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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴜɴғᴏʀᴛᴜɴᴀᴛᴇʟʏ,
ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴀʟɪᴠᴇ ꒱
❝ JESUS CHRIST, DID
I DIE AGAIN? ❞
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Chaos reigned in the Hargreeves' sitting room. Just as Dolores' body fell to the floor, Diego leapt up as he protested loudly over his sister's actions. The Sparrows' Dolores looked at her limp counterpart with wide eyes while Ben glanced behind him to see if the Dolores that he knew was still standing. Even Luther jumped to the brunette's immediate defense. The only ones who remained surprisingly unvocal were Five and Lila.
The boy slid off the couch so that he knelt next to the girl's body, deaf to his sibling's brewing argument with Allison. His lungs squeezed against his chest as the room seemed to close in until it was just the two of them. His hands shook badly as he pulled the girl into his lap and his fingers fumbled around her neck as he tried to find her pulse. A steadier, more sure hand entered his vision and two slender fingers pressed against Dolores' skin.
Upon seeing the boy's instant panic, Lila had sunk down to the floor next to him. Like she had with his one-hundred-year-old self, she remained calm as she searched for a sign of life. However, unlike several hours ago, her voice held more sympathy in it as she announced: "she's dead, Five. I'm. . . sorry."
He shook his head frantically, hardly able to breathe as he clutched his wife to him. "I-I. . . I can't. . ." I can't fail her again. "This was supposed to work. I didn't push her away. I changed the loop."
You'll. . . lose her. . . just like I did.
His own voice echoed in his ears, the old man's rasp taunting him from beyond the grave.
So you wouldn't try to reverse time for someone you love?
Dolores' question from long ago followed quickly after, washing over his derisive words as soothing as a balm. He'd answered negatively back then, having been in denial about his feelings for her. Now, he would respond yes. Yes, of course I would. Yes, yes, yes— a thousand times yes.
The scene from not even a week ago returned: of her body falling limp against his, his aid as he helped her to the floor— the grief that followed after that had threatened to drown him, just as it was doing now. But then— he'd reversed time. He'd brought his siblings back and just a few seconds had been enough. Allison had used her powers less than a minute ago—
Blue sparked around Five's hands as he curled them into fists.
I've already cheated death twice and lived to tell the tale, which is more than any of you have [. . .] I don't have any special tricks except for knowing someone who can reverse time.
Sometimes, he thought that Dolores had too much faith in him. How could she believe that his powers would work every time that he needed them to? Like now, when they flickered into life for a short amount of time but fizzled out before he could reverse time around her. Desperation seeped into his skin as he continued to fail— his mind was whirling with all the what-ifs: what if he couldn't bring her back? What if her death was permanent? What if, what if, what if. . .
"DAMN IT!"
The shout of frustration escaped his lips and he released his fists to wrap them around the girl. He pulled her cooling body closer to his, refusing to give her up even as he failed to save her. You'll lose her just like I did!
A hand landed gently on his shoulder but he didn't look away from the brunette to see who it belonged to. Lila's voice reached his ears instead: "here, let me."
His hold on his wife tightened as he finally looked over at the British woman. He didn't know if she understood that there was a way— a chance, a sliver of hope— to bring her back— that she didn't have to be gone. Lila must have understood what he'd been trying to do somehow (maybe she wasn't as stupid as he'd originally thought) because she gave him a small nod. "It's alright, I can do it."
A moment of understanding passed between them and he reluctantly let go of the girl. He carefully transferred Dolores' body into the woman's grasp, where his power came to life in her hands. Blue energy formed a light film around the brunette as Lila rolled time backwards.
And then her eyes snapped open and she took a great, gasping breath. "Jesus Christ, did I die again?"
✧✧✧
The Hargreeves decided that a reprieve was needed from their family meeting so they split up for some time after that. Dolores, of course, stayed near Five, who was avoiding her gaze. She sighed. "You're gonna break up with me again, aren't you?"
He let out an unsteady breath as his eyes stayed on his hands, which were clenched tightly in his lap. "Dol, I just. . . I can't keep losing you like this. I thought I'd be prepared the next time that it happened but. . . I froze. I couldn't save you. Lila had to do it." His tone took on a bitter note at the end of his sentence.
She came to sit next to him, close enough that their legs were pressed together. Five shifted away from her to give them a few inches of space. That action alone hurt more than any words he could have said. She fought the instinct to take his hand in hers. "I don't blame you, you know. I would feel the same exact way if our positions were reversed. But. . . isn't this something that we can work out? If we break up again. . . I don't know if we'll ever get back together."
"It would be for the best," the boy said, though his voice was flat and monotone.
She shook her head. "You don't believe that. I know you don't." Dolores tried to give him a goofy smile but it came out tight and sad. "What if I promise not to die anymore?"
"That's not a promise that you can keep." He sighed. "I love you. Whether we're together or not doesn't change that. It's because I love you that I know I have to let you go. Maybe if you hadn't tried to be a part of the family, Allison wouldn't have. . . wouldn't have—"
"Killed me?" she finished dryly. "No, I'm pretty sure that she would've done that regardless. In case you haven't noticed, I think she hates me. I just. . . is there anything that I can do— or-or say— to. . ." The brunette trailed off helplessly, completely at a loss for how to fix this. It wasn't something that could be mended with superpowers or even her extensive vocabulary.
Finally, Five's gaze lifted from his lap to meet hers. It was then— though she'd always known— that their separation was just as hard on him as it was on her. He didn't want to do this but he saw no other way. "I can't lose you," the boy replied softly. His voice cracked slightly on the word 'lose.'
Dolores felt her heart break because she knew that there was nothing that could convince him otherwise. She blinked back the tears that were gathering in her eyes. "Can. . . can I—"
Unable to finish her sentence, she lifted her hands to gently cup her husband's face. His gaze never left hers, even as she leaned closer. She kissed him soft and sure when their lips met, the action sparking warmth through both of them. When they pulled away, she gave him a bittersweet smile as she brushed her thumb once over his lips. "I'm always here if you need me."
Five swallowed against the lump that was quickly forming in his throat. He resisted the urge to clasp his hand over hers in an effort to have her touch linger as she pulled away. "I know."
Then, just like he'd done at The Commission, he bottled up his brewing emotions and stored them away; there was no time to process them fully right now.
✧✧✧
Unlike the first time they'd broken up, all Dolores felt now was grief and numbness. There was no anger, no fury or frustration. This time, she understood why Five made his decision but that didn't mean it was any easier on her. In fact, it was almost harder, knowing that he still loved her but wouldn't be with her.
As the rest of the superpowered Hargreeves reconvened to solve the Kugelblitz problem, she commandeered two of the champagne bottles— because the Sparrows didn't have anything stronger— and went down to the kitchen. There, she sat in one of the wooden chairs and started on the first bottle.
The other Dolores joined her shortly after that and took a seat next to her. She offered the bottle in her direction. "Want some?"
"No thanks," the brunette answered. She studied her counterpart critically. "Drinking away your feelings? Yeah, I've been there."
"Really? With who?"
She scoffed. "I thought you were supposed to be smart. Do you really think that Ben would ever admit that he has feelings? Let alone for someone without superpowers."
"Should've figured." The Umbrella's Dolores nodded in acceptance. "What do you see in him anyway besides your gross tentacle kink? I could use something to take my mind off my own life."
"I guess I'll let that jab slide since you just died. Hey— if I answer your question, will you tell me what you saw before you were brought back?"
The girl shrugged. "I can tell you right now: I don't remember. Whenever time gets reversed it's like my death never happened."
"Oh," she said with disappointment. "No cool ideas about the afterlife, then?"
"Nope, since none of my deaths have ever been permanent. If one of them does stick I'll be sure to let you know."
The Sparrow's Dolores chuckled. "Well, at least you kind of have a sense of humor. Sure, I'll tell you what I see in Ben. He wasn't always like this, you know. Before the Jennifer incident, he was. . . kinder. Not by a lot but compared to now, it was noteworthy. Surprisingly, he was one of the first Sparrows to accept me, after Sloane. Everyone else was more guarded around someone new so we became closer, especially after dear ol' Reg decided that me being a teenager was holding the Academy back. He decided to run some experiments to speed up my aging process— both mental and physical. Being Number One at the time, Ben was the only one to try and argue against the tests. 'Course, you know how Reggie is and he wouldn't change his mind, but I was grateful that Ben stood up for me."
"Huh," the teen commented. "But surely just him being nice wasn't enough for you to have. . . have a crush on him." She gagged slightly as she finished her sentence, unable to believe that a version of herself didn't like a Number Five.
Her smile became a little bashful. "Well, he was also pretty cute when we were younger so I guess I had a sort of puppy love for him. Then when I aged up with the rest of the Hargreeves, the sudden increase of hormones made my feelings become more. . . adult-like."
"Okay, ew. I didn't want all that information. But what about the Jennifer incident? Was that how you got to be in the portrait above the mantlepiece?
Her counterpart nodded. "Now there are the brains that I was expecting. I'm not really allowed to talk about what happened but as the Sparrows' manager, I went on most of their missions to oversee their progress and report back to Reginald. This was the mission where everything that could go wrong, did, and I was called in for backup. I only have a bit of fighting experience but enough to do well in combat. I was with Ben when his powers started to lose control but there were civilians around. I tried to help him recover but it cost lives and. . . both of us almost died."
Dolores took another sip of champagne and swished the half-empty bottle as she thought for a moment. "So. . . that's when he got knocked down to Number Two? And what about mom and dad?"
"What about them? But yeah, that's when Ben was demoted and his whole personality changed."
"I mean, what do they think about your Academy life? And the missions? And the experiment? Didn't they try to stop all of that?"
The brunette scoffed. "Yeah right. They're hardly around to keep tabs on what I'm doing. The only person who's ever even remotely been on my side is Ben and you saw how long that lasted."
She couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for her counterpart. Even if her marriage was currently on the rocks (again), she still had the Hargreeves as her family (minus Allison.) Five would still be there if she needed him; it wasn't like he was suddenly going to ignore her existence— or so she hoped. On the other hand, the Dolores from this timeline didn't seem to have anyone (or maybe she'd had, but they abandoned her.)
The older woman clapped her hands to the tabletop. "Well, this has been a lovely chat but I'm gonna go see if we're all gonna die or not. Coming?"
She shook her head. "Nah, you go. I'm gonna sit here and finish this." She held up her second bottle.
✧✧✧
After the celebrations with the other Hargreeves, the remaining members of the Sparrow Academy— minus Sloane— gathered in the living room. Christopher floated above his siblings' heads as Ben poured Fei a refill on her champagne. Dolores leaned against third Hargreeves' chair as Ben began to speak: "glad we made peace. It all worked out."
"Yeah. . ." Fei agreed slowly. "But we're definitely killing them in the morning, right?" Christopher added his own opinion, to which she grinned. "And Chris has dibs on knife boy."
"Ooh!" the brunette chimed in. "If we're calling dibs, I want to kill my counterpart!"
"No one is killing anyone," Ben countered them calmly.
"Why not?" the short-haired woman complained. "We followed your plan, merged the families, saved the world. We don't need them anymore."
The Asian man shook his head. "I'm not done yet."
"Done what?"
His lips quirked into a faint smirk. "That's between me and dad."
Fei leaned forward in her chair. "You made a deal with dad?"
"Maybe."
His sister stood. "Fine. I'm done."
"Sit down."
"No," she retorted evenly. "We don't recognize your authority anymore. You're a terrible leader with no loyalty to anyone but yourself."
"You don't speak for Christopher or Dolores." Their brother crackled his agreement with Fei's words, causing Ben to stand up abruptly. "Really, dude? I'm Number One. You'll do as I say, when I say it."
"Not anymore," she answered smugly. "What do you say, Dolores?"
The brunette hesitated as she looked between the defectors and the man she felt indebted to. "Uhh. . ."
Ben smirked again as he made his way over to the woman. He looped an arm around her shoulders to bring her close to his side, causing Dolores' face to heat up pleasantly at the action. "Dolly's gonna stick with me. Aren't you, Dol?"
"Um. . . yeah," she caved expectedly. "Sorry, Fei. I'm gonna stick with Ben."
The third Hargreeves scoffed and raised her glass to Christopher. "Here's to a new life without these dickheads." She touched her glass lightly to the edge of his cube. A ringing sound resonated through the air longer than it should have.
Christopher began to vibrate uncontrollably as Fei finished off her champagne, oblivious for the time being. It was only when she set her glass down did the three Hargreeves notice the bright light that emanated from the cube. He began to spin around as cracks began to appear. Dolores was the first to approach him carefully, just as she had done with Ben all those years ago. "Christopher, what's wrong?"
Fei was close behind her as their brother failed to answer the woman's initial question. Ben's eyes narrowed with concern and he put an arm out to keep the two women from getting closer. "Back away, both of you."
"Chris. . ." the short-haired woman began gently. "It's going be okay."
"Fei! Dolores!"
"We're going to help you," the brunette continued. She made an effort to keep her voice calm as she reached out towards the cube.
Christopher couldn't hold on any longer. The Kugelblitz exploded out of him without warning and swallowed up his sister and the Sparrow's Dolores. Ben was saved from the burst of light as he fell backwards from the strength of the blast.
✧✧✧
Although Dolores was. . . tipsy after a bottle and a half of champagne (consumed alone over the course of the afternoon), she wasn't so far gone that she couldn't tell when she was in danger. As soon as the building started shaking, she picked up the bottle that contained the remaining alcohol and quickly went upstairs to exit through the main entrance. Then, she met up with the rest of the Hargreeves at Hotel Oblivion where she sat off to the side as the family discussed the recent events.
"So, how is it that we're still here but the whole universe is going down the cosmic shitter?" Allison asked from where she leaned against one of the pillars. She had yet to say anything about Dolores' death and subsequent revival but the brunette didn't mind; there were more upsetting things for her to think about than someone's vengeful actions.
Viktor shrugged from his spot on one of the yellow chairs. "Maybe we're the last ones to get flushed."
His sister scoffed. "Wasn't talking to you."
"Hey, has anyone seen Klaus?" Luther wondered.
Sloane lifted her head from where she'd been resting it on his shoulder. "Or dad?"
"Or my other self?" Dolores added.
"That one I know," Ben replied; his voice gave nothing away of how he was currently feeling. "She didn't make it."
The brunette frowned as she swirled the contents of her bottle. "Didn't make it?"
"She's Kugeltoast, lesser version."
"Oooh," she mocked him. "you wound me so, Squidward."
"As for the others, they'll be here," Diego said confidently.
Ben didn't deign the girl a response as he rolled his eyes at the second Hargreeves' statement. "Really? Did they. . . hit traffic? Look, people. We're alive because we're special, right? We're the only ones who can save the universe."
Allison lifted a finger to interrupt him. "Uh, question."
"Yes?"
"Didn't we just try that and fail miserably?"
"Yeah, because his plan was stupid," Diego cut in. "I got a better one."
"'Course you do."
The dark-haired man paced towards the middle of the room as he explained: "we go with the large hard-on particle accelerator—" Here, Dolores almost snorted the champagne she'd just taken a sip of through her nose. Diego sent her an irritated look as he continued to speak, though he redirected his path to snag the bottle from her grasp. She pouted slightly as he took the only thing that was currently keeping her entertained.
"You guys do some science and. . . we launch the Kugelblitz into outer space," he finished smugly. "Didn't think I knew that, did ya?" He paused when no one responded. "It's in Switzerland."
Ben gave him a sarcastic smile. "It's Hadron, not hard-on, ya moron!"
"Oi!" Lila called as she sat up herself from her upside-down position on her own yellow chair. "At least he's trying, you shitty little squid. What have you contributed?"
Diego smirked at him. "Actually, he did blow up half his family."
"Oh, you wanna talk about family problems? You know what should have blown up is your face on that neck!"
"I wish I had a cake to hit you with it in your face!"
Dolores straightened in her chair and lifted her arms in the air to cheer him on. "Yeah! You go, Diego! Give him the what for!"
The second Hargreeves gave her a two-fingered salute to acknowledge her encouragement before he and Ben started arguing in their respective languages. Unfortunately for the brunette's amusement, Five was quick to put an end to the heated argument. "Hey! You guys done? The universe is disappearing outside, so you can keep rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic if it makes you feel better but the fact remains that we are too late."
Luther wasn't so easily convinced. "Five, c'mon."
"It's over, Luther. We failed."
Viktor shifted his feet from their resting place on the table to set them properly on the floor. "Come on. It can't be over over."
"Yeah. C'mon, Five. We gotta figure this out, man."
"Okay," he conceded. "How about we take a step back? Look at the big picture here. Most of us have spent the last twenty-eight days trying to stop the world from ending. What exactly have we accomplished?"
Dolores' hand shot up in the air. "Oh! I know this one!" Although he didn't look her way, the boy gestured for her to continue. She dropped her arm to clasp her hands primly in her lap as she promptly answered: "the decimation of a marriage."
Five froze at her blunt words as the truth hit him with the force of a truck. It took a great concentration of effort to not react. Breaking down now wasn't going to help anything; the only thing to do was to keep moving forward. He swallowed forcefully against the tightness in his throat. "Not the answer I was looking for. You know what we've done? Nothing. We made things worse every single time."
"Amen to that!" Allison agreed.
He sighed. "Look, when I went to the Commission, I had a conversation with my hundred-year-old self and my last words were 'don't save the world.'" (There was no need to confess that his true last word had been Dolores' name— that would add unnecessary, complicated emotions to an already difficult situation.)
"'Don't save the world?'" Viktor repeated.
"'Don't save the world.'"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Diego commented.
"Is it?" Luther asked. "Well, whatever we're doing's not working. All we ever do is save the world for a day, pat ourselves on the back and then everything goes to shit again."
Dolores let out a deep sigh at how accurate her (ex)in-law's statement was. Her attentive posture slouched so that she could lean her shoulder against the back of her seat. Her feet kicked at the ground in a bored fashion since the conversation didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular. She tuned out the chatter as her gaze focused instead on her husband's face. (For even if he'd broken up with her again, she could never think of him under another term.)
Although he was far better than her at hiding emotions, she'd known him for so long that she could tell what he was feeling by any small shift in his features. While his expression remained mostly neutral, his eyes had taken on a glassy quality that indicated he was holding back his true feelings. She felt her heart twist with sympathy for him and she longed to pull the boy into her arms to comfort him. But, she also knew that the gesture would probably make things worse right now; even if they'd parted on mostly good terms this time, the feelings were still. . . too fresh.
Dolores startled at the sound of laughter in the somber space. She blinked several times to refocus her gaze. Once she had, she saw that Luther and Sloane had stood from the couch. They wore bashful smiles on their faces as they looked at each other with love-struck expressions.
"We've, uh, got a little announcement to make." Luther put his arm around the blonde. Sloane lifted her hand up to show off her ring finger as they both chimed: "we're engaged!"
Ben rolled his eyes. "Kill me, Jesus."
Despite his recent contentious relationship with the rest of the Hargreeves, the brunette couldn't agree more. "Really? An apocalypse wedding? You know those don't last, right?"
"Now?" Allison asked, full of disbelief.
"Yeah. Look, we realize the timing is less than ideal. But, obviously, it's now or never. Am I right, Five?"
"Don't drag me into this," the boy pleaded.
Dolores scoffed. "Yeah. Why would you go to him for marriage advice?"
The Hargreeves— as most of them didn't know what was happening between the two teens— gave her rather hostile comment a surprised look. Sloane quickly brushed over her negative attitude. "What. . . whatever time we have left, we wanna spend it with all of you, so we're super pumped if you would join us at the banquet hall at six p.m. for a celebration of our love and the official union of what's left of our two great families."
"Dress code is creative black tie," Luther added happily. Then, he and Sloane handed out their party favors.
Lila turned hers around with amazement. "Wow. . . And you did all of this yourself?"
"Luther helped too," the blonde offered. "We stayed up all night."
As they admired the jars, the two missing members of their party appeared on the stair landing. Except. . .
"Dad?" Ben questioned the man's presence.
"Klaus!" Allison said, shocked.
Dolores stared at the third, unexpected member. ". . .Uncle Ed?"
The older man smiled conspiratorially at her. "Hello, Dolores Hargreeves. Didn't I tell you that this is the way the world ends?"