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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE et tu, brute?
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
NADINE VIDAL WAS NUMB. Exhausted. Still in a struggling state of shock. Her entire body was leaden, shoulders drooping. And, because of this, a part of her wanted nothing more than to turn around, go back inside, crack open a bottle of wine and drink herself into oblivion. Sure, she'd wake up with yet another hangover, but didn't she deserve some indulgence after all she'd been through? Assassins and baby chimpanzees. Corpses and bruised ribs. Blackouts and supernovas. Bloody nose and bloody fists. The weight of the world may no longer have been on her shoulders, but the weight of this week was, and it was heavy enough. She just wanted—she just wanted to rest. She wanted it to all be over.
Despite all of this, though, she remained firmly in the car with Vanya. She may have been exhausted, yes, but she still had work to do. If she just curled up on Elliott's couch with a bottle of wine and a sleeve of crackers, she would do nothing but wallow until the FBI or DPD or Secret Service caught up with her. Whether they threw her behind bars or gunned her down for her supposed crimes didn't matter—when they got a hold of her, she was finished. At least here, she could do something before that happened (and it would happen. Nadine wasn't naïve enough to believe she could make it out of this). She could help Vanya, which had been her goal from day one.
She sat back in her seat, watching Vanya gun the engine. Before the car could set off, however, the door to the backseat opened. Her eyebrows lifted when Klaus slid inside.
"So, so, so..." he began, closing the door behind him, "Ben, huh? Gone forever. Isn't he?"
"What?" Nadine asked, turning in her seat to look at him.
Unlike Nadine, Vanya didn't flinch. "He traded his life for mine... while he saved the world in the process."
"Wait, Ben was here?" Nadine asked, shooting Klaus an accusatory look. "Was he who you were talking to the whole time? I thought you said ghosts couldn't time travel!"
Klaus's lips thinned. "That may not have been the complete truth."
Nadine crossed her arms. She'd only seen Ben in person once, the day Klaus had temporarily solidified him with his powers. But she did know that Ben had loved his siblings, and they'd loved him back. Five had asked if he had been with them for a reason—to ensure the entirety of their family was back together. Yet, Klaus had lied. He'd made Ben even more of a ghost than he really was, completely severing him from his family. And now... now he was gone?
"Vanya, what do you mean, Ben traded his life for yours?" Nadine asked, facing the front again.
Vanya took a deep breath. "When I was—when I was going off, it was Ben who managed to talk me down. I'm not sure how, but somehow, he... he got into my mind. With me. He told me it hurt him, but that it wasn't my fault. And then... then he ended up disappearing."
