𝐋𝐄𝐓'𝐒 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ― k. hargreeves

⤿ sixteen

Two arms pulled her into an embrace. She didn't immediately hug back, taken back by the action. Soon, she warmed up and threw her arms around Klaus. For a second, if her ears weren't playing tricks, she heard a faint voice saying his name. Her eyes snapped open. Diego had his back turned, quietly looking at the graveyard of memories.

She felt Klaus shaking his head. A smirk was plastered on his face. Had he heard it, too? Her head snapped around to check their surroundings. It was just the three of them. . . was she losing her mind?

Before she could answer herself, Diego began struggling to move the debris, scanning for Grace. Dan reached for his shoulder, dragging him away from the soul-shattering truth. Grace was dead. "Diego, we should go find the others."

"Just help me search. Please." A grunt escaped him as he tried to move a piece of the wall twice his size. She tugged at his shirt, wordlessly begging he would stop. He sharply turned around. Klaus stepped between them, delivering the bad news. Diego shook his head. "What do you wanna do? You wanna walk away from this? What about Pogo?"

"He didn't make it." Dan found herself smiling at the voice. Never in the seven days they'd known one another Dan expected to be glad to hear him. Luther and Allison stepped into the alley unharmed. "Vanya killed him. I saw it. Just before we got out."

Diego grabbed his head and sighed. He blinked away some tears, taking a seat in a chunk of their previous home. Dan distanced herself as much as she could, offering space to wind down.

A fifth Hargreeves dashed into the alley. Their heads tilted at the sight of them. Five wasn't in the house. He shoved a magazine into their faces, nearly out of breath. "The apocalypse is still on. The world ends today." That was an extremely different statement from what they'd heard that morning. "I was wrong, okay? This magazine, I found it in the future the day I got stuck. The cover hasn't changed."

Dan snatched the magazine from the boy's hand. Well, shit. A picture of herself stared back at her, glamorous as ever ( unlike her current, messy state ). This was supposed to be a gleeful moment. She made it into the cover for fuck's sake! Except. . . the headline 'Hot scientific makes surprising discovery', and the whole 'Vanya destroyed their house' thing was more worrying.

Diego rejoined the family, walking toward Five. His tone was lower than usual. "That doesn't mean anything. The time could've been altered since that magazine came out this morning."

"You're not listening to me," Five hissed at his brother. "When I found it, I assumed this place came down along with everything else. But here we are. The Moon's still shining, the Earth is in one piece, but not the Academy."

Klaus seized the magazine from her hands, eyebrows furrowed. "I'm confused."

"Then listen to me, you idiot! Vanya destroys the Academy before the apocalypse. I thought Harold Jenkins was the cause, but he was the fuse. Vanya is the bomb. Vanya causes the apocalypse."

And with that, the heavy truth crashed on Dan. She had been wrong about everything all this time. She knew nothing. All those years achieving the highest notes were shadowed by a situation like this. She wasn't prepared. How naive had she been for thinking Vanya wouldn't hurt a fly. No one is that innocent. Everyone gets their hands dirty at some point in their lives.

Two beams of light shone over their heads, scanning the wreckage they once called home. Sirens. Helicopters. Shit. They stared at each other with wide eyes. "Regroup at the Super Star. Go!"

They spread in seconds, following the path that felt right. Five escaped the same way he'd come; Luther took Allison's hand and followed Five, though turning left instead of right. Dan had seized a frozen Klaus and guided him out, hearing Diego's footsteps tailing them. . . then fading away as they deepened into the maze of alleys.