𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

9│HEY, ONE QUESTION: WHAT THE HELL?

Allison ignored the girl's comment. "Where's the briefcase?"

"Where's our brother?" he volleyed back. He easily dismissed his thoughts about the 'Doloreses;' they weren't important, anyway— neither of them had powers.

The other Hargreeves gave him a thin-lipped smile. "Maybe we should try this again before I lose my temper."

Viktor tried to intervene in a whisper. "Allison—"

"I got this," she responded easily.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the siblings, Sloane was trying to send a quiet message: "Run!"

Luther— who had just lost four games of Scrabble— frowned with confusion. "Bun?" She shook her head in response.

"Hand over the briefcase or no deal," Allison addressed the Sparrows' assumed leader.

He gave her a sarcastic smirk. "Yeah, tiny problem. Deal's off."

"Run!" Sloane repeated in a louder voice.

The man's eyes widened. "Oh! Run!"

Stanly came sprinting down the hall with one of their homemade bombs in his hand. "Molotov this, bitches!"

Diego whirled around to stop him. "Stanly! Not now!"

The boy dropped the lit bottle in shock. Flames erupted from the top and licked up the nearby banner to scorch the cloth, causing a smoke alarm to blare in response which only added to the chaos.

"Oh shit."

Hotel guests began to panic at the sight of the flames and fled the area. Unbelievably, some still lingered to document what was going on. The Hargreeves remained unphased by the fire as their biggest threat remained in front of them. Ben ordered his siblings: "power up."

He raised a hand and Christopher began to spin with red light. Fei released her birds into the air while Jayme readied her saliva and Alphonso cracked his joints. The only one who seemed to be reluctant to fight was Sloane, who was looking at the two families of siblings with wide eyes.

Diego grasped his son's arm and yanked him away from the oncoming fight. "Go!"

"Now, Chris!"

The cube whirred even faster and a high-pitched whine emitted from the spinning object. A burst of invisible energy was quickly followed by five separate red tentacles as they shot out towards the unsuspecting siblings.

The second the energy touched her head, Dolores sank to her knees. It felt as if a mountain— no, a thousand mountains— were pressing down on her mind all at once. Unbearable pain worse than any headache she'd ever had seared through her skull in an intense wave. Faintly, she could hear the other Hargreeves groaning in agony and she was certain that she was, too. It was so severe that she couldn't even tell if sound was coming out of her mouth.

Her body shuddered from the force of Christopher's attack; the only thing that she could do was curl up in a fetal position with her hands clutched to her head. Her mind was entirely blank as she  mentally begged please, let this end. Her carefully-constructed imaginary box that held all the trauma she'd compartmentalized threatened to burst from where she'd buried it six feet underground.

She didn't hear Allison's attempt to Rumor the Sparrows in an attempt to save her siblings and she certainly didn't hear Ben's order to kill them. All she knew was that suddenly— miraculously, wonderfully— the pressure vanished altogether.

✧✧✧

Dolores couldn't seem to stop crying. The world was a blurry haze after the Sparrows' attack. The Hargreeves' reactions to their savior and Sloane's flight went unnoticed as the brunette stayed in her curled-up position. Now that the pain had been alleviated from her head, her arms wrapped around her knees, which were brought up to her chest.