They had all lingered around Allison in shock, still unable to comprehend what had occurred. However, they immediately rushed her into the car when Luther noticed a faint pulse in her wrist, which was enough to fill everyone with enough hope. Diego carelessly ran red lights on the way back in record time as Allison was unresponsive, her breathing ceasing by the crucial minutes they lost to late-night traffic.
Figuring that checking her into a hospital, let alone driving there, would take far too long, their best chance at saving her would be back at the Academy, where they were now.
The wounded woman laid on an operation table, the Hargreeves family surrounding her as their mother desperately attempted to assess her deteriorating condition.
"She's suffered a severe laceration to her larynx," Grace announced in a haste, attending to her daughter, "One of you will need to give blood."
The group all simultaneously offered.
"I'm doing it," Luther affirmed, last.
"I'm afraid that's not possible, dear boy," Pogo denied him as politely as possible, "Your blood is more compatible with mine."
The man turned around, staring at the chimpanzee in disbelief. The girl would have laughed if not the severity of the situation.
"Hey, don't sweat it," Klaus comforted Luther in urgency, "I- I got this, big guy." He moved around to the other side where Grace was positioned, motioning his arm out. "I love needles."
Pogo spoke up again, unsure of how express his next sentence. "Master Klaus, your blood is.. How shall I say this? Too polluted."
"Move," Diego asserted with confidence, taking the place of Klaus before Y/n or Five could, "I'll do it."
With bloodied hands, their mother unwrapped the plastic from the thin needle, preparing it in front of her.
Not even a second later, the moment Diego laid eyes on the instrument, a strange noise sounded from his throat before he dropped to the ground, fainting at the sight.
"Oh, shit!" Y/n called out, shifting around the table to see him passed out on the floor. "Diego?"
The elderly chimpanzee merely nodded at Grace. "Stick him."
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Grace managed to stabilise Allison after a long restless night, much to everyone's collective relief. Although Diego had pulled the odd involuntary stunt, they still turned to him in appreciation — even Luther was thankful, giving the dazed man a pat on the shoulder in gratitude.
Now early morning, Klaus, Five, Y/n, and Diego were all situated in the Academy's extravagant living room as Luther requested time alone with Allison.
"The bastard that nearly killed our sister's still out there, with Vanya. We need to go after her."
Five paced around impatiently, still limping from his recent injury. "Vanya is not important."
"How could you say that?" Y/n asked him, her voice washed over with slight hurt for their sister. "Who knows what that freak Jenkins guy could've done to her."
Diego nodded, standing beside the girl who had her arms crossed over her chest. "A little heartless even for you, Five," he agreed.
The boy's expression hardened in annoyance as he began explaining. "I'm not saying I don't care about her, but if the apocalypse happens today, she dies along with the other seven billion of us. Harold Jenkins is our first priority."
Y/n glanced at Five, who gave an awkward tight-lipped half-smile, before answering. "Okay, then. Let's get this guy before he can hurt anyone else."
"I'm in," Diego acknowledged the idea, "Let's go."
The unnoticed man on the couch suddenly expressed his opinion as they were about to leave. "You guys can count me out." The three paused to face the voice. "I mean, you know," Klaus continued on, "No offence or whatever. It's just.. I kind of feel like this is a whole lot of pressure for newly-sober me, so.."
"You're coming," Diego commanded, unaffected by his pity speech.
Klaus insistently attempted to convince him otherwise. "No, no, no. I mean, I think we can all agree that my power's.. I mean, it's pretty much useless. I'd just be holding you guys back."
"The world could quite literally end today, Klaus. What do you mean 'no'?" Y/n questioned the man, genuine confusion etched across her features.
"Yeah.. I'm.. Really busy today, actually. Lots of things to do." Klaus' response was almost dismissive, his eyes flitting around the room as if searching for an escape route.
The boy clenched his fists in the pockets of his blazer, frustration evident in the furrow of his brow as he resisted the urge to physically haul the man off the sofa himself. "Klaus, get up," Five demanded.
"You can't make me," he argued back like a troubled teenager.
Practically faster than light itself, small blade was wedged between the cushions of the furniture, its trajectory aimed with deadly precision towards the space where Klaus had sat. It was centimetres away from impaling him and he had recoiled back in surprise, his arms in the air in response.
The man exhaled a breath of irritation caught in his throat from the unexpected warning, rising off the couch in defeat. "Oh, then again, a little exercise couldn't hurt. Yeah." Klaus muttered, his words tinged with a mix of resignation and begrudging acceptance.
☂ ☂ ☂
"It's not exactly what I was expecting."
"The understatement of the year."
"Gnarly.."
The four Hargreeves' were staring down in skepticism at, now dead, Harold Jenkins. It was a gruesome scene, the man skewered with various knives, scissors, and anything sharp of the sort, which were aimlessly lodged into his chest. He laid on where the dining table once was when it was intact; the room a mess of broken furniture and items scattered recklessly around.
Klaus bent back up after leaning his hands on his knees to observe the deceased man in morbid curiosity. "No sign of Vanya."
Diego looked to his siblings, signaling his thumb to the door, eager to leave the premises. "Let's get out of here before the cops come."
"In a minute," Five interrupted their departure, walking closer to the dead man before getting on a knee to pull out a small eye-sized object wrapped in cloth from his pocket.
Y/n followed after Five and cautiously stepped over the body of Jenkins, to the other side of him, watching as the boy peeled off the gauze covering the man's eye.
"Oh.. Yum," she muttered while Klaus and Diego made visible faces of disgust, both complaining as Five pried open the right eye socket of Harold that seemed to be missing the squishy, spherical organ.
The boy forced the prosthetic into the socket, his expression morphing into one of revelation. "Same eye colour, same pupil size." He rotated to face them. "Guys, this is it. The eye I've been carrying around for almost two decades, it.. It's found its rightful home."
Five removed the glass eye as Diego began speaking. "We got the guy we needed to kill to stop the apocalypse."
"Yay!" Klaus cheered on quietly, his tone ironic, before he attempted to stroll out. "Let's go."
Diego grasped onto the man's jacket, stopping his in his tracks.
Y/n walked to stand beside Five, who got up off the ground. "It can't be this easy, right?" she asked him, brows creased.
The boy pursed his lips in thought, acknowledging her question in agreement. "Look, this is the note that I got from the Commission." He stored away the prosthetic and pulled out a piece of paper, pointing directly at it as the three crowded around him to see. "The one that says 'Protect Harold Jenkins', aka Leonard Peabody."
"Yeah?" Diego responded almost inaudibly.
"But who killed him?" Five inquired, gesturing down at the deceased man in emphasis, "Who did this?"
"Honestly, I'm surprised you're not the one," Diego alleged, shrugging at Five.
The boy glanced at him incredulously, shoving the note back into his pocket. "Me?"
"Yeah," the man said simply, ruffling Y/n's hair, "That creep-o had some crazy obsession with our sweet little angel, Eight. You didn't see his lovesick shrine beside our burnt faces?"
Y/n rolled her eyes at the revolting memory, pushing away Diego's gloved fingers as Five's eye twitched, his expression unreadable before he unexpectedly blinked away, presumably to the attic.
The room was silent for a moment before Klaus expressed a brilliant proposition with heavy sarcasm laced through his voice. "I have a crazy idea. Crazy, but why don't we find Vanya and ask her what happened?"
The girl sighed, placing a hand on her hip. "Easier said than done. She's gone MIA."
"Well.. If Vanya got away from this asshole, she might be headed back to the Academy." Diego declared in thought, his gaze lingering on Jenkins' body.
☂ ☂ ☂
"Five.." Y/n sighed, trailing behind the angered boy as they searched for Vanya at the Academy, "He's already dead. It's not a big deal."
"Right," he retorted bitterly as he reached out for her hand, his fingers interlocking with hers as he pushed open a large door leading to another room. "He's fortunate that death doesn't offer repeats. But who's to say? Maybe when I die, I'll find him again in some afterlife and ensure he doesn't get a sweet little happy ending."
"Five," she softly pleaded out his name again.
He let out a short huff as he closed the door behind them, walking out of the room when they were sure Vanya wasn't in there.
The boy paused for a moment, awkwardly standing idly before he unpredictably pulled the girl into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her body.
Her breath hitched at the sudden closeness but she quickly relaxed, melting into his touch with a flustered smile, still cautious of his injury.
"That fucking asshole," Five mumbled into her hair, his voice low and filled with a mixture of irritation and protectiveness. "I hadn't even seen that pathetic shrine before. Was it always there?"
Y/n nodded. "Yeah, but your smartass passed out before you got to see the attic in all its honour and glory," she quipped, a hint of amusement in her voice.
Despite her obvious tone, Five's grip faintly tightened, ignoring her jest. "I swear to god, I'll genuinely murder whoever even remotely thinks of you in that way."
She pulled back slightly, tilting her head as she met his gaze with an adorable lopsided smile. "Okay, no need to get crazy, portal-boy."
Five's features softened at the nickname, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. He released her from the embrace but kept a reassuring hand on cheek.
"Sorry," the boy apologised, his voice gentler now, devoid of the earlier tension. "I just.. Don't know what I'd do if something terrible happened to you."
Y/n's smile widened, her eyes reflecting the sincerity in his words. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Plus, if it went down between Harold and I, one of us would be decapitated, and the other one would have to search through her closet for a clean blazer."
Five chuckled as they stood there for a moment before he cleared his throat, letting his arm fall back to the side of him as he pulled them back to reality. "We should keep looking for Vanya," the boy suggested, tone returning to usual, though he shot her a small grin that emphasised his dimples.
The girl acknowledged his proposal. "I'm pretty sure we've gone through every room upstairs," Y/n added as they began mindlessly sauntering to the opposite side of the building.
"Can't hurt to look twice." Five gave the girl a playful poke on the nose before he placed his hands in his pockets, happy to spend time with her, knowing her threat — and of course, the cause of the apocalypse — was now dead.
The pair continued searching, eventually meeting back with Diego and Klaus, who were tasked with looking downstairs, after there were no signs of Vanya around.
"She's not upstairs," Y/n stated, notifying the two men that trudged up the staircase.
Klaus looked back to Diego, who shrugged. "She's not downstairs, either."
"Well, I'm out," Diego said, jogging up the steps before ambling away as the three called after him.
"Vanya's still out there, and so are Hazel and Cha-Cha," Five informed the man.
He stopped moving before responding. "I know. I'm gonna get my things and then I'm outta here. I got some unfinished business with these fools."
The girl sighed, observing the man disappear around a corner before she focused on the two ahead of her.
"Hey, did Dad say anything about the apocalypse when you spoke to him?" Five inquired Klaus. "Any clues as to how it happened?"
"No," Klaus replied, leaning against the railing, "No clues.. Truly terrific shave. But no clues."
"What?" she asked, biting down a giggle as Five opened his mouth slightly to respond, but closed it as he was left stunned.
"Jeez." The boy exhaled in irritation as he waited for Y/n to join him before walking down the stairs.
Klaus quickly rushed after them desperately, tagging along behind. "You know, come to think of it, he did mention something about my potential and how I've barely even scratched the surface of my-"
"How did he even know about the apocalypse?" Five asked Y/n, ignoring the man.
Y/n skipped down ahead of them. "He was always a weird guy, not to mention, a worse father. I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered that he was some interdimensional alien."
"Listen, Five," Klaus complained, catching up to the two who interrupted him, "This whole jumping through time thing of yours, how did.. How did you know how to do that?"
"I didn't," the boy responded in annoyance, facing Klaus as they paused at the bottom of the staircase, "You'd realise that if you were actually sober."
The girl began guiding herself to the living room, taking her leave from the conversation as they weren't directly talking to her.
"Hey, I am sober," the man refuted, "I've been sober for two- almost two days now."
"Yeah, two days," Five echoed, unamused, fighting the urge to just spatial jump away.
"It feels like forty-five years.." Klaus sorrowfully whispered to himself, closing his eyes.
"Who are you kidding, Klaus?" the boy argued back, "I've seen you fidgeting all day."
The man advanced towards Five. "Well, I guess we're both fighting our addictions, then."
"I'm not an addict," the boy assertively opposed.
"Yeah, you are," Klaus insisted, "You're addicted to a drug called the apocalypse."
"You're wrong," Five protested, though his voice wavered slightly.
"First sign," the man pointed at the boy, turning away, "Denial."
Five blinked from behind the man to the front of him, shoving a finger into his chest as he spoke in complete exasperation. "You and I, we're not the same."
Klaus chuckled. "I've seen that look in the eye of someone who doesn't know who they are without their high anymore. Trust me. You gotta just let it go," he declared, nodding at the boy who silently glared at him.
Without sparing another moment, Five hurled the prosthetic eye at the closest wall.
"Figuratively, but yeah, that works, too," the man said in surprise.
The boy began walking away, feeling an impending weight of doom lift off his shoulders. "I came back to save what is most important to me -- Y/n. And I did."
"Aw, what about the rest of us?" Klaus called out to Five, feigning hurt.
"Yeah, whatever, all of you, too. But Y/n first."
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