus puts together that Allison rumored Vanya about her powers, and rushes off to support her. But Leonard's meddling, along with Raithe summoning Ben at the exact wrong time, leads Vanya to believe that all of her siblings always knew about her powers, leading to a spectacular breakdown on both her and Klaus' parts that ends with Klaus dead.
- Promotion to Parent: Klaus denies this early on, but it's made pretty clear that he essentially raised Five after the apocalypse. Five even admits this when he's older.
- Punny Name: Ghost Klaus' codename? Raithe.
- Screw Yourself: Klaus mentions wanting to do this, in at least two points during the series.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Ever since travelling to the apocalypse, Five's goal has been to return to the past and prevent the world-ending event. He attempts it in the fourth instalment.
- Sibling Team: Five and Ghost Klaus. Not only do they work together to survive in the apocalypse, but plan to fix the world together. This only increases while at the Commission, when all of their duties are carried out as a unit.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Lacquer is a Commission agent that shows up for a couple chapters at the end of 'for the ones who think they can'. Her actions (namely, shooting Five so that he can't jump out of the parking garage) is the entire reason Raithe and Five get pinned down and leads to Raithe getting captured and Five travelling to canon without him.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Detective Patch never goes to the motel, and thus never falls victim to Hazel and Cha-Cha. She appears in a later chapter, alive and well.
- Spirit Advisor: Klaus can see ghosts so it's only natural that his deceased brother, Ben, hangs around him for the rest of his life.
- Stunned Silence: Ghost Klaus, when Five first says the aforementioned Platonic Declaration of Love.
- Switching P.O.V.: Throughout the main story, the POV alternates between Five and Klaus.
- Theme Naming: All the story titles are lines from the song 'Comes And Goes (In Waves)' by Greg Laswell.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The reason there aren't any other ghosts in the apocalypse? Klaus had a psychotic break when he felt billions of people dying, and exorcised all of the resulting ghosts. He and Five are shocked once he remembers doing so (which takes eighteen years).
- Too Kinky to Torture: When kidnapped, Klaus is able to power through all of his (physical) torture because of his sexual deviance.
- Trauma Button: In for the ones who try again, anything relating to Ghost Klaus for Five, since he just witnessed his brother being Deader than Dead. This causes quite a few problems around Canon Klaus.
- Trauma Conga Line: Five goes through a lengthy one. In order:
- He witnesses Ghost Klaus being Deader than Dead, which is only possible as a result of Five's own actions;
- Gets shot twice and time travels immediately after;
- Has to plan how to stop the apocalypse while still grieving;
- Can barely bring himself to look at Canon Klaus yet gets drawn into interacting with him on several occasions;
- Slowly alienates his siblings;
- Isn't there when Canon Klaus gets kidnapped and thus blames himself for that, too;
- Sees Klaus get shot and accidentally use the Briefcase immediately after, disappearing in a way that heavily resembles Ghost Klaus' death;
- When Klaus returns, Five thinks he might be a hallucination and thus botches the conversation, leading him to believe he made Klaus stop loving him;
- Meets the Handler again, only for her to tell him that not only is Ghost Klaus still alive, he's been experimented on for all this time;
- And finally, receives an ultimatum offering the return of his beloved brother in exchange for allowing the apocalypse to happen and the deaths of the rest of his family. If Five doesn't accept, Ghost Klaus will be experimented on for the rest of eternity, and there's no guarantee he can even prevent the apocalypse in the first place.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Justified. Eventually, Ghost Klaus discovers how to change his appearance, thus gaining access to a wardrobe confined by only his imagination.
- Unstoppable Rage: During Ghost Klaus' Last Stand, he goes into a crazy frenzy, killing almost all of the mooks sent after him and his brother.
- Wham Episode: The last chapter of for the ones who think they can.
- Wham Line: A few.
- In chapter 7 of for the ones who need a hand, when the Double-Meaning Title becomes clear:
Five: We're going to have to amputate.- A couple in the last chapter of for the ones who need a hand
Five: I'm thirty-one, Klaus, not a senior citizen.And then there's a man.Handler: I'm the Handler. And I have a propositon for you two.- Chapter 10 of for the ones who think they can ends on a doozy:
Klaus: Oh my god. I banished them. I banished all of them.- But none of them can really top the ending of chapter 18 of for the ones who try again:
