𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 changed into acceptable clothes—a suit that they had taken from Reginald's closet—Valerie rushed the three of them back to the Meritech building.
A slightly nauseous Klaus introduced himself to Mr. Biggs as Five's father, and before either Five or Valerie could say anything, he introduced Valerie to be Five's girlfriend. A few minutes later, and they were sitting in the office of Mr. Biggs.
"Like I said to your son and his girlfriend earlier," spoke Mr. Biggs as he stared at Klaus, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the man's desk in his office, "any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential. Without the client's consent, I simply can't help you."
Five leaned forward, his hands gripping the back of a chair as he seethed, "Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name."
"Well, that's not my problem." Mr. Biggs shrugged as he pressed his lips together. "Sorry. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so . . ."
Klaus looked down at his lap for a moment before looking up at Mr. Biggs, his voice quivering, "And what about my consent?"
"Excuse me?"
Valerie's eyebrows furrowed. She had absolutely no clue where Klaus was going with this, though she still decided to let him proceed.
"Who gave you permission" —Klaus began to cry, causing Valerie and Five to turn to him with a look of bafflement— "to lay your hands . . . on my son?"
"What?" the three of them questioned simultaneously.
"You heard me," insisted Klaus with an indignant nod.
"Was this part of the plan?" Valerie whispered to Five as she kept her eyes on Klaus, and the boy slowly shook his head in response.
"I didn't touch your son," protested Mr. Biggs as he glanced over to the boy.
"Oh, really?" Klaus scoffed as he straightened up, his eyebrows raised in challenge. "Well, then how did he get that swollen lip, then?"
Mr. Biggs seemed taken aback by this claim as he looked over to Five and inspected his perfectly fine lip. "He doesn't have a swollen—"
Klaus stood up and slapped Five hard on the mouth.
Five let out a groan of pain as he brought his hand to his mouth, checking for blood on his finger before shooting Klaus a glare.
Rolling her eyes, Valerie got to her feet, placing a gentle hand on Five's cheek as she leaned towards him and checked his lip, which was indeed swelling, along with bleeding.
"I'm fine," Five muttered to her. He licked away some of the blood that had begun to leak from the corner of his bottom lip and threw a scowl in his brother's direction.
Klaus ignored Five's glare as he inhaled sharply and pressed his hands against the desk. "I want it. Name, please. Now."
Mr. Biggs stared at Klaus, pointing his finger at him as his shaky voice claimed, "You're crazy."
Klaus chuckled. "You got no idea."
Mr. Biggs' eyes widened as he watched Klaus pick up a snow globe that featured a model of the Earth in the middle, and he began to shake his head.
"'Peace on Earth,'" Klaus read the inscription aloud with a plastered smile. "That's so sweet."
Valerie clutched onto Five's arm in fright as Klaus smashed the globe against his forehead, yelling out in pain.
Blood poured down from a gash on his forehead, and the residue of silver stars and water dripped from his hair.
"God," Klaus groaned in agony, "that hurt!"
A frightened expression on his face, Mr. Biggs snatched the receiver off its hook and immediately began to dial a number as he muttered, "I'm calling secur—what are you doing?!"
Klaus lifted the receiver that he had seized from the man to his ear, and lamented, "There's been an assault in Mr. Biggs' office, and we need security, now. Schnell!"
He tossed the phone back towards the hook, though it landed a few inches away.
Taking the man's terror to his advantage, Klaus looked up at him. "Now, here's what's gonna happen, Grant."
"It's" —Mr. Biggs swallowed—"Lance."
Klaus ignored him as he continued, "In about sixty seconds, two security guards are gonna burst through that door and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood, and they're gonna wonder, 'What the hell happened?'"
A smile of triumph appeared on Valerie's face; there was no way Mr. Biggs wouldn't yield the information now.
"And we're gonna tell them that you" —he began to cry again— "beat the shit out of us!" He gave a sigh of happiness as he straightened up. "You're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there. Little piece of chicken like you. Oh my God, you're gonna get passed around like a . . ." He began to swivel his hips around before waving a dismissive hand and reassuring him, "You're just—you're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying."
"Jesus, you are a real sick bastard," Mr. Biggs uttered, his eyes widened as he stared at the man in front of him, whose hair was dripping in blood, glass, and stars.
"Thank you." Klaus gave him a sickly-sweet smile before he spat out a shard of glass off to the side.
"Oh my God," Valerie muttered to herself as she released her grip on Five's arm. She would have to teach these boys about manners someday. . . .
Nervously, Mr. Biggs led them to a room that was only a few over from his office, and Valerie and Five waited behind the desk as Mr. Biggs began to ruffle through a gallery of folders.
Klaus sat on the edge of the desk, not bothering to wipe away any of the blood or the water off his face as he watched Mr. Biggs. After a few moments, Mr. Biggs withdrew a folder and opened it, giving an uncomfortable glance to Klaus before scanning over the papers inside.
It seemed as though whatever was written was not good news for the trio as he mumbled, "Oh, that's strange."
Valerie was immediately put on edge by his worried tone, and she expressed that concern as she leaned forward and pressed, "What?"
Mr. Biggs looked up nervously at them, the folder gripped tightly in his hands as he stammered, "Uh, the eye. It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."
Klaus jumped down from the desk, landing next to Mr. Biggs as he looked over toward the file. "What? What do you mean?"
"Well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number . . ."
Mr. Biggs glanced at Klaus anxiously as he walked to the other side of Mr. Biggs and peered over at the folder.
His gaze returned to the folder, and his eyebrows suddenly knit together tightly. "This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet." His expression of bafflement changed into one of suspicion as he looked up at Five. "Where did you get that eye?"
Five sighed, an irritated smile growing on his face.
After making terrible excuses of having an emergency to attend to and then all but sprinting away, the three of them quickly left the building before they could be questioned any further.
"Well," Five sighed as they headed down the steps, "this is not good."
"I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus chuckled. "Yeah. 'What about my consent, bitch?'"
Five's expression of frustration soon morphed into one of irritation as he angrily said, "Klaus, it doesn't matter."
"What? What?" Klaus asked wildly as he waved a hand in the air with a small scoff. "What's the big deal with this eye, anyway?"
Five's eyes narrowed as he stepped toward Klaus. "There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it."
Five brushed past him, but paused as Klaus questioned, "Yeah, can I get that twenty bucks, like, now, or what?"
"Your twenty bucks?" Five repeated incredulously as he whipped around to face him.
Klaus nodded. "Yeah, my twenty bucks."
Five marched towards him once more, his expression matching his enraged tone. "The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?"
"Well, I'm also quite hungry." Klaus rubbed his hands on his stomach with raised eyebrows. "Tummy's a-rumblin'."
Five shook his head wildly as he began to walk back towards the steps. "You're useless."
"Come on, Five, you don't have to get mad at him," Valerie sighed as she sat next to him on the stone stairs. "It's Klaus. What do you expect?"
"Yeah, you need to lighten up, old man." Klaus nodded as he sat on the other side of Five before he straightened up in realization. "Hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell!" Klaus laughed before looking toward Valerie, wagging a finger at her. "And you!"
Valerie shook her head, her eyes narrowing as she stared at him. "You know, for some reason, me being trapped in a spaceless abyss did not lead my mind to think about . . . sex."
"Really? That's exactly what I would think about. You're weird." Klaus clicked his tongue at her before turning back to Five. "All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone."
"Well" —Five looked ahead of him, squinting his eyes— "I wasn't alone."
"Oh?" Klaus turned to him with raised eyebrows, an interested look crossing his face. "Pray tell."
Five sighed, debating something in his head. He glanced over at Valerie before looking at Klaus and confessing, "Her name was Delores. We were together for over ten years."
Valerie's heart sank. He had had a girlfriend? No way Valerie had any chance with him now. Not if there was another girl that he had loved for so long.
She had thought, maybe now that Reginald was gone and there was no one enforcing any rules, she had a better chance of perhaps getting involved in a relationship with Five. Now, she was sure that the chance was long gone.
"Ten years? Oh, wow!" Klaus chuckled. "God, the longest I've been with someone was . . . I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep."
Five leaned towards Valerie as Klaus continued rambling about his ex-boyfriend. "Run us to the next street over," he murmured, "so we can get away from Klaus."
"Why?" she questioned, saying it more irritably than intended.
He furrowed his eyebrows with concern in response to her tone, but he still answered, "I'll tell you when we're there. Hurry."
Valerie stared at him for a moment before sighing. She glanced over at Klaus, who was still talking, and grabbed Five's shoulders. She sped them to the next street over, leaving Klaus by himself on the steps.
She glanced at a few passing people as they stopped on the sidewalk before turning back to Five, her eyebrows raised. "So?"
Five took out the folded paper with the address the man from the diner had given to him. "Bring me here."
Her eyebrows knit together as she gingerly took the paper from him, and she inspected the address scrawled on it. "Why?"
"Don't worry about—"
"Five, you seriously can't expect that I'm going to keep bringing you places if you're not even going to tell me why you're going there," Valerie said with exasperation as she crumpled the paper and shoved it into the pocket of her blazer.
He heaved a heavy sigh, pressing his lips together for a moment as he gazed off to the side. "I just want to say goodbye."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "To who?"
"Delores."
The upset feeling Valerie had felt before was back, lurking in her stomach. Nonetheless, she nodded. "Okay."
She grabbed onto him and sped them toward the location, which was much more than a few miles away from their previous place.
The sky was edging darkness as storm clouds loomed over them. It was hardly a moment later when the rain had drenched them, and their heavy uniforms weighed them down.
Valerie wrapped her arms around her waist, frowning as they walked towards a department store, whose lit-up letters spelled out 'The Gimbel Brothers.' It seemed as though the store was closed, with no cars occupying any of the parking spots and all of the lights in the store being turned off.
"I don't think she's here. Or anyone," Valerie pointed out with furrowed eyebrows as she looked around. "Maybe we can come back tomorrow."
"No," Five said confidently as he shook his head. "She's here."
"Are you sure?" Valerie wiped some of the rain that was dripping down her forehead as she peered into the store windows, seeing nothing but racks of clothes and modelling mannequins.
"Yeah." Five looked up at her, carefully examining her face before softly saying, "Go home, Val."
"What?" Her eyebrows furrowed as she swept away a strand of hair that had stuck itself to her cheek. She turned her gaze from the dark window to him. "Why?"
He sighed and shook his head. "Please. I just want to be alone right now. I need to think about something."
Valerie nodded slowly. "Okay. Just . . . come to my room once you're back."
Once he had agreed to do so, Valerie sped home, the rain whipping against her face as the blurry buildings and lights passed by her. After a minute or so, she was back at the Academy, stopping inside her room.
To pass the time, she took a shower that warmed her from the freezing rain and then changed into her pyjamas. Allison had lent her some of her clothes, and, while they were all slightly too big for Valerie, she still appreciated it.
She threw on a grey hoodie that she assumed Allison had gotten from Los Angeles, judging by the fact that it had 'LOS ANGELES' printed on it. She then put on a pair of leggings underneath, them being much more comfortable than the dress she usually had to wear.
Valerie checked Five's room, but it was still empty. She then went back to her room and walked over to the piano that she hadn't touched in more than a decade, staring at the keys longingly. Tentatively, she sat down on the bench and placed her fingers on top of the keys.
Would she remember the songs she knew before? Of course, her powers gave her photographic memory. . . .
With a small smile, she began to play Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2; Op. 35, her touch reluctant at first, but soon becoming more fluid. She closed her eyes as her fingers moved across the keys, taking in the sound that she had missed so dearly. The constant aggression of her thoughts pulled away as she focused on the beautiful notes.
Four movements and twenty-five minutes later, she was finished. Her attention suddenly jerked away from the piano when a soft knock came on her door.
She walked over to it, opening it to see Five waiting on the other side.
"Hey, Fi—is that blood?" Valerie noticed the deep red stain on the collar of his otherwise white shirt. "What the hell happened to you?"
Silently, he strode across the room and sat on the bed, staring in front of him.
"Are you . . . okay, Five?" Valerie asked with uncertainty as she sat down next to him, peering into his face with worry.
His face was blank, seeming as though he was still in the process of thinking about something, his fingers fumbling with the hem of his shorts.
"She's . . ." Five swallowed as he stared at the ground. "She's dead."
It took a moment for it to click in her brain. "Delores?"
He nodded mutely, blinking slowly.
"Wha—how?" Valerie questioned. "I thought no one else was there? What happened?"
"I went inside, and I found her. I was just starting to say goodbye when two people came and began shooting, and they—" He swallowed again, his voice quivering. "They shot her."
Valerie put a caring hand on his back in an attempt to soothe him. "That's terrible, Five, I'm so sorry. But—but who were the two people? Why were they trying to kill you?"
He looked at her, licking his lips before saying, "Long—"
"Don't say story."
"—story."
"Oh, come on," Valerie groaned, shaking her head as she sighed. "Whatever. Listen, I'm sorry you lost Delores. It—it sucks to lose someone you love."
Five nodded slowly, a small smile then growing on his face. "She was there with me through it all. It was a bit of a burden to have to carry her around all the time, but it was worth it. I loved her."
Valerie furrowed her eyebrows at his diction, and so she repeated, "Carry . . . her?"
"Well, she was a . . . a mannequin," Five explained awkwardly. "But she was real."
"Five, I'm sorry if this is insensitive," Valerie said tentatively, her nose wrinkled, "but . . . I mean, she—it's not . . . alive."
As crazy as it was, Valerie felt a sense of relief. Perhaps this meant that she did have a chance with Five. Although, it did seem insane that he had been in a relationship with a . . . mannequin.
"I know." Five looked up at her, his eyebrows tightly knit together. "Those two killed her."
"That's not what I—" Valerie sighed. There was no point in insisting, so she gave up on it. "All right. It's been a long day, I would love to have some sleep. You should shower, get all the blood off of your body. We'll talk tomorrow about what to do about this whole end-of-world situation."
Five looked up at her with a small smile. "Goodnight, Val."