𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 eyes and let out a long sigh.
When she opened them again, it seemed to make no difference. It was pitch-black with her eyes closed and pitch-black with her eyes opened.
Where the hell was she? There was no way that she had time-travelled properly.
This definitely wasn't the past, so she was either in a future where everything somehow just disappeared or she was dead. She felt as though it was the latter.
And if this was what the afterlife was like, it sucked.
She spent the next thirty minutes sprinting around the infinite abyss, trying to time-travel back to her home. And although she still had her speed, she just wasn't able to time-travel, for some reason foreign to her.
Valerie came to a stop and began to pace around the . . . nothingness as her fingers nervously played with the pendant of her necklace. What was she going to do?
She tried to count the minutes, hours, and days as they passed but found that it was rather difficult to keep track of, what with having absolutely nothing to help her count other than common sense.
Time just blended in together as she alternated between sleeping, practicing different and new techniques, solving equations to help her get out, and actually putting those equations into effect.
Eventually, she had come to the realization that she was stuck in time. It explained why she didn't pass out after sprinting for so long and not eating; why there wasn't anything but a void; and, of course, why, after spending so long without fulfilling her human needs, she just wasn't dead.
Either one hour or ten decades later, she still had no clue how to get back. She was hungry, thirsty, tired, stressed out, sore, frustrated, angry, and had the worst headache. She desperately wanted to go back to her home.
To her family.
To Five.
Assuming he had come back from wherever he had disappeared to, of course.
She had gotten quite used to the darkness after so long. She no longer panicked and thought she had gone blind for a few moments after waking up. She no longer felt fear build up inside of her as her eyes registered absolutely nothing.
She wasn't sure how long she had been in there, but it sure felt like forever. And she was just about done waiting for a solution to pop into her head.
But she couldn't give up. Not yet.
Valerie began to pace around the room, a million thoughts flying through her head. Her having super-speed meant that her thoughts also went at super-speed, which was pretty useful in that situation. Still, they hadn't been successful in the time previous.
She suddenly froze as something came to mind. An equation that gave her the exact speed she needed to run to get home—or so she hoped.
Yes, that was it!
"Okay, okay, okay," she murmured to herself, letting out a small exhale as she stretched her arms. "This is it. I hope."
Valerie closed her eyes, and carried out the plan, running at the speed her mind had calculated. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and—
No. Still darkness.
"Aw, shit."
Valerie tweaked some of the numbers in her head, squinting her eyes in concentration as she did so. Once she came to a final number (again), she braced herself.
"You got this, girl," Valerie said to herself, nodding vigorously in hopes that it would convince her enough.
She tried again, her eyes shut tight. She opened them after a few minutes to see the same thing.
"Fuck, dude," Valerie groaned, shaking her head before letting out a sigh.
She ran the numbers over in her head again as she fingered the pendant of her necklace, cursing once more as she realized she had been off by a couple of decimals.
Of course, the goddamn decimals screwed her over.
"Okay, Val." She took a deep breath and allowed determination to settle through her body as she nodded to herself once more. "Just run."
And run she did.
She closed her eyes in concentration, her fists clenched tightly as she sprinted. Her legs felt unstoppable as her feet collided against the unseen ground. Her hair flew behind her, tangling in itself. The feeling she loved overtook her; she couldn't be stopped by anyone nor anything. She could run forever. She was the fastest person alive. Nothing would be able to end her—
Bang!
"Ow," Valerie moaned as she rubbed her forehead, a frown settling on her face as her head began to pound with pain.
Her eyes widened as she realized that she was no longer standing on cold, hard, black, nothingness. She was laying on her back, and her hands softly gripped the soft carpet that was underneath her.
Her eyes shot open, immediately having to squint as light overwhelmed her eyes. She raised a hand to block the light and blinked a few times, trying to get used to the sudden brightness that she was so grateful for.
And, with a gasp, she suddenly realized:
She had done it.
She was back.
Valerie scrambled to her feet and looked around, realizing that she was in the living room of the Academy.
Natural sunlight streamed through the tall windows, and the crackle of the fire filled the air as it greeted the room with its warmth. And there, sitting on the couches, were five adults she didn't recognize at all.
The one closest to her was sitting on one of the chairs next to the fireplace, and his brown eyes that were as widened as the others moistened a little as he examined her. His cropped hair was interrupted by a long scar that ended just at his right cheek, and he wore utility gear that contained a plethora of knives.
Seated on the other chair on the opposite side of the fireplace was a darker-skinned woman, who had tight blonde coils cascading around her shoulders. A crystal glass of whiskey was clutched in her hand, though her grip had considerably weakened when she had seen the girl.
On the couch next to Valerie was a man of great stature, whose upper body was significantly larger than the rest of him. His blue eyes stared at her with a mixture of confusion and surprise, and she returned the stare with just as much bafflement.
On the other couch sat another woman, much mousier than the others. Her brown hair was settled into a low bun, and her mouth was slightly agape before she pressed her lips together and swallowed.
And way far back, preparing a drink for himself, was a man with messy hair and the air of good humour. He wore no shirt, but just a fur coat over top a flowing skirt that reached just past his knees.
"Oh, uh . . ." Valerie awkwardly clasped her hands behind her back, her eyes shifting from person to person as she took a step back and offered, "Hi?"
"Va . . . Valerie?" the woman in the chair questioned softly, her eyes widening even further.
Valerie took a step back, her eyes narrowed. "Lady, how do you know my—" She suddenly gasped as she took another long look at all of their faces, realization then hitting her. "No way. You—Allison? No way."
It was them. The people she had longed to see for just about forever. Her family.
Except it seemed as though she had been in the void for longer than she thought. Much, much longer than the hour or decade that she had suspected, it seemed.
She studied their faces, slowly putting their names to them. Vanya sat on the opposite couch to the one that Luther was on, while Diego and Allison sat on chairs beside the fire, and Klaus continued to make his drink at the bar.
"You guys—you guys are so old! Wait, wait, wait" —Valerie hurried to the side of the couch, sitting in the empty spot next to Luther— "how long has it been?"
"Uh . . ." Vanya swallowed thickly once more, her eyes flickering all over Valerie's face. She seemed to lose her words for a moment before she cleared her throat. "Twelve years. Plus a few months."
"Twelve . . ." Valerie let out a long sigh as the number registered in her head. She put her head in her hands, rubbing the top of her head as she groaned. "Oh, man."
"Val, what—what happened?" Diego questioned in bafflement, leaning forward in the chair that he was in. "I mean, where the hell did you run off to? Why do you still look like—like that?"
Valerie looked down at herself; at the uniform that still fit her body perfectly, and quickly realized what he meant: she still looked like her seventeen-year-old self.
That was just great.
"I went through time," Valerie sighed as she straightened up before she scrunched her face. "Or rather, I tried to go through time. Instead, I'm pretty sure I got separated from space, and just stuck in . . . time."
"Time?" Allison echoed with furrowed eyebrows, exchanging a look of bafflement with Luther. "What do you mean 'stuck in time'?"
"What was it like?" added Vanya with just as much concern.
"It was horrible. It was always pitch-black, and it felt like . . . as if decades had passed, but also as if no time at all had passed, at the same time," Valerie explained, bringing her feet up to the couch and wrapping her arms around her knees. "And being there makes one biologically immortal while they're in there—or at least, that's what Dad always warned me. So while I aged mentally, my body stayed the same."
"That's . . ." Luther shook his head slightly, his eyebrows knit together tightly as he asked, "How did you come back?"
"I went through, like, a million and one equations and theories, and I finally found the right one," Valerie answered with an exhale.
She suddenly squinted her eyes and leaned back as she counted heads. One, two, three, four, five . . . she was the sixth . . . Five wasn't back, clearly . . .
"Where's Ben?"
An uncomfortable silence filled the room for a few moments as each person glanced at one another before Klaus spoke solemnly, "Ben, he . . . he, uh, died during a mission. A year after you and Five left."
Valerie let out a soft gasp as she brought her hands to her mouth. Tears filled her eyes, and it wasn't long until they were slipping down her cheeks.
Ben was gone. And she never even got to say goodbye . . . .
Everyone watched her with sorrow as she covered her face with her hands and silently cried over the loss of her brother.
Suddenly, she felt a new presence come to her side and wrap a comforting arm around her, rubbing the side of her arm. She sniffled as she looked back up to see Diego, who gave her a small smile that didn't seem to reach his eyes.
Wiping a few tears away with the back of her hand, she leaned into his side and then noticed the two large portraits hung above the fireplace. One was of Valerie, and one was of Five, the two of them hung side by side.
Valerie bit her lip as she looked towards Allison, the question she wanted to ask already illustrated through her eyes before she spoke it aloud, "He hasn't . . . come back, has he?"
Allison sighed, giving Valerie a sympathetic look as she shook her head and heavily answered, "No."
Valerie changed the topic before even more tears could introduce themselves to her eyes. "Uh, so do you all just still live here together? Fight crime or whatever?"
"No, actually, we're here because. . ." Luther looked around the room, a grimace on his face as he informed her, "Dad died."
"Oh," she breathed out, her eyebrows furrowing as a strange feeling settled in her stomach. Truth be told, she wasn't sure how upset she was about this.
Sure, technically he was her 'father,' but damn, what a dreadful one he was. He never exhibited any indication that he cared for them—loved them, even—at all. Only that he cared and loved for their significance. For their powers.
And not that she was happy that he was dead . . . but she sure as hell wasn't sad about it.
"Well" —Valerie rubbed her eyes as she rested her head on Diego's shoulder— "what are you doing now?"
"We were, uh, going to discuss some stuff about him," Luther answered.
Valerie's eyebrows furrowed, but she waved for him to go on; she was no longer in the mood to talk anymore. She quickly buried her face in Diego's shoulder, shutting her eyes as she felt more tears trail down her cheeks, only slightly reassured as Diego rubbed her back.
Luther nodded, giving a small pat on her shoulder before he stood up. "Right. Listen up." His expression hardened as he looked around at the group and he sighed. "There are still some important things that we need to discuss."
Diego's attention quickly went from Valerie to Luther, his eyebrows bunched up as he questioned, "Like what?"
"Like the way he died," Luther answered as he looked down at the man.
Diego scoffed as he shook his head and looked back towards the girl nestled against him as he muttered to her, "And here we go."
"I don't understand." Vanya's eyebrows knit tightly together as she stared up at her brother and pointed out, "I thought they said it was a heart attack."
"Yeah, according to the coroner," Luther confirmed reluctantly as he gave a short nod, his voice laced with great doubt.
Vanya wasn't any more convinced by his response as her eyebrows furrowed and her head tilted. "Well, wouldn't they know?"
Luther shrugged. "Theoretically."
Allison leaned forward, an incredulous look on her face as she echoed, "Theoretically?"
Luther's attention turned to her as he insisted, "I'm just saying, at the very least, something happened. The last time that I talked to Dad, he sounded strange."
Klaus leaned back on the couch, his mouth filled with the whiskey that he had taken from the bar at the back of the room. Some of it splashed out of his mouth and onto his shirt as he gurgled, "Oh, quelle surprise!"
Allison rolled her eyes at him before looking back at Luther. "Strange how?"
"He sounded on edge," Luther responded matter-a-factly. "Told me I should be careful who to trust."
"Luther, he was a paranoid, bitter old man" —Diego unwrapped his arm from Valerie and slowly got up from his chair while keeping his eyes on the bulky man— "who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles."
"No. He must have known something was going to happen." Luther shook his head furiously as Diego stepped towards him. "Look, I know you don't like to do it, but I need you to talk to Dad." Luther looked pleadingly toward Klaus, who then scoffed.
"I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, 'Dad, could you just" —he straightened up, a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other— "stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?'"
"Since when?" Luther asked incredulously as he shook his head once again. "That's your thing."
Klaus squinted his eyes as he mused, "I'm not in the right . . . frame of mind."
Allison leaned forward in her seat, looking towards him as she uttered in disbelief, "You're high?"
"Yeah! Yeah!" Klaus giggled, nodding quickly as he waved his glass around. "I mean, how are you not, listening to this nonsense?"
"Well, sober up, this is important," Luther demanded angrily, though he only received a roll of the eyes in response. He sighed before turning back towards the others and continuing, "Then there's the issue of the missing monocle."
Diego turned his gaze to the carpeted floor as he shut his eyes and groaned, "Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?"
"Exactly." Luther nodded as he turned to him, raising his eyebrows. "It's worthless. So whoever took it, I think it was personal. Someone close to him. Someone with a grudge."
Klaus seemed baffled as he squinted his eyes and questioned, "Where are you going with this?"
"Oh, isn't it obvious, Klaus?" Diego tilted his head and took a menacing step towards Luther, a malicious smile on his face as he quirked an eyebrow. "He thinks one of us killed Dad."
Luther let out a soft grunt, blinking quickly as he looked at everyone. Judging by his lack of denial, that was exactly what he thought, causing the group to look at him incredulously.
"You do?" Klaus breathed out, his eyes turning from Diego to Luther.
"How could you think that?" Vanya asked in disbelief, her eyebrows knitted together tightly.
"Great job, Luther," Diego scoffed as he shook his head and made his way to the exit. "Way to lead.
Luther quickly shook his head, trying to salvage himself to the other siblings, who were all, more than obviously, upset with him. "That's not what I'm saying."
"You're crazy, man," Klaus said breathily as he got up from the couch and pointed the end of his cigarette towards him. "You're crazy. Crazy."
"I've not finished," Luther spoke firmly as everyone began to get up from their chairs, but his leader-like voice no longer had an effect on them as they proceeded with their departure.
"Sorry, I'm just gonna go murder Mom. Be right back," Klaus said airily, shaking his head as he left the room.
"That's not what I was saying," Luther called as everyone else walked towards the door. "I didn't . . . Allison. Jeez . . ." He sighed before shrugging. "That went well."