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Luther, looking lost at everyone around each other, he’s moving quickly as he reaches Vanya’s corpse. He locked her in a room just as their father had, yet he can only see fear in their once great leader. The fear he has become their father.
Diego finds the corpse of the love his life, Five can only wonder what that truly means. See Delores destroys him, but he can’t help but think this could be the beginning of the end of the era for him. Apocalypse or not, he will never be the same.
Allison with slashed vocal chords, removing her ability just as she had done to Vanya. How many of them had been controlled in such a way growing up, but no one could remember.
April 1st, he could only think about how when he read Vanya’s book she truly only wanted what she had just achieved. She was first chair, she was never just ordinary, but it took too much for her to discover it.
Klaus has acceptance, Five can understand why. Death is an old friend for Klaus, just as it is for Five.
It was over. All of it could be over.
He looked around, each face was far more similar than they would have been just a week ago. After years of picturing an almost peaceful end for them was proven anything but tonight. An unconscious Vanya was a new found fear of her had form amongst the siblings. They can change this. Their destiny isn’t written yet, there’s no way it’s over yet. Five didn’t do all this just to see everyone die again.
“I just want to say, I love you all.” Klaus said it as he could see the glow of Ben next to him, the body that once was missing stands with the rest. Allison blinked away tears, nodding towards the rest of them, conveying what she wished she could say. Her hand reached for Klaus’ and Five couldn’t remember the last time she went to hold their brother’s hand in childhood. He slowly blinked his eyes, trying to memorize them one more time as blue surrounded them. If they were really going to die again, at least it was together.
“Just, hold on!” Five hates how desperate his voice sounds, like when he first got lost and his voice was hoarse from screaming for them.
“It’s going to be okay.” Luther holds a sad smile before looking down, then up at the rest of them. He hadn’t set Vanya down, almost as if he doesn’t want to let her down one more time, even in death.
“Just hold on!” Five screamed once again, seeing each of them as he remembered when he went missing, seeing each go them stare at one another before everything went black around them.
He nearly throws up when he opens his eyes, shooting straight up in bed, fear coursing through this body. He wants to scream, his voice ready to crawl out of his throat, but no noise comes. He fees as if he could pass back out from sheer exhaustion.
“F-f-five?” Is whispered from his doorway, he jumps even more before making eye contact. Diego stands in the doorway, visibly missing a scar on his temple, but the main difference is his age. He looked like he was a child, like Five looked.
“Diego?” He gets up, realizing they were the same size. Diego no longer holding a much taller stance, he reaches to touch his face, an action that would have resulted in Five losing a finger if everything that had just occurred was a nightmare.
“It’s you.” Diego touches his face back, the two staring at one an other.
“Where are the others?” Fives sets out of the doorway, noticing Diego’s matching pajamas and begins his conquest to find the rest of them.
“Here.” Diego confirms, both of them paused in front of Ben’s closed door.
“Is Ben here?” He asks, not sure the limit of his own abilities.
“I-I-I- I don’t know.” Diego admits and Five nods.
“I’ll round everyone up. Go back to your room incase Reginald has some things to say about us being out of bed at this hour.” Diego nods, clearly not wanting to leave Five.
“Don’t take too long.” He asks of Five before retreating back to his room, leaving Five to open the door. Even if Ben didn’t come back with them from 2019, he’d be alive. He would be alive and that’s all that matters. He knocks, before ignoring common curtesy and opening the door anyway. Five could throw up when he sees Ben, still sound asleep, curled in his bed.
“Ben?” Klaus says behind Five, causing him to jump some.
“Klaus!” He whispers back, probably too loudly, but Klaus pales even.
“Hi.” Klaus is barely audibly, uncharacteristically soft and quiet.
“Um, we need to figure out what to say to each other. Maybe we should have done that before the jump.”
“So it’s true, you’re not dead.” He shoves both of them out of Ben’s room.
“What are you thinking about?” Five is closing Ben’s door. He can feel Klaus squeezing him for dear life.
“We’re alive! Holy shit! You’re alive!” He laughs maniacally.
“You’re going to get us in trouble!” Five attempts to quiet him.
“Do you think…?” Klaus looks over Five’s shoulder.
“Only one way to know…” Five decides, both looking at one another.
“Do we wake him up?”
“Maybe we wait.” Five decides as he hears foot steps coming up behind them.
“Klaus? Five?” Luther pants out, clearly having rushed from room to room, and Five could scream, he looked normal. The three hugged, he doesn’t think he would have ever hugged his siblings a couple days ago.
“You’re normal.” Five says in disbelief.
“As normal as you can get, Luther.” Klaus has a smirk as he says it.
“Has anyone seen Allison? How is she?” Luther stresses.
“What about Vanya?” Klaus asks as well.
“I only saw Diego and I guess Ben.”
“Does Ben… does he know and remember?” Luther asks.
“I don’t know, we didn’t wake him up.” Klaus looks longingly at the door.
“I need to find Allison, regroup in ten?” Luther asks them. Five decides not to point out that was already his plan, they can start bickering later on.
“In ten.” Klaus and Five agree as Luther takes off towards Allison’s room.
“I’ll talk to Ben.” Klaus decides, looking for approval.
“I’ll find Vanya.” Five turns towards her room. The hall was destroyed less than a few hours ago, less than a few hours ago the world was meant to end. The apocalypse was adverted, but was it truly adverted? He looks at her door, it creeks as he opens it.
“Five?” Is whispered, the violet walls seem more welcoming than they ever had before.
“Vee.” He closes the door behind him, rushing to her bed.
“What happened? How’d we? Why aren’t I dead?” The confusion is painted on her face.
“We didn’t shoot you, Allison stopped us.”
“Allison, no, I killed her.” Vanya rushes to get up.
“You didn’t.”
“My bow strings, they sliced her, I didn’t actually make sure she was okay. Oh my god.” Tears began dripping down her cheeks.
“You saw her before the concert, you smiled at her, she knows you didn’t mean to hurt her.” Five assures her.
“Was this all a dream? What day is it?” Vanya gets out of bed, rushing towards the door when she opens it she’s met with Allison.
“Vee?” Allison whispers, touching her face.
“I’m so sorry.” Vanya chokes out, the two hugging each other. Luther standing behind them with Diego.
“I’m sorry too.” Allison says to her.
“Where’s Ben?” Diego asks then, clearly caught up enough on the plan.
“Right here.” He looks still, like his statue as he walks in, Klaus trailing him like a lost puppy.
“Benny boy here… isn’t exactly sure what’s happening.” Klaus tells them.
“It makes no sense.” Ben points out, sitting on the floor. He startled when the others join him, tumbling over one an other.
“I missed you.” Diego says in a desperate whisper, a sentiment that seems to be agreed upon amongst the siblings.
“So, does the world still end?” Vanya asks after some time in the silence.
“I don’t know. I don’t know now.” Five looks at them all.
“What do we do now?” Luther asks, Five wants to point out it isn’t very leaderish of him.
“Hope it doesn’t happen again.”
“If you don’t know though, how will anything change?”
“We can prevent it.” Vanya decides, staring at the floor.
“She’s right, we can.” Allison agrees, Five is picking apart Vanya’s expression.
“If I’m the bomb… we know what we have to do.” Vanya decides.
“What? Who the hell said that?” Luther asks.
“We can change a lot more than just the apocalypse.” Klaus says.
“But if it’s inevitable, we can stop it.” Vanya says again.
“And we can stop Ben from dying. We can fix everything. We don’t abuse the shit out of you, hey maybe you kill ole Reggie sooner than his suicide?” Klaus bumps his elbow against Vanya.
“That’s not even funny.”
“I beg to differ.”
“I-I- I’d be cool with offing him.” Diego adds.
“Wait… does this mean Claire has never existed?” Allison asks suddenly.
“It doesn’t mean she can’t.” Five tells her.
“So, where’s a notebook? How many goddamn music books do you own Vanya?” Luther asks as he digs in her desk drawer.
“I don’t know, yesterday I was teaching in my own apartment. It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
“Technically yesterday you tried to kill me.”
“That was Lenard… mainly.”
“That’s another one we could kill.” Klaus offers as Luther slams a notebook down.
“No killing anyone yet, god why do I have to say that?” Luther mutters.
“Oh yeah, because we’re going to listen to you.” Five shoots at him.
“How’d I die, can we bring that up?”
“Not now Ben.” Allison brushes it off.
“No, I agree, I want to discuss that. We need to prevent it.” Luther points out.
“Okay, so Jennifer. We kill Jennifer.” Klaus says.
“Why is killing your only option?” Luther asks.
“I’m just trying to be open with our options.”
“I could rumor some people.”
“Thank you! A non-lethal option!”
“Oh, no. I didn’t say that. It’s just less messy if they take care of themselves.”
“This family is a nightmare.” Vanya whispers.
“Pretty sure you’re the nightmare.” Diego says to her.
“Oh am I?”
“Hey, dont piss off the apocalypse now.”
“Don’t call me that!” Five watches as Diego and Vanya attempt to physically fight.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“Klaus.” Allison slaps his arm.
“Oh my god I’ve been alive ten minutes.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. I always kept you around.” Klaus says from where Allison has pinned him to the floor.
“To see your rock bottoms.”
“We’ve discussed this, I’m the god damn Mariana Trench, baby!”
“Hey, hey guys. Let’s not wake up dad.” Luther mutters.
“Dad sleeps like the dead.”
“No, he’s too busy preparing to play tennis with Hitler.” Diego smiles at the comment, remembering what Klaus had said a few days prior.
“God, he was such a prick.”
“Well, we have breakfast with him, in like, five minutes.” Five reminds everyone.
“We can change the outcomes…” Ben says, voice longing.
“You survive.” Allison agrees.
“We all survive.” Five nods as Luther continues to write in the notebook. A silence over comes the room, a peace Five isn’t sure if they had ever had previously.
“So what do we do now?” Luther asks and everyone looks to one another.
“I’m roofie-ing dad.” Vanya gets up to go to her bedside table.
“Hey! Can we discuss that?”
“Just did, I’m drugging him.”
“Grab some for Pogo too?” Five asks.
“I love committing just a bit of crime before breakfast.” Klaus looks pleased with himself.
“Hey. Hey. Hey. Maybe we don’t immediately drug dad?”
“Luther, t-t-take your daddy issues somewhere e-e-else.”
“Is your stutter getting worse?” The group watches as Diego and Luther lose decorum with one another.
“How long until we can surprise dear old dad with your parlor tricks?” Klaus asks as Allison and Vanya hold pills in their hands.
“Parlor tricks?”
“He means the apocalypse.” Five rolls his eyes as Klaus.
“How about we don’t end the world please?” Allison asks.
“So, do we just lie to dad?” Ben asks for clarification.
“Until we figure it out, yes. We drug them to figure out what to do.”
“What are our chances with this?” Five hates he doesn’t have the answer.
“Haven’t ran the numbers.”
“So we’re going in blind?” Luther’s attention shifts to Five.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.”
“There’s no prior information.” Ben says, looking the chicken scratch Luther called handwriting.
“We write it.” Allison agrees.
“We wrote it last time and clearly that didn’t go well.” Klaus points out.
“But we didn’t know anything.”
“What didn’t we know?”
“We’re actually seven numbers.” Allison decides for the group, pointedly looking at Vanya.
“I was always a number.”
“But I made you forget.”
“We have the full capacity and currently can be the old man’s biggest fear.” Five says.
“I don’t want to mess up.” Vanya says as they all stand with one an other.
“Then just drug dad. Allison has pogo.” Five tells her.
“Let’s find mom.” Diego says and the group nods, walking out as an uniform group. Five watches as Allison and Vanya slip to different parts of the kitchen, clearly drugging them.
“What’s this about?” He hears mom ask as Diego hugs her middle tight, Ben joining in a moment later.
“I missed you.” Ben tells her and she smiles warmly.
“You saw me just last night.” Diego looks upset as she says it, but both nod anyway. The group approaches each of their seats, looking to one another. Mom kisses their heads one by one and they wait for their father to come downstairs to join them.
“I heard quite the commotion this morning.” He says, looking to them.
“I am sorry. It’s my fault.” Luther says, Five’s eyes go buggy, Luther would have never sacrificed himself before.
“I expect better of you Number One. Let us eat.” They all sit down, still looking at one another. Five notices Vanya isn’t eating, she’s watching their father and Pogo intensely. Five isn’t sure where and how they drug her, he’d probably feel the same distrust.
Five forgot how deafening the silence was at meal times, even in the past week it had always been hectic. Their lives were full of life as soon as their dad took his own.
“I… I don’t feel well.” Their father stumbles over his words, looking around at them.
“Are you okay dear?” Their mom asks.
“I think I should go lay down.”
“Me as well.” Pogo agrees.
“Training will be later today. I expect you all to behave and get work done.” Five rolls his eyes at his dad.
“Of course, dad.” Luther says to him, smirk evident.
“I’ll walk you to your room.” Mom stands and takes his arm. The group watches as both pogo and dad are lead out.
“I’m feeling doughnuts.” Luther says standing up.
“Oh! Gritty’s?” Allison asks.
“I like how you’re thinking.” Ben agrees.
“I’m not getting dressed.” Klaus stands with the others.
“Oh yeah because that won’t look weird.”
“You want to wear your uniform?”
“It’s not so bad.”
“Five, you look like a ten year old.”
“Excuse you, I think I’m thirteen.”
“Wait, how old are we?”
“Ben was dead yesterday, I bet he’d know.” Ben flips off Klaus in response.
“Guys, we own a calendar.”
“Can you read that?” Diego asks Luther. The siblings expect to see a bowl go flying in response, but they don’t. Luther just sighs in agitation.
“We’re thirteen.” Luther informs them.
“What day?” Five asks, realizing he should be leaving.
“November eleventh, 2002.” Luther tells him and room feels heavy suddenly.
“Five doesn’t jump to April first and we fix the timeline?” Klaus asks.
“We can hope.”
“We can be sure.” Five says to the group.
As nightfalls the group is meeting once again in Vanya’s room, considering yesterday in this timeline they’d spend no time here it’s almost poetic. Trying to figure out their family while sitting in the very place the world ended. Blankets lay about the room, each of them leaning on one another.
“I could rumor…” Allison seems unsure, uneasy.
“No, no. We don’t mess anything up.” Five tells her.
“How much longer are we up?” Klaus asks, Ben is leading on his chest.
“Until midnight.”
“It was easier staying up a day ago.”
“Adrenaline crash.” Five reminds the group.
“We know.” Klaus groans.
“Then why are you asking?”
“Can I propose a change to this timeline?” Klaus asks.
“What now?” Luther rolls his eyes.
“Don’t be all incest with your sister.”
“Wait, what?” Ben suddenly regains consciousness.
“You don’t get to do drugs.”
“Fine. Kiss our sister.”
“I agree with Klaus. No incest? The fuck is wrong with you guys.” Ben asks.
“You never saw them?” Klaus asks.
“No, I tried to avoid all that.”
“You didn’t haunt all of us?” Allison asks.
“This is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever heard.” Vanya covers her eyes.
“Oh come on. You knew.” Klaus reminds her.
“I’d rather forget.”
“If you want to rumor so bad, make it so you guys never ever do that.” Klaus decides.
“No. No rumors.”
“Five?” Diego raises his eyebrows.
“No rumors until midnight then I’d also like to forget whatever weird thing they do.”
“I think it’s from chronic child abuse they leaned on another.” Vanya tells them.
“Don’t therapy talk.”
“Why? Because none of you dealt with your problems?”
“I was on the moon!”
“The fucking moon.” Diego rolls his eyes.
“Apocalypse.” Five reminds the group.
“Dead.”
“Went to Hollywood.”
“Drug addict.”
“Police officer.”
“Don’t say police officer, bargain Batman.” Allison rolls her eyes.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Hey, no fighting. We have five more goddamn minutes.”
“Hey, I never said thank you.” Luther says after some silence.
“Big guy is right, thank you.” Klaus adds.
“What they said.” Diego mumbles.
“Glad we didn’t all die.” Ben smiles.
“Can’t believe it was my fault.” The group laughs a little.
“God, I cannot wait for you to show dad your powers.” Klaus decides.
“Dad knows her powers, idiot.” Luther reminds him.
“But not the extent.”
“We can’t tell dad about the apocalypse.” Five looks at them seriously.
“Oh come on! She almost destroyed the moon!” Klaus throws his arms up.
“Considering the size and trajectory she was capable of pulling it, it is so impressive.”
“N-N-No more moon!” Diego throws a pillow at him.
“I vote you kill him with a bowl of oatmeal.” Ben says to her.
“No killing right now.” Five sighs.
“I meant tomorrow.”
“I don’t give a shit what any of you do tomorrow.” Five mutters.
“Oh give it up Five, you missed up.” Klaus laughs a little.
“Maybe.”
“Oh my god, you did!” Allison is sitting fully alert.
“Two minutes.” He mutters.
“God, you’re such an old man.” Ben informs him.
“Now you’re stuck at thirteen with us.” Diego reminds him. Five is fine with that, not that he’d ever say that out loud, but there’s a sense of calmness in his soul. Diego throws something to flick the light switch off, clearly the group’s unspoken decision to sleep here tonight.
“We still have more to figure out.” Five insists.
“But? Sounds like there is a but there.” Allison chimes in.
“But I guess for tonight we can say crisis adverted.” Five says as he watches the clock flick to twelve.
“Crisis adverted.” The group agrees in varying manners as they each start to fall off into sleep. Momentary universe peace felt impossible not even twenty four hours ago, now it feels like they can actually achieve anything of the sorts.