𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐫 || 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

[ 𝟎𝟒𝟖 ] 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞

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☂︎☂︎☂︎
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Mace groaned as he caressed his head, struggling back to the hotel room after he parted ways with Klaus. The night was a blur, but he knew the three of them had a blast. He woke up shirtless, shoeless, and with a pounding, dreadful headache that didn't go away until thirty minutes after he woke up; only some Tylenol and three bottles of water when the hell of a headache finally disappeared.

The boy sighed, placing his hand on the doorknob as he found himself at his destination. He twisted it clockwise, pushing the door which he shut behind him, and made his way over to his bed, not even sparing a glance at his sister. Landing face first on his pillow, the boy let out a loud groan, stretching his body out like a washed-up whale, and rotated his head toward the left to see his sister.

Y/n still stared at the ceiling, contemplating whether to get up to use the bathroom since she had to go for the last ten minutes. Her arms had goosebumps from the cold breeze, so she could've gotten up, but she was also too lazy to move from her spot. Her stomach was starting to hurt, too, for some odd reason as well. This was a hard decision to make, according to her.

Mace watched as his sister blinked with no emotion. He pressed his lips together as he sighed out, hoping to get her attention, but he was unsuccessful. The boy tried his strategy again, this time with more exaggeration to which Y/n didn't respond.

Mace sat up fully, placing his hands behind him as he looked up at the ceiling, releasing the loudest, exaggerated sigh the boy could come up with that made Y/n shut her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose, then back out through her nose.

"Marcel Louis Beaumont," hissed Y/n as she opened her eyes again. "I am going to say this once and only once: shut . . . up."

Mace chuckled as he slowly got off his bed, moving into a sitting position by the side of her bed. The boy placed both of his elbows on the mattress, letting his cheeks rest in the palms of his hands. "Why the aggression, huh?" The boy tilted his head with a fake pout. "Is it your time of the month?"

Y/n rolled her eyes as she internally scoffed at her brother. "I don't get my period, dipshit. My uterus is literally frozen."

Mace gave a confused look, eyebrows—well, mainly his whole face—scrunched up and everything. "Really?"

Y/n nodded. "Yep. For some reason, right as I got out of my fear, my body just decided to stop growing. I can't age, get taller, get my period, none of that."

Mace hummed. "Huh." He slapped his hands down on the mattress and placed his chin on his knuckles. "So, what's wrong?"

Y/n breathed out and poked her tongue at the bottom of her cheek, debating if she should reveal the truth or not. "Nothing."

Mace lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing?"

She nodded. "Nothing."

The girl rose from her laying position and began to move the blanket from her legs. Mace got the memo and moved away from the bed as his sister moved toward the bathroom, the blanket now resting on the bed as she walked away as Mace gave a suspicious look at his sister, knowing she wasn't telling him the truth. He watched as she walked to the bathroom, but something more interesting caught his eye.

There was a red spot on the bottom of her shirt.

Mace gave a look of bewilderment, quickly diverting his attention to the bed sheets to see a familiar spot where the girl had just recently laid. The spot was bigger than the one on her shirt and spread through the sheet and onto the mattress.

A loud scream came from the bathroom which caused Mace to flinch, jumping up from his kneeled position and sprinting toward the closed bathroom door. The boy knocked on the door and yelled out, "Y/n, are you okay? There's blood on the bed."

Y/n whimpered as she realized what was happening to her. "Mace! Go get Lila, now! I don't care if she's sleeping or fucking Diego, get her, now!"

Mace was hesitant. "But are you okay?" the dear boy panicked.

"Just get Lila!"

Mace quickly sprinted out of the room, not using his powers since he still wasn't fully feeling better, and headed toward the last place where he saw her. Y/n breathed out as she held her stomach which ached like no other time and looked at herself in the mirror. She'd grown a bit taller, her hair was longer, and her . . . ya knows—had grown.

Y/n sighed as she looked at her appearance with a shake of the head. "Why now?" She peered out the window to see the Kugelblitz. It was now as big as the sun as it stared at the hotel.

Another vision to cross off the list.

☂︎

Lila sighed as she threw Y/n's bloody undergarments and shorts into the trash can, turning back to her as she was now in new clothes, sedated with some pain killers to sustain her cramps, and some face cream to put on her front so she didn't break out from stress.

The woman had to give the younger girl the whole talk on how to now take care of her new body. The girl had to get new clothes for her sudden changes which—for the record—she wasn't used to. Y/n didn't understand how the hell people went through this all the time. She now hated Mother Nature with a velvet fist and if she were to ever see the powerful being, she was to give her two glorious fingers from each of her hands.

Now, don't think the young girl was going through this alone. Oh, hell no. Mace was going through it, too.

Once the boy got back to his hotel room with Lila and Diego—who was forced to tag along—his changes came suddenly. He grew a small bit of chest hair, his hair grew, his body, too, and his . . . grew as well. That's when Diego took the wheel, leading the boy into another room as he explained what was happening to him and what he was going to expect.

The two of them were the late bloomers of the academy.

Y/n didn't mind not getting her period as she learned from Allison and Vanya (past tense) that the process was unimaginable and painful, but she did want to grow in life and become more mature. She wanted to grow just as beautiful and pretty as them.

Mace wanted to go through puberty just like his sister. He watched as Marcus, Ben, and Alphonso's voices deepened and they went through the phase of their body changing, but for the fact that his I.D took over, he was stuck in that non-pubescent body for the rest of eternity . . . or so he thought.

Lila sat down next to the girl who rubbed her arms as she stared forward. The cramps were going away, as well as the headaches, but the change coming so suddenly just frightened her. She never imagined Lila giving her the talk . . . but she accepted it as if it were her mother talking to her.

She knew it was weird looking up to Lila, but she wasn't going to take it as a dreadful thing. Yes, they've had their differences, but this was an act that a mother and a daughter would go through, and she finally had that feeling of accomplishment.

It was like the conversation she had with Lila about the firsts she wanted to experience. And now, she has experienced one of them. Yes, it was kind of embarrassing and weird, but it was a small moment that she'll keep in her heart.

"You feeling alright?" Lila asked the girl who was now dressed in a top and jeans. Black Converse covered her feet as she rubbed her hands along her arms in an up and down motion.

Y/n nodded as she stayed silent, trying to process everything at the moment. "Yeah. Simply fine," she let out a few words after the moments of silence.

Lila knew she was lying. She remembered when she started her period, but she knew it wasn't like this. There was something else bothering the little girl and she was determined to figure out what was wrong. Lila scooted the chair closer to the girl, wincing as it creaked and scratched the floor awkwardly as she moved forward. She came to a sudden stop, and soon the woman placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and Y/n averted her eyesight.

"Y/n . . . There's something else. What is it?"

The girl blinked softly as she looked at the woman in front of her. "Five told me last night."

The woman before her gasped in silently, her eyes slowly widening as her lips parted softly. "Oh, darling . . . I'm so sor—"

The girl shook her head at the blonde-haired woman's apology, knowing that everything could've been avoided that night if everyone didn't keep interrupting her or coming into the conversation when she warned her, or even tried to tell her. "It's not your fault." The girl showed a soft smile as she went on to the tiring topic. "I don't need that."

Lila raised an eyebrow with a growing smile that showed with a corner lip raise. "Damn. That quick?"

Y/n nodded. "That quick."

Lila nodded, accepting her decision as she high-fived the girl with a laugh as she shook her head. The two of them just started talking about what happened the previous night—mainly what Diego and Lila did then about Y/n and Five. She heard Lila tell the girl disgusting stories of what she and Diego did, but also what happened on the dreaded stairwell.

"Never tell me that again," demanded Y/n as Lila thought about the occurrence, mimicking the other girl's powers to show it in her mind. "Shit, Lila!" Y/n stood up with her hands to her eyes. "I don't want to see that!"

Lila laughed like a maniac as she clapped her hands, falling to the ground as the memory finally started to fade from the girl's mind. "Oh, I have to do that again another time now!"

Y/n sighed and sat down as the memory went away fully. "No. No, you don't. And with these new hormones, that was just . . . ugh, I just can't even."

The door that led to the hallway opened and Diego walked in with Mace behind him. "Here's your brother back." Mace walked in with his hands in his pockets. "I taught him everything."

"And when he means everything, he means, like, everything." Mace pressed his lips together for a moment before he continued, "Some of the stuff I didn't even need to know."

Y/n's eyes widened. "No way . . . " She jumped up and turned Mace sideways so that they were standing back to back. "Are we the same height still?"

Lila—now moved off the floor—and Diego stood parallel to each other as they looked at the height of the twins. "No, not anymore."

Mace crossed his arms as he looked at the bland wall in front of him. "Well, who's taller?"

"Mace is."

Mace smiled. "Yes!" he cheered as he pulled a fist down in the air as Y/n threw her hands up. "Sucks to be you, sis." The two turned around to each other and Y/n now noticed the tiny difference. He wasn't that much taller than her, only a few inches, but she knew Mace was gonna abuse his power.

The girl rolled her eyes as she looked into her brother's eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You're acting as if you're a whole foot taller than me but watch this—" The girl went to her tippy toes, now looking down at the boy. "How 'bout tha—"

Mace raised to his tippy toes, and he was still taller. He now looked down at the girl with a mocking smile. "You were saying?"

Y/n lowered herself down with a scowl as she scoffed. "Whatever. Doesn't matter."

Mace chuckled as he patted her head. "Don't worry, little girl. You'll grow someday—"

Bam!

Y/n kneed Mace straight in the nuts.

The boy's hands went straight to his bottom parts, and he winced out in pain. "Shit." He fell to the floor, continuing to grimace in agony.

Diego gave wide eyes as he rushed to the boy's side. "Hey! Hey! Hakuna his tatas! He's sorry."

"Huh." Y/n smiled down at him. "Guess being shorter than you isn't that bad of a chance. See you guys later." The young girl stepped over her brother and moved out of the room, leaving the three of them alone while Mace still suffered on the carpet.

She had made her destination to be the lobby so she could get breakfast, but when she heard another door open from the far end of the hallway, her breath hitched. She didn't stop her pace, only moving faster and rushing toward the elevator. The door opened the moment she pressed the button, and she rushed inside, not wasting a second pressing the close door button so Number Five couldn't join her.

She pressed it repeatedly, satisfied as the door was slowly closing. The girl closed her eyes, waiting for the hand to stop it . . . but it never came. The thump of the door filled the elevator as she sighed with relief. She crossed her arms, turning to the left of her to be faced with a figure.

The girl jumped backward with a yelp as her whole body felt as if her soul left her system. "Ah! What the shit! What the fuck is wrong with you, you emo asshole? You scared the hell out of me!"

There Ben stood with a blank expression, hands clasped in front of his waist and a plain, un-dazed look on his face as the girl's shout didn't disturb him. "Are all of you like that when you react to something? Because I've counted Klaus, Diego, and Viktor being like that." The boy glared at her as he watched the girl lean back against the wall, a hand over her heart.

"Well, it's not our fault that they have a spacial jumping brother who doesn't know what personal space is," Y/n explained as the man beside her nodded.

Ben clicked his tongue. "Where to?" He motioned an eyebrow over to the panel full of buttons.

"Lobby, please."

Ben didn't move, and Y/n looked over to the panel to see the button already pressed. The elevator filled with awkward silence as the two just waited for the elevator to arrive at its destination.

This was the first time that Y/n had some alone time with Ben. Though it wasn't the Ben she knew and loved, it was quite nice to see him after all those years. She was glad that he had time to grow up into a very handsome young man and was especially overconfident while having an attitude. She never thought of this side of Ben ever being revealed, and as though she didn't like it much, it sure was driving her to an unusual way of viewing him.

She shifted her body nervously, swaying back and forth as she thought if she should say something. She didn't want to screw up and say something stupid, no, but she also didn't want to waste the moment to at least talk to him.

Maybe if she approached him in a calm manner then he'd want to talk. So, Y/n prepared herself, putting on a fake smile and everything, and she began to start a conversation.

She sighed, placing her hands behind her back, clasping them with one another as she looked toward Ben. He had the same black hair, deep brown colored eyes, and the same light skin she was used to, but she still knew he was different. But, setting aside the negatives, she wanted to start with the positives.

"So—"

"No."

Ben at once shut her down, moving toward the door as the elevator soon came to a stop. He leaped out of the threshold and quickly went down the stairs to the lobby as Y/n stood still in her spot.

The girl put away her fake smile, tsk'd her lips together, and shook her head. "Welp. At least I tried. Maximum effort." Y/n made her way out of the elevator and toward the lobby area where she was to find her goal: food.

☂︎

"Does anyone even know why we're here?" questioned Klaus as he and Ben sat on a mustard-colored couch that was positioned in the middle of the seating area everyone was in.

For some obscure reason, Reginald had requested all of them to meet in the lobby because he had something important to announce. The others headed there quickly as they were anxious, wanting to know what he was going to say, but the twins weren't that thrilled nor convinced.

They didn't know if it was the new hormones going through their body or the hungover-ness that decided to swing into the next day for Mace, but the two had no meaning or willingness to go. They didn't care what he had to say or do, all they wanted to do was rest and let their bodies grow how they needed.

The two were near each other like always, Y/n sitting on the floor beside Ben's right leg and Mace propping himself up on the couch to the right side of Klaus, as they shrugged toward each other in a response to Klaus' question.

"He'll probably give some boring, purposeless speech, bore us to death, say how we can save the world or whatever—betting he's gonna say that—then we'll have to make a decision or something that will estimate how we end our lives," stated Mace as Klaus gave him a scrunched-up face full of many different expressions. Mace lifted a shoulder as he moved his body around, now facing away from the man. "Just estimating."

The sliding doors leading from the outside of the hotel began to turn, revealing—after a few swipes—Reginald and Five who turned to the right to see everyone waiting for them. As Five neared the area, everyone—except Allison, Y/n, and Ben—began to clap and cheer for the boy.

"Woo! Five! Yeah!"

"Here he is!"

"Yeah!"

"That speech last night! Wow!" Diego clapped his hands as Lila stood on the couch beside him as she taunted the younger boy.

"Whoa!" expressed Luther as he smiled at the boy.

"Brought me to tears, you big softy." Lila put her hands to her chest as Five exhaled out in vexation, tired of them mocking him for his drunken sayings from the previous night.

"I especially liked when you referred to us as a family bound by destiny and love," announced Viktor as Five made his way past Y/n, who didn't bat him a glance since she didn't care, as he made his way over to an empty chair.

"Yes." Luther pointed a finger toward the man who just spoke, agreeing with him. "That was great."

Lila bounced off the couch, landing on the ground with her arms out as she hoped for a hug, but Five just walked past her. "Okay. Enough. It was the booze talking. In the light of day, you're all still deplorable."

Y/n scoffed as she lifted her dominant hand into the air, showing her middle finger toward the boy who scrunched his eyebrows at the action. The boy took a seat on the chair as Reginald stepped up before everyone, ready to give his speech. In his left hand, he held a large brown, aged and heavy book that looked as if it were important to the conflict. The grip he had on it made it look as if it were a prized possession, and that if he were to lose it . . . all would fail.

"And your day's about to get worse," Reginald added to the end of Five's sentence as all the attention was now turned to him.

Mace moved his eyesight toward the older man, moving his back against the center of the couch to support himself so that he was in a straight back sitting position. "Oh, okay. This sounds interesting."

Ben shushed him with a glare. "Let him speak."

Reginald gave Number Two a nod of gratitude as he soon continued with his sentence, "The Norse had seven sleepers. The Blackfoot, seven stars. As a boy, I heard the legend of the seven bells—"

"The point!" shouted Y/n. "Get on with the point!"

Everyone looked at her as the expression on her face was quite shocked after she said those words. What was her period doing to her? Yes, this was normal, but multiple moods flashed within her as she looked around and saw everyone staring at her.

Did this happen to everyone or was she just the unlucky one in the situation?

Reginald clenched his jaw before he continued with the speech, now jumping straight to the point, "All these stories are the same. The village is under threat by flood, by fire, by a night that never ends. A shaman brings his disciples to a sacred cave. He tells them if they can ring the seven magic bells, the village will be saved, and all will be restored just as it was."

Everyone gave the same confused, non-understanding countenance as the old man explained his dilemma. What they all heard was gibberish coming out of his mouth like any other time he would tell them about such things like this. Maybe they were missing the whole point, focusing on the latter than the more, but he needed them to understand for his diabolical plan to work.

Lila held up her hand, allowing her permission to speak. "Reggie? Can we get a little less Brothers Grimm and more "What the hell does this have to do with us?" You know?"

Reginald shifted his eye gaze to the light-haired girl. "There is a truth to these myths. None of you can deny what's going on around us. All of existence will be gone by the end of the day, but whoever or whatever wove together space and time, they left a way to put things back together if the universe ever faced total annihilation. There is a portal in the universe. I built this hotel around it, and on the other side is the answer."

This caused everyone to become more intrigued. That placed a smile on Reginald's face.

He roped them in.

"And . . . we're supposed to, what?" asked Luther as he held hands tightly with Sloane. Their conjoined hands were placed upon Lila's ankles as the girl rested her legs on the twos thighs as she was in a full laying position. "Just stroll in there, ring some bells, and fix this shit?"

"Sarcasm aside, you are mostly right." Reginald gave a small nod.

Y/n gave a head tilt as she peered at the more aged man. "There's got to be a catch of some sort," she said under her breath toward no one, but she knew that it was coming.

"Except for the guardian."

She pointed her finger forward with a chuckle. "There it is. I knew it."

Viktor sat with his hands together, leaving them to rest on his right thigh as he wore a black leather jacket that protected him from the cool air conditioning that breezed across everyone as the conversation was in session. "What kind of guardian?"

"Kinda guardian that does this." Diego held up his right hand to which he was missing his ring finger and pinky, but it was protected with a glove on the nubs. "He had a sword on a chain."

"It is a force to be reckoned with," added Hargreeves as Luther scoffed.

"See? Yeah. This is where you lose me."

Lila propped her head up with the raise of an eyebrow at the boy who delivered the sentence: Luther. "This is where he loses you? I checked out at the sacred cave."

"Why would the builders of this "back door" need to have a guardian?" Viktor put out a statement as he was still quite confused; they all were, to be honest, but didn't open their mouths to say anything.

"Ah!" Sloane put her hand—the one not connected with Luther's—forward with a gasp as she found out the answer. "To protect it from people who want to use it for nefarious means."

Reginald nodded. "Correct, Sloane." The woman smiled as she figured out the situation as Luther gave her a look.

"So, it's gonna take all of us to defeat the thing protecting the bells," confirmed Allison as she spoke up for the first time in a bit.

Five looked at her with a skeptical expression on his face. There's no way that Allison could believe this. Well, why would she? It couldn't be needed . . . right? "You're actually buying his crap?" he pointed a finger toward Reginald as he spoke.

She scrunched her face as she peered over at the younger boy. "How is a guardian and bells any crazier than time-traveling briefcases and assassins with cartoon masks?"

"Actually, she's got you there." Luther nudged a pointer finger at the boy.

As silence rolled around the area, Ben stood up with a sigh. He went over it a few times in his head, and the idea didn't sound so bad. He was obedient to his father; would do anything he asked—no questions, no excuses. He trained his life for this, so he for sure wasn't going to deny it. "I'm in."

A thought passed through Number Five's mind as he exhaled softly while Ben and Reginald glared amongst the crowd, waiting for any other volunteers. "Me too." Diego quickly moved to a stand as Lila fell from his lap.

"Ow," she let out, landing on the couch with a faint message.

"But I think some of us should stay back," Diego said as he turned around, looking at the dear girl he had just abandoned. "Like Lila."

The couple met eyes, exchanging a conversation without words as Lila—for sure—knew she wasn't going to stay back while Diego risked his life. There was just too much on the line for them. "Uh . . . " Lila grew to a stand as she looked Diego in the eyes. "—or you can stay, and I can go."

Just as Diego was going to deny it, Allison spoke up saying, "No. This is much bigger than all of us. Nobody can stay back."

Reginald agreed, holding his hands out as he started to explain to all of them, "You, my children, are all that stands between us and oblivion. Are we ready to go?"

Y/n held up a hand. "First of all, we're—" she motioned to Mace, Lila, and herself as she spoke, "—not your children. I mean you stole Mace and me from our parents in France, and Lila is here because of the fucking idiot in the chair behind me."

Klaus gasped as he put a hand on his chest. "Excuse me?"

Y/n quickly turned around and put a hand on his thigh. "Not you, darling. I'm talking about the non-pubescent piece of shit in the suit that's sitting to the right of the coffee machine." She scrunched the side of her nose as she finished, now showing a soft smile.

Mace looked down at her confused. "Okay . . . yeah, you're telling me what happened between you both after we finish this conversation with oldie over here," he whispered in her ear as he moved to a position that was near her.

Y/n nodded. She wanted to tell him, so . . . why not? That's what siblings do, right? Tell each other things? The two were close and cared about each other very much, so she could care less if Five remembered; Mace was going to know either way. The idiotic boy ruined her night, leaving her in tears while he went off and did whatever.

"Wait—why's Lila here, then?" Mace moved his head away from his sister as he directed his eyes at the targeted girl.

Lila shrugged. "Five killed my parents."

"Both of them?"

Lila gave a sad smile as she nodded. "Yeah."

Mace looked away, now focusing on the ground as he quirked the bottom of his lip to the side. "Damn. Double homicide."

Y/n turned around at her brother with a jaw-dropping expression, quickly placing her hand over her mouth as she reacted to what the boy said. "Marcel!"

Mace put a hand toward Lila as he showed a shy smile, trying to excuse himself for what he said. "Sorry, sorry."

"Well, I say we vote," Viktor put out an option as he watched everyone go through their thoughts.

Ben examined the boy as he gave him a glare. He knew what Hargreeves was doing, he thought he did, and he was going to stay by his side. "This isn't a democracy. Dad's calling the shots."

"I'm with Viktor," Number Five agreed. "We vote."

Reginald clutched the book between his arm and his side as he glared at the boy. "The world is ending, and you want to count hands?"

"You're asking us to risk our lives. I think it's only fair you give us time to discuss it," stated Luther as Reginald gave a ghastly face, moving his eyesight around the room to see if anyone else wanted to join him. "Privately," added Luther.

Reginald looked around with his frightened face; his plan wasn't successful. Scoffing, he made his way to the lobby to escape everyone as they were to make their decision. Tired of his attitude, the twins mocked him and scoffed with an iron fist as they made a face toward his back as he walked away to sulk in his thoughts.

"Why don't we meet back here in an hour?" suggested Luther.

Five moved to a stand. "Agreed."

Diego nodded. "Yeah, sure."

Lila glared at the boy beside her as the two were in a quarrel with each other. "Whatever."

Lila grabbed his arm, mimicking Five's powers to spacial jump them away so they could have time to themselves to talk and to reposition themselves with their conclusion. Five made his way toward the couch that Klaus sat on, perching his left knee on the cushion as he leaned his arms on the middle part that stuck out as support.

He tapped his brother's shoulder and the boy looked toward him. "You don't believe this, right?"

Klaus shrugged. "I mean, my time spent with dad he did talk about this, Five." Five clenched his jaw as he turned his head away from the man. "Come on, you have to want to save the universe, right? Here, listen—" his voice turned to a whisper. "Your older self even told you to keep Y/n safe, right? From what Mace told me, maybe doing this will keep her safe."

Five moved his gaze over to the girl who sat not even a few feet away from him as she talked to Mace about how pointless the conversation was.

For some reason, there was a stinging in his heart as if he did something. No, he didn't know what it was, but it sure hurt. It was as if he had done something wrong or lost someone.

A feeling of . . . grief?

The boy licked his lips, turning his gaze back to Five as he sighed. "She can take care of herself."

Y/n stood up from her sitting position on the ground, brushing off imaginary dirt from the bottom of her pants as she looked over at her brother. "Come on, Mace."

The twin stood up, moving away from the couch as they headed toward the stairs and elevator so they could discuss the issue in their room. Five trailed after them, wanting to know their opinion but to also talk to Y/n so he could tell her something.

Something she already knew.

The two were quick on their feet as they reached the elevator, quickly pressing the button as they reached the door. Hearing Five's footsteps, Y/n's heart started to speed up.

She didn't know why, but it kept getting faster and faster. Her hands became clammy, and she felt as if she were very dizzy all of a sudden. The door opened and the two got in, not sparing a glance at the man behind them as Y/n moved to the far-right side, spamming the close door button.

It became a routine to just spam the button recently.

The door closed with a soft thump, and she exhaled softly. Leaning on the right wall, she felt her heart beating normally and her hands started to freshen up as she returned to her natural state.

The sound of a spacial jump filled the elevator.

"Shit."

Five stood with his arms crossed as he stood next to Mace not saying a word. Y/n kept her eyes up as she watched the elevator go from floor to floor, making a mental note to take the stairs back down. The three stood in complete silence as Five moved his hands from his previous position to now placing his hands in his pockets.

"Do you guys buy Reginald's bullshit?"

Mace peered down at the boy, now being an inch or two taller than him. He shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. What about you, n/n? You buy it?"

The girl gave a subtle shrug, keeping her attention on the changing floors.

The elevator dinged and Mace was the first to exit, followed by Y/n who was right on his tail. Just as they were at the door, Five grabbed her arm and pulled her back for a moment. "Can we talk?" Y/n harshly yanked her arm away, trailing after her brother who was halfway through the door as he now entered the room. "Y/n, I need to tell you something."

Y/n paused, clenching her jaw as she looked at Mace who sat down on his bed. "One sec, Mace." She closed the door and turned to the boy. "What? Is there something else you want to add from last night?"

Five gave a questioning look. He slowly walked toward her with calm steps as he wanted to know more about what she was regarding. "I'm sorry, what?"

Y/n lifted an eyebrow as she sighed. "You don't remember . . . do you?"

Five shook his head. "Am I supposed to—"

Y/n scoffed, interrupting the boy. "Yeah, kind of. It's important. But . . . doesn't matter anymore. Considering I don't matter to you anymore, so . . . "

Five scrunched his face. "What?"

"I know what you've been thinking, Five?" the girl taunted as she stepped toward him. "You still love Delores." The boy's eyes widened slightly as she nodded. "Yeah, I know. You were just using me as a distraction; an object. And you never loved me because I never gave you enough. That sound about right?"

He looked down for a brief moment, sighing out through his nose as he brought his fingers to his eyes, squeezing them, but soon bringing them back to his side after a second. "Did Lila tell you?"

Y/n scoffed. "No, Five. You did."

Five parted his lips with a quick silent breath in, he soon slowly spoke, "Y/n . . . you don't understand—"

"What is there for me not to understand, Five?" the girl yelled as she let her hormones take control.

She didn't care if she was getting angry. He did something to her, and she wasn't going to let it go the next second as she used to. She was going to stand her ground and not let him run her over anymore like a pebble on the road.

"You yelled it in my face that you never loved me and have always loved that mannequin of yours. You said because I never did anything like her; didn't speak to you like her, didn't show affection like her, didn't care for you—all of that!"

Five watched as she got angry in front of him. He only wished he had remembered what he said.

"I care for you, Five. I really do, but I guess you just don't see it. You know I'm not good with affection or feelings considering I've always had mine so far compressed into myself, and I didn't know how to show it. But, no. You let the thought go in one ear and out the other as you started to compare her to me."

Five's mind went back to when he started to think about the things he did about Y/n. He knew that it was wrong . . . but there was a switch in his mind that was pulled down by accident that made him think like that. He couldn't reverse it, he knew that, but he knew a small apology wouldn't matter anymore.

The real—stupid—reason he didn't tell her earlier was—

Well . . . you'll get to know later.

"But guess what Five? I'm not her and I never will be. You want to spend the rest of your days with the love of your life, find by me. I could give less of a fuck because I don't care about us anymore."

Us.

"You ignored me multiple times when I needed you the most while I was trying to bring back Mace, and—yet again—I felt like I was the one who needed to apologize, or I was the one who did something wrong."

Five stood with a sad stare on his face.

"Now that I think about it, I should've left us behind in the sixties when you came back and gave such a shit apology to me. But, no. I came back to you like a dog with a stick because I didn't know how to be independent."

"Us . . . ?"

"Why did she keep saying us?" he thought to himself. "She couldn't mean—"

"Why do you mean by "us"?" He moved forward with a soft voice. "I . . . We—"

"It means we're finished, Five." The girl gave a blank expression. "I'm giving you what you want," she told. "For the first time ever, probably according to you. Hope you're happy." She kept her non-pulsed emotion as she turned her shoulder, moving toward the door to which she turned the knob, and headed straight inside.

Five stood with a blank look on his face as he stayed in the spot she left him in. He swallowed thickly, poking his tongue to the side of his cheek as he thought over the occurrence. Some splatters and sequences were coming back to him as she spoke, but not the full scenario. He could retrace his steps—it did cross his mind—but . . . there was a matter at hand that was way more important than that.

☂︎

Allison stood in front of everyone as she spoke about which way she was going. This choice was crucial to her, and she hoped everyone would follow her path. "I think you can all guess which way I'll be voting. We've all been through a lot. We've all lost people." She peered off to the side to Five who looked down. "Mannequins . . . "

Y/n scoffed. "Oh, screw her. Elle peut me sucer la bite," she cursed under her breath but made sure Five heard it. Though the boy didn't remember French much, he knew it was something inappropriate as he heard Mace snicker under his breath.

Allison ignored her comment and continued, "But their deaths have to mean something. Which is why I'll be voting to go with Dad."

Lila trotted down the stairs, glaring at Diego when she passed him and let out the words, "What she said." Moving her body over to where Allison now positioned herself, she raised up a fist as she cheered, "Let's go save the bloody universe!"

Klaus then replied with a "Woo-hoo!" as he agreed with the girl.

"All right, well, since she said yes, I vote stay." Diego glared at the girl which led Lila to scoff. "How's that for nice?" Diego quirked an eyebrow as the woman stood with annoyance, watching as the man went over to the spot she stood in before she moved to the other side.

She placed her hands on her hips as the two met eyes. "You're not being serious." Diego showed an overconfident smile as Lila looked away, fed up with him.

"It's his vote, Lila," Allison said sadly, wishing her brother would join her. "Klaus?"

"I am with Father." The man held out a hand, holding a hot item in his left hand as he gestured with his right that only holding a spoon.

"Hm," hummed Reginald as he gave Klaus a smirk.

The two had developed a good relationship. It wasn't as if Klaus would just put everything to the side that the older man did to him many years ago, but he was able to rid of the fact that the man could ever betray him . . . or so he thinks.

"Okay, that's four to one. Viktor?" Allison called out, looking at the boy for hope.

Viktor sighed, placing his hands on his thighs as he went over his thoughts one last time before he came to his final reasoning. "Look, I wanna believe, okay? I really do. I just can't shake the feeling we don't know what we're getting ourselves into." Thunder clapped in the background as the situation started to spike up more as Allison saw he was hesitating.

"No . . . but we know what we've got if we don't. We have to go into this together. Viktor. A family."

Viktor threw his head back softly as he took the word out of his mind. "You can't just keep throwing the word "family" around. It isn't enough. I vote stay." Allison's face dropped as she heard her brother's choice.

"Luther?"

The man looked at Allison with a soft glance, holding both hands on Sloane as the two didn't want to part from each other. It was quite obvious which way they wanted to go. "Um . . . Sloane and I talked, and, well, we're out."

Everyone on the opposing side sighed in an exaggerated tone as Luther explained, now understanding that if the three who were left decided to vote against them, then the scheme would go to waste. Reginald didn't know what the others would decide, but he wished that they had some logic in their heads to run with him.

"Look, we wanna spend whatever time we have left together, and not fighting some guy with a sword and ringing bells and stuff. So . . . " Luther went silent as he finished his speech, giving Hargreeves a shy look as he turned his gaze away.

"Well, dead even. Four in, four out," revealed Viktor as he counted the choices of former than latter.

"That leaves Number Five, Number Eight, and—the original—Number Nine," announced Reginald as the attention was pulled toward the three.

Mace and Y/n sat near the stairs as the boy's knee bounced up and down at a rhythmic pace as he started overthinking their decision. His eyesight was joined by many thoughts as he saw his dream from the night the academy collapsed before him.

His hands became sweaty, his breathing sped up, and his eyesight evolved in blurriness as everything started to fade in and out. The boy blinked his eyes as he was soon in another environment. It was the hotel but . . . everything looked different.

He looked to the right where Y/n would be, but the girl was nowhere to be found. No one was. He was by himself as he noticed, glancing around at the emptiness of the frightening hotel. He stood up, facing his direction to the stairs as he saw the elevator door open up. Just as he was about to step forward, he heard footsteps.

Clang.

The sound of a chain caught his attention as he slowly turned around with a shaky breath, peering over his shoulder as he saw the same samurai as he did last time, but this time, he was as Diego described it.

He had a knife with a chain.

"Mace." The boy took in a gasp as he was brought back to the real world with a shake. "You okay?" Y/n asked him as he looked around.

Without missing a beat, the boy shouted out, "I vote stay! I vote stay!" He held onto Y/n's arm with a firm grasp as he stated aloud, "We vote stay. We're both staying."

Y/n shook her head as she searched her brother's fearsome and skittish eyes. "No, no, we don't, Mace. We vote to go with Hargreeves—"

"Y/n, you don't understand." He took in a breath as he held onto his sister's shoulders with a firm grasp. "We have to stay. We have to."

"Mace—" but Y/n was speechless as she tried to avoid arguing with him.

The sentiments and thoughts that were going through the boy's mind were too many to keep up with and were crashing into each other like a train collision at high speed. The girl opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Just by scouring his eyes, she could tell that it was something serious.

"Mace . . . I—" the girl tried . . . but ended up just going voiceless. She quickly tried to reason with the boy. "But the plan—"

"Y/n, just don't. It wouldn't have worked anyway—"

"What are you talking about?" She searched his eyes.

Mace shook his head. "It doesn't matter, just trust me."

His sister wanted to join him . . . but she couldn't. The two had a plan that they wanted to do, but it would work with only one.

Y/n let go of Mace's hand, moving to a stand as she went over to Allison's side. "I vote go," she announced, staring at the ground as she didn't care what Mace's choice was.

Mace pressed his lips together, shaking his head at the girl. "Then I . . . vote stay." Mace stood up, going beside Diego as he glared at his twin.

Everyone took in their decision with a look off to the side, knowing that with their choice, they had one person left: Number Five Hargreeves. The boy was confident in his choice, not going to jump from the gun as his vote was locked in loaded, ready to fire at anyone he needed to.

He looked at Hargreevs with a sure glance, not letting the old man get to him as his say was secure. "I saw the future, and it told me to sit this one out. I vote stay. It's time we accept our fate." He gave Hargreeves a stare as the old man peered among the crowd, knowing that everyone who voted stay wasn't going to alter their answer.

"You're all pathetic," Allison let out as she ran off, not even caring what they had to say after.

Ben was quick to turn to Reginald. He didn't need the others. "Why can't we go in there, just the five of us?"

"That would mean certain failure. There must be seven," he spoke to Ben who then gave him a cold stare. "Children, I can't say I'm happy with this. But I see now the blame . . . falls on me."

Y/n turned her gaze toward the older man. "Oh, so you've finally come to your senses." The girl stood up. "Do you now blame yourself for the shit you've done to us?" she pointed to the others who were near her as she questioned. "You ruined my life, you ruined Mace's life, and you've corrupted all of us into a shitty academy so we can finish this idiotic mission that we—as a matter of fact—aren't ready for."

Ben stepped forward. "I'm ready."

"Hey, emo boy, this doesn't concern you." Y/n glared at the boy before looking back at Reginald. "I've suffered so much from you, and I was hoping to end it all so we can get back to a normal life. So, Mace and I can be with our family, but no. We can't. Not anymore." She turned around, looking at her brother with a hopeful face; quivering lips as she asked a dreaded question: "Are you one hundred percent sure that you don't want to go?"

Mace sighed. "Y/n, I went over this—we both can't go."

"Why not?" her voice cracked. "Just please—"

"Y/n, stop!" His eyes flashed a light blue. "We can't ever see them again, alright? It wouldn't matter anyways if we went back. They won't be there."

Y/n gave a confused face, rushing forward toward the boy as she grabbed his arm, dragging him away to the area they were at before near the entrance to the hotel, leaving the two alone as everyone else scattered amongst themselves. "What are you talking about?" Mace went silent as he kept his secret within him. "Mace, we talked about it upstairs. When we get back, we can find our parents, then tell them everything. They'll know who we are, then we can live our lives with them. As you said you wanted, as we wanted—"

"They're dead, Y/n!" exposed her brother. "Our parents . . . they're dead."

Y/n went silent. " . . . What?"

Mace huffed, sitting down on the mustard couch as he put his head in his hands, rubbing his face while letting thoughts run through him as he tried to tell his sister the dreadful news. "Our parents, Y/n . . . they didn't disappear . . . they died."

Y/n sat down beside him with a frozen breath, her eyes slowly glistened as she looked toward him. "How—When did—" her words came out jumbled as she just put her face in her hands, starting to sob as her emotions failed her, now taking over.

Everything piled on top of another: the lies, the truths, the emotions, the words, her hormones, everything—but that also made her think.

Were they killed, did they die a calm death, did they die before she and Mace started to look for them or after?

Y/n took her face out of her hands, sniffled, and licked her lips as she quickly wiped off her tears. "How do you know?"

Mace gave a shaky breath as he looked away from her. "I . . . found out the day I told you they went missing." Y/n gave a confused look as she didn't quite understand. "I lied to you . . . I didn't tell you the whole truth."

Y/n looked before her as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Tell me exactly what happened."

Mace swallowed the lump in his throat. "I was doing the daily check-in—checking if there were any credit card usage, home payments, all of that—when I noticed an article . . . about a recent death."

The memories flowed into the young boy's mind as he told his sister the story. He was just doing a routine check-up when he saw a huge headline reading, Bordeaux Couple Dead in Homicide Years After Their Kids Were Stolen From Them. He read the unabridged article, top to bottom, but found nothing about who the criminal was.

All the boy knew was that it was a man, and how he was old—receding with gray hair and everything.

He didn't want to tell Y/n because she had such big hopes of seeing them again, so he did what any brother would do . . . he made a fake article that said the couple had disappeared from the public eye, not wanting to be seen just so he didn't break his sisters heart or crush her dreams.