Word count: 1714
"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓?" 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 as she stared at Pogo with shock.
"So did Grace. It was a difficult choice for both of us," Pogo sighed once more as he walked closer to them. "More difficult than you could ever know. Prior to your father's death, Grace's programming was adjusted so that she was incapable of administering first aid on that fateful night."
Five turned to Valerie, shaking his head slightly as he muttered, "Sick bastard."
"So the security tape we saw?" Luther questioned with a low voice as he took a step forward.
"It was meant to further the murder mystery," Pogo explained gently as everyone groaned, and he gave them a pitying look. "Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together . . . would reignite your desire to be a team again."
"And to what end?" Five asked as he furrowed his eyebrows.
"To save the world, of course," answered Pogo, his half-moon spectacles glinting off the dim light.
"All right." Klaus gave a maniacal chuckle, an incredulous expression on his face as he leaned one hand on the table.
"First the Moon mission and now this," Luther scoffed as he shook his head, his expression and voice quickly becoming bitter. "You watched me search for answers and said nothing. Anything else you want to share, Pogo? Any other damn secrets?"
"Hey, calm down, Luther," Klaus raised a hand towards him, but Luther pushed it away before looking back at Pogo with a rage-filled expression.
"No, I won't calm down. We've been lied to by the one person in this family we all trusted."
"It was your father's dying wish, Master Luther. I . . ." Pogo swallowed, and then he let out a deep sigh. "I had no choice."
Luther slowly walked up to Pogo, his gaze hardening. "There's always choice."
He walked out, and Pogo, with a sigh, soon followed, leaving the three of them in sombre silence.
Valerie was in complete and utter shock, and she was sure that the others were feeling exactly the same. Unlike usual, this information was taking a long time to process in her brain. She didn't like it.
Five ran his hand through his hair, obviously as distressed as Valerie was as she got up. He glanced up at her, his eyes questioning as she brushed off her skirt.
"I'm going to go for a run," she told him quietly, receiving a nod before she sped out the Academy.
Valerie sprinted across the streets of the city, too quick for anyone to see her as she passed blurred faces and buildings. She closed her eyes, feeling the wind blow past her face as she thought about what had just happened.
She had believed that Reginald's death wasn't due to natural causes, but not even once had it crossed her mind that he had orchestrated the whole thing.
Sure, it was for good reasons but weren't there other ways to bring the family together? A phone call? An email? At the very least, he could've just faked his death!
And to find out that Pogo and Grace, their other parental figures—if anything, more of parental figures—had lied to them and helped their dad in the scheme? Although they had their reasons, it was heartbreaking to hear.
Everything was beginning to make sense at that point; why Grace didn't do anything while Reginald had his heart attack, and how she didn't even remember anything about that night . . . .
Valerie's stomach growled as she made her hundredth lap around the city, begging her for food. She had forgotten to eat breakfast amidst the emergency, and, of course, she hadn't drunk Klaus's coffee (which seemed to be a good thing, considering Five's constant shudders of disgust after every sip). She made a mental note to eat once she got back, but continued to run.
She ran as fast as she could until her legs felt like giving out, which was about a half-hour later. Valerie finally sped back to the Academy, flopping down on her bed as soon as she reached her room.
"Oh, good," she heard a voice speak up from her desk as she steadied her breathing. "You're back. Enjoy your run?"
"Hi, Five. It was fine," Valerie sighed, sitting up and leaning against the wall.
"How many miles?" Five inquired as he raised his eyebrows with slight interest. "Did you beat your record of a hundred thousand in thirty minutes yet?"
"You mean the record from twelve years ago? Before I spent years only running? Yeah, I ran three hundred and fifty thousand," she told him as she rubbed the back of her neck. "What do you want?"
"Ouch." He scrunched his face, placing his hand over his heart in mock offence.
"No—not like—" She rolled her eyes and sighed before rewording her question, "Why were you waiting?"
"While you were out, I—I had a thought." He got up from the chair and limped his way over before he sat down next to her, their shoulders brushing against each other.
Valerie waited for a moment, but he didn't elaborate. She raised her eyebrows and pressed, "And what was that thought, exactly?"
"Okay, so, Dad—" he hesitated before letting out a long sigh. "You know what, I have to tell Klaus as well. Come on." Five nodded before he stood up and offered his hand to her.
With a small smile, she took it, and the two of them made their way over to Klaus's room. Five knocked on the door but didn't bother to wait for an answer as he burst into the room.
A shirtless Klaus was laying on his bed, the fairy lights that were hung around him glowing a magnificent gold. He seemed to be struggling with some knitting needles, one of the stabbed needles into a large, navy ball of yarn as he twirled string around the other.
"Hey," Five greeted as he limped over to Klaus, nodding his towards the door. "Get up. We're going."
Klaus stopped . . . whatever he was trying to do while a look of bafflement crossed his face. "Where?"
"To save the world," Five insisted.
"Oh, is that all?" Klaus said sarcastically as he sat up, putting his things to the side as he scoffed. "Great."
Five began to pace around the room as he began his explanation, "So, Pogo said Dad killed himself to get us all back together, right?"
"Yeah, so?" Klaus questioned as Valerie nodded.
"So it got me thinking," Five continued with furrowed eyebrows. "I had to jump to the future to figure out when it happened, but Dad—he can't time travel. So how'd the crazy bastard actually know to kill himself a week before the end of the world?"
Klaus began to put his socks on as he shrugged and began, "Well, you know—"
"Don't answer," Five interrupted as he stopped pacing, pointing at Klaus, who was now pulling his shoes on. "That was purely rhetorical. Truth is, our whole lives, he's been telling us we'd save the world from an impending apocalypse."
"Yeah, but I always thought he just said that to scare us into doing the dishes," Valerie pointed out with a frown as she leaned against the wall next to Klaus's bed.
"Me too," Five said as he nodded and walked back towards the two of them. "But what if the old man really knew it was going to happen?"
"Yeah, but knew how?" Klaus asked as he picked up a rainbow tie-dye shirt, sniffing it before shrugging.
"No idea." Five sighed. "But the fact remains, his fakakta plan worked. We all came home. We're here, we might as well save the world."
"Oh yeah?" Klaus grinned as he put the shirt on, grabbing a jacket from his chair after. "What, like, the three of us?"
"Uh, well, ideally, no" —Five wrinkled his nose as the three of them left Klaus's room and headed towards the stairs— "but . . . gotta work with what I've got."
Valerie gave him a look of offence as she muttered, "Five, you little piece of—"
Suddenly, Diego came sprinting down the hallway, tearing his jacket off as he headed into his room. He glanced up at them but made no greeting as they approached.
"Where have you been?" Five called after him, peering his head to look inside the room.
"Jail," Diego responded rushedly as the three of them came just outside his door.
"Jail?!" Valerie repeated with horror, her eyes widening in shock.
"Long story," Diego said quickly as he grabbed his gear, slinging it over himself as he came back out to meet them. "Where's Luther?"
"Haven't seen him since breakfast," Five informed him with a shrug, his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah," scoffed Klaus. "Two days until the world ends, he picks a great time to drop off the grid."
"Shit," Diego muttered as he clicked his vest on, his hands quickly moving from the different buckles. He looked back towards them, his gaze hardened and his eyebrows scrunched together as he told them, "Allison is in danger."
"Allison is in danger? Are you fucking—why can't we ever catch a break?" Valerie complained as she shoved her face into her hands, shaking her head as she let out a muffled groan.
"What do we do?" Klaus questioned, his eyebrows furrowed. "Where is she?"
"We have to find Luther first," Diego said determinedly. "No one knows where he went?"
"We already said we didn't know, dipshit." Five rolled his eyes before he turned to Valerie and raised his eyebrows. "Val, could you—"
"Yeah, I just need to . . ." Valerie trailed off before sighing. Did she really have the time to eat? Allison's life was in danger! "Never mind. Okay, give me a second."
She sped through the city once more, peeking into windows and searching every face until she found the one that belonged to Luther.
She returned to the group, slightly out of breath as she told them, "He's at that Irish pub place fifteen minutes away."
"Are you okay?" Five asked in concern, his eyebrows furrowed as he studied her face. "You look . . . tired."
"It's fine," she reassured him quickly, "let's go."