< November 19th 1963 >
Elliot had worked hard to prepare snacks for everyone, he didn't know how many guests to expect so he just made as many snacks as possible in the time that he had. Luther had successfully brought Vanya to the safehouse and they were sat on the couch next to each other, sitting in silence as they waited for the others to arrive. Diego sat opposite them and sharpened his knives, as much as Five had reassured him that Vanya didn't have her memories and had no idea what she was capable of, he wasn't comfortable around her. She felt slightly worried that her brother was glaring at her as he sharpened knives but was calmed by the welcoming smile of Kate, who offered her a drink to try and make her more comfortable. They were waiting for Five to come back with Klaus and Allison, hopefully they wouldn't be hard to find and then the meeting could officially start.
"You know, in order to make it, you have to boil down a whole mess of hooves...you know, horses, cows, pigs, it doesn't matter. But not everybody has a mess of hooves just lying around." Elliot rambled as he carried more bowls towards them and placed them on the coffee table, breaking the silence between the siblings. "It wasn't until, uh, a couple of sassy New Yorkers figured out how to dry it out so that the rest of us could have a chance to enjoy this ambrosia."
"If we have some, will you shut up?" Diego snapped at him, not too happy with the constant yapping from their host because he wasn't involved in this meeting but had tried to place himself at the centre with his food choices.
"Maybe." Elliot says as he scoops some out and places it on a plate in front of Diego, the whole thing looks like gloop and smells terrible.
Diego leans over and whispers to Kate. "Why didn't you bake something?"
"He didn't want me to interfere, this was the one job he's been given and I felt bad taking it away." She shrugged, walking back to the kitchen to sort out drinks for everyone.
"How you feeling?" Luther broke the silence again and asked his sister, wondering whether there was any part of the old Vanya that was still there or whether they were dealing with a completely different person.
"Pretty shitty, to be honest." She answered, leaning back into the seat.
"Where would you say you are on a scale from one to ending all life on this planet?"
She narrowed her eyes at her brother that was still glaring at her across the room. "Really?"
"Diego, put the knife away, you idiot." Luther snapped at him, knowing that he was making everyone uncomfortable with his hobby. "She's fine."
"The last time I saw this one, she had me suspended mid-air, sucking the life out of me with energy tentacles." Diego said sternly, moving his gaze to glare at his brother instead before turning back to Vanya with a frown. "I think I'm allowed a little time to process."
"Oh, I would love to see an energy tentacle." Elliot raised his hand to join the conversation but another glare from Diego made him shut up and go back to the kitchen where Kate was finishing up the drinks.
"I don't remember what I did but I'm sorry..." Vanya said sincerely, she was telling the truth and she didn't mean to upset them all for something that she didn't remember doing. "If that means anything."
"It does, just going through a lot right now." He mumbled, looking at his siblings to see them both waiting to hear what he was going to say. Diego glanced at the kitchen to see that Kate was distracted by showing Elliot something, he dropped his knives and leant his elbows on his knees and began opening up to his siblings. "I've been thinking about taking things further with Katy, I mean if the world is ending then I want us to-"
He didn't get to finish as a door downstairs opened and a loud laugh echoed. Luther knew that it was rude of him to admit that he didn't care but hearing about someone else's love life wasn't what he wanted to do when the love of his life had just walked in and was married to someone else. "Oh, thank God." He sighs in relief and jumps up from the couch.
Kate poked her head around the corner, hearing laughter coming from further in the safehouse and knew that it couldn't be Luther, Vanya or Diego. "Are they here?"
"Hello?" Allison called, cupping her hands around her mouth so that it echoed louder. "Is anyone here?"
Kate followed the others as they stood against the railing and looked down, sure enough Allison and Klaus were downstairs with Five and they both looked rather drunk. "Oh wow, look at this old stuff." Klaus looked upwards and spotted his siblings watching him, he seemed rather dazed from his drinking as he pondered. "I know this is impossible but did we all get sexier?"
Immediately, everyone rushed down the stairs to greet each other because it had been such a long time since they had seen each other; an emotional reunion for Vanya as well because she didn't even remember her siblings. Allison rushed into Vanya's arms as they shared a sisterly embrace which was gate-crashed by Klaus and Kate stepped forward, feeling awkward to ask but decided that she should before she interrupted their moment. "Can I join?"
"Katy!" Klaus cheered, holding out his arm so that she could join them. "Come on, you're practically our sister now!"
When they pulled away, Kate caught Vanya up to speed on everything with Allison as Diego moved to embrace his brother; he had worried about Klaus in this new world. He knew that his brother was fragile but it seemed that Klaus was doing better than most of them but stunk of alcohol as they pulled away, Diego frowned. "You are drunk."
"Yeah, no, just a little...just a few..."
"Klaus, is Ben here?" Five asked, breaking up the reunion.
"Oh, uh, no, unfortunately ghosts can't time travel." Klaus mumbled, ignoring the glare that Ben gave him as he lied to their siblings.
"Alright then, let's get down to business." He clapped his hands together and they all went upstairs. Allison sat next to Vanya on the couch, Luther sat on the armchair with a drink and Diego leant against the wall with Kate at his side as they watched Klaus pacing the room with a drink in his hand. "Alright, first off, I want to say I'm sorry. I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going back in time and getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."
"Oh my God, again?" Klaus pouts, glancing around the room. "All of you knew? Even Katy?"
"Hey, I was one of the first to know." She defended herself because she had actually helped a lot more than he had so far.
"Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the – oh my God, my cult is going to be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."
"We have until Monday; we have six days." Five told them, making the mood sombre again.
"Is it Vanya?" Klaus muttered under his breath as he sipped his drink and Allison glared at him. "Klaus!" He shrugged at her outburst because he had reason to blame her. "What? It's usually Vanya."
"Do you have any leads Five?" Vanya asked her brother, wanting to take the heat off her.
Diego hands the file to his brother as Five passes it around the room. "Yeah, we have one."
"Holy shit, is that dad?" Allison's eyes widened as she pulled out the photograph that had been taken from the Frankel Footage.
Vanya peers at the photograph, wondering what he may look like and wanted to take a better look. "That's him?"
"Standing on the grassy knoll." Diego pointed out before Five continued talking.
"Diego and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what this means. So far, we've got nothing."
"Not nothing." He snapped at the boy, turning to the others. "He's planning to kill Kennedy."
"Maybe. But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."
"Yeah, but how, if we don't know what's broken?" Allison questioned once Five finishes his speech about the timeline.
"Come on, do the math. We know dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the President. So, I think we all know what we have to do." Diego paused, taking a deep breath and said, "Kill dad."
At the same time that Five said. "Find dad."
Vanya decided to share some wisdom as she had been thinking deeply about the end of the world and didn't want to cause more arguments as the brothers bickered about what to do with their father. "None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it's us? Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"
Immediately the accusations started being flung across the room and Luther started it by pointing his finger at Diego. "Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald."
"And you're working for Jack Ruby." Diego snapped back at him.
"Allison has been very involved in local politics." Klaus pointed out his sister as Allison narrowed her eyes at him and retorted. "Okay, you started a cult."
"I'm just a nanny on a farm, I don't have anything to do with all of that." Vanya shrugged.
"What about you, Katy? Anything world changing?"
"I've been working at a bakery."
It was silent as the siblings tried to work out what a bakery could do to end the world but it seemed that there was no connection. Their faces remained completely expressionless, they had probably assumed that she had done something meaningful whilst living in Dallas but it seemed rather mundane and they blinked in unison at her. Diego was the one to break the silence, turning away from her and towards his siblings. "So, we can all agree, Katy does not set off the apocalypse."
"We can also agree that her life is boring." Klaus sung under his breath as Kate threw a dirty look across the room because she didn't criticise him for his cult and she didn't want him to critique her life either.
Allison shrugged, wanting everyone to be to blame for this apocalypse not just her. "Well, maybe you do have something to do with it but we don't know it yet."
Diego whistles to stop them all from bickering and decides that he needs to offer them his own viewpoint. "Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is...doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
There was a break of silence as they all processed what he had just said before arguments broke out in every corner of the room. Vanya was arguing with Diego, Luther was arguing with Klaus and Allison was sure that Kate was not as innocent as she seemed. There must have been a reason to why the end of the world was happening and she didn't want to take blame just because she had been an activist during this time. Five decided to break up the arguments, getting their attention and shutting them up with stories about what he had seen.
"Guys, you all die. I was there, I saw it. And I want to forget it but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it, in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything but dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."
"Okay, I'm out." Luther sighs, getting up from his seat and deciding that he didn't want to be a part of this because it involved their father and that was something he was not prepared to get involved with.
"Did you even hear me, Luther?" Five snapped, not happy that one of their siblings was leaving just when things were getting serious.
"Yeah, yeah I did. I heard a fifty-eight-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."
"Luther, come back!" Allison shouted as he began leaving.
Kate sighed loudly, calling after him. "Where are you going?" Just as she asked, Diego jumped out of his seat and tried to follow his brother but Luther held up his hand.
"Save it, Diego." Of course, this means nothing to Diego and he continues to follow his brother, they didn't get along very well most of the time but this time, they needed to get over themselves and work together.
a/n: not long until easter break & i can't wait to have some time off 😆 -lizzie ⭐️
date published: 06/03/22