Back in the car, Diego said, "You got a big mouth, you know that?"
"Oh, wow." Klaus answered. "What a truly shocking revelation, Diego."
"Everything's a big joke to you, right?" He noticed Klaus opening up a bag of some sort of powder and took it. Katrine knew it was drugs, without a second thought. "Would you stop it? Why are you putting this shit in your body?" He blew a raspberry. "Check this out." He patted his chest. "Hm? My body is a temple. All that shit you do, it's just weakness."
Katrine groaned as Klaus said sarcastically, "Oh, wow, beautiful. Well, weakness feels good. Just ask Kat. I'm sure she feels great right now."
Diego glanced back at her to see her glowering at Klaus while wrapping a hand around her chest like she was in pain. "You good, Kat?"
She nodded. "Never better."
He frowned. "Bullshit." He turned back to Klaus. "What's going on with you, huh?" He hit Klaus to get his attention.
Klaus immediately reacted in a way that was completely unlike his normal self. "Don't hit me, asshole!"
Diego leaned closer to Klaus. "Don't tell me everything is alright, because I saw you in there. You were crying like a baby!"
Katrine got fed up with their arguing. "He lost someone, Diego! Did you not see him staring at that picture?"
Klaus nodded. "She's right. I lost someone. The only--" He sighed. "The only person I've ever truly loved more than myself."
He took out a pill and said, "Cheers." He then put it into his mouth.
Diego swallowed and glanced at Katrine, remembering what she'd gone through 15 months prior. "Well, you're luckier than most. When you lose someone, at least you can see them whenever you want."
Katrine sniffled and the boys turned to look at her. She shook her head. About a year-and-a-half before, she'd lost her fiancé, Lincoln, in a robbery gone seriously wrong.
Klaus frowned, not liking his sister's obvious distress. "Katrine, what happened?"
Diego sighed. "Her fiancé died. It was awful."
Katrine silently thanked him for not saying more, and Diego nodded. Klaus, meanwhile, probed again. "Is that why you're wearing that ring around your neck? And dog tags?"
She nodded. "Griddy's Diner then park proposal. What a night. Three months later, he was gone. The dog tags are from his time in the Navy. Patch gave them to me after--after, uh, you know..."
"I'm so sorry, Kat."
She shook her head, pushing down the emotion. "It doesn't matter now. It's in the past."
Klaus was about to say something when Katrine frowned as she looked back. "Diego. Coming out of the building."
He looked out the back window through the rearview mirror. "That's our man."
Klaus studied the guy and frowned. "Hey, Kat and I know that guy."
Diego frowned at them, obviously confused. "How could you two possibly know that guy?"
"He and a really angry lady tortured us. I barely got out with my life."
Katrine narrowed her eyes. "The angry lady Klaus is talking about is the one who shot me."
Diego turned on the car. "We gotta get this guy."
Now that he knew who had captured his siblings and hurt them, and nearly killed his little sister, he could make them pay. And they would pay.
Diego placed a tracker on the car of the attackers and made his way back to the car.
Klaus frowned. "You do know that killing these people is not gonna make you feel any better."
"Yeah, but when it's done, I'm gonna sleep like a baby."
"Sure you will."
"And," Diego added, "judging from the look on Katrine's face, she's all for this. Right, Deputy Hargreeves?"
"Absolutely." Katrine nodded. "Those psychos are going down. And don't worry, D. I'll lie my ass off and cover for you should you get caught."
Diego smiled at her smugly. "But I won't get caught."
Katrine patted his shoulder. "I know."
The door opened and the man walked out. Diego ran his tongue on the inside of his cheek. "Stay in the car. Protect Kat."
"What are you talkin' about?" Klaus protested. "This guy tortured us."
"I have a plan."
Diego exited the car and Klaus turned to Katrine. "Coming? Or are you staying?"
"And miss a chance on beating the shit out of our kidnappers? I'm going. Screw what Diego said."
They climbed out of the car and joined Diego at the top of the stairs. Klaus immediately asked, "So, what exactly is the plan here, big guy?"
Diego looked forward at the door the man had exited. "I told you to wait in the car with Kat."
"Yeah, but you also told me that licking a nine-volt battery would give me pubes." Klaus replied nonchalantly.
Diego turned to Klaus and leaned close to his left ear. "We were eight. Kat was one."
Klaus shrugged and climbed the rest of the way up only to be stopped by Diego. "Uh-uh, uh-uh."
"What? Come on." Klaus protested.
Diego led his siblings down the stairs. "For once, I need you to listen to me, okay? Now, go back to the car. Take Katrine." He placed his hands on Klaus's shoulders. "If I don't come out in two minutes, that means I'm probably dead. So, that happens, go get help. Okay?"
Klaus sighed. "Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay."
Diego looked at his sister. "You got it, Kat?" She nodded and Diego walked back up the stairs.
Klaus whispered, "Okay."
Katrine noticed the woman and said, "We gotta go!"
The two of them ran up to the second floor and Klaus pulled Diego out of the way. Katrine got hit, again, but she didn't care about that at the moment. Diego was alive, and that was the most important thing.
"Oh, man." Diego breathed.
"See?" Klaus said with pride in his voice. "You used to think I was an idiot."
"I still think you're an idiot." He said, twisting away from Klaus as he heard a car speeding off. "They're getting away."
They ran down the stairs, Katrine trailing behind. When they got to the car, they saw that the tires had been slashed.
"Shit." Diego muttered. "Get in the car." He sighed. "Oh."
Klaus kicked the car and leaned on the ice cream truck. "Was this all part of your master plan?"
"Shut up."
"Hm?" Klaus questioned. He noticed that Katrine was holding herself strangely. More specifically, her arm. "Kat? Hey, are you okay?"
She nodded and Diego walked up to her. He pulled her shirt back to see fresh blood. She'd obviously been shot. Again. "Jesus, Katrine! Why didn't you say anything?!"
"We were running, dipshit! It's not that bad, D."
Without a word, he ripped the bottom of her shirt and tied a makeshift bandage around her arm where she'd gotten shot. Katrine looked down at the ground. "Thanks."
He nodded. "Next time, say something."
"If we're not running for our lives."
Diego rolled his eyes. Katrine could be incredibly stubborn, and this was no exception.
The three of them decided to ride in the ice cream truck, since the tires on the car they'd come in were slashed.
Klaus decided he wanted to drive. Katrine frowned. "Absolutely not. You've been drinking, and I'd rather not die today."
Diego nodded. "I agree with her. And you've said it yourself; you can't drive!"
Klaus pouted. "Katrine, Diego, come on, please? I've never driven an ice cream truck before. Ben's all for it."
"It does sound like a fun idea."
Diego and Katrine exchanged a look and Katrine sighed. "Okay. We'll let you drive. But kill us, and I'll haunt you from the grave. As it looks, Diego will as well."
Klaus pumped a fist in the air before hugging his siblings. "Thank you! This is gonna be awesome!"
Diego frowned. "Get off of me."
Katrine prepared to hold on for her life. Ride of the Valkyries started playing as Klaus drove.
Soon, they came upon Five and Luther standing in the middle of the road. Klaus waved at them. Diego cried, "Go faster!"
Instantly, Klaus sped up and Diego wrapped a tight arm around Katrine's waist so she wouldn't fly into the windshield.
In her head, Katrine heard Ben cheer, "Whee!"
Their captors started shooting at the ice cream truck and Katrine pulled out her gun and started shooting back.
Then, everything froze. Five looked around and saw a woman in black. His former boss, the Handler. "Neat trick, isn't it? Hello, Five."
"It's good to see you again."
"Feels like we met just yesterday. Course, you were a little bit older then. Congratulations on the age regression, by the way. Very clever. Threw us all off the scent."
Five shrugged. "Ah, well, I wish I could take the credit. I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and well, you know. Here I am."
"You realize your efforts are futile. So why don't you tell me what you really want?"
"I want you to put a stop to it." Five replied.
"You realize why you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me. What's meant to be is meant to be. That's our raison d'être."
Five pointed a gun at her chest. "Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?"
"I'll just be replaced. I'm but a small cog in a machine. This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse is just that. A fantasy. I must say, though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative, you stick-to-itiveness, really quite something. Which is why we want to offer you a new position back at the Commission, in management."
Five let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Sorry, what's that now?"
"Come back to work for us again. You know it's where you belong."
"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time."
"But you wouldn't be in the correction division any longer. I'm talking about the home office. You'd have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel. You're a distinguished professional in schoolboy shorts. We have the technology to reverse the process. I mean, you can't be happy like this." She pushed his hand holding the gun.
"I'm not looking for happy."
"We're all looking for happy." She replied, touching his cheek. "We can make that happen. We can make you yourself again."
Five looked to either side. "And what about my family?"
"What about them?"
"I want them to survive."
"All of them? Even Katrine, who should be dead?"
Five narrowed his eyes. He couldn't imagine Katrine being dead. "Yes, all of them."
The woman placed her sunglasses over her eyes. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Do we have a deal?" She held out her hand.
"One thing." He said, walking over to a gun in the middle of the road. He threw the clip to one side of the clearing and the gun to the other. He then moved the bullet aimed at Luther to the right.
He and his former employer disappeared, and time resumed.
The ice cream truck slammed into the blue sedan directly in front of them. The siblings launched forward, and Katrine would have hit her head had Diego's hand not stopped her.
Klaus stumbled out and pulled Diego out. "Come on. Come on."
He then pulled Katrine out, accidentally pulling on the arm that had been shot. She let out a shriek of pain and he shot her an apologetic look.
They ran over to Luther and he said, "Get in the car."
Klaus climbed in first, followed by Diego, and then Katrine. Ben was in the passenger's seat and Luther drove. As they drove, Ben cried, "Whoo-hoo!"
Katrine could help but burst out laughing. Ben is such a mood. God knows we need that right now.
Klaus looked back and flipped off his captors, his actions soon followed by Katrine.
[So, Katrine has a tragic past. Diego knows about what happened, as he said, but he knows it's not his story to tell. I might add her past with Lincoln in at the end. I haven't decided yet.]
(Also, the gif at the top is so freaking cute. I can't even.)