His Only Hope

Window

"Tell me what you meant," he said urgently, his voice cracking slightly. That made you want to die.

You opened your mouth, looking into his pained eyes. Could you really tell him what his future self had said? Could you really not?

"I'm connected to the Kugelblitz," you said after a long, tense moment. You lifted your hand, letting electricity spark in the neon hallway. Now that you looked at it... it really was similar to the way the Kugelblitz crackled and pulsed. "It... feeds off of me."

Five's eyes searched your face desperately, like he couldn't possibly wait for you to finish explaining. Like he needed to understand right that second, or he would explode.

"The thing your future self told Lila when he made you leave the room? It was... that I have to die for the Kugelblitz to die. That's why he didn't want you to save the world. I was meant to do it for you." You avoided his gaze, your bottom lip trembling. His grip on your wrist tightened, but before he could talk, you spoke. "I couldn't do it. I kept going back and forth, and then I was going to do it - I swear, Five, I was going to - but there wasn't time! Allison, she-" your mouth snapped shut, and your jaw clenched in anger. Of course. Thanks to her, you couldn't even explain the whole story to Five. "And then it happened. We had to go through the portal. And I don't know if it will still work, but I can try-"

"Shut up." Your head snapped up, and your eyes landed on Five's. They were wild, almost crazed. He stepped closer to you, pointing a shaky finger in your face. "You won't do a thing. Don't you fucking dare say that." His voice shook with barely controlled anger and pain, and you stared at him, mouth open slightly in surprise. 

"But what if-"

"Stop," he said, letting out a quivering breath. He closed his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Holy shit." He opened his eyes again, grabbing both sides of your face. "I don't know what the fuck was wrong with the leader of the Commission. But that wasn't me. I swear to God, Eight - I'd fucking kill him if he wasn't already dead." He clenched his jaw hatefully, and you swallowed hard, nearly knocked over with relief. He didn't hate you for not going through with it. Of course he didn't - it was Five. The only way he'd hate you was if you did go through with it.

"I-"

"You won't try anything," he said firmly, looking into your eyes intensely, still holding your face in his rough hands. "Tell me you won't, (Y/N). Promise me."

You hesitated, and he widened his eyes at you insistently. "I promise." Hopefully. "I mean, the window has passed. It's not like-"

"Don't call it a fucking window." He spit the words out like they were poison, his face screwed up in disgust. "Your life. Don't treat it like nothing. Because without you-" He cut himself off and looked away, his jaw tensing. He released your face and stepped away. "We should move."

You looked up at him, swallowing hard. You hadn't imagined what it would be like for him to find out. You weren't supposed to be around for that part. "Yeah. We should." 

He strode forward, and you followed him quietly, oddly embarrassed.

What an odd thing to be ashamed of. You were trying to save your family. It wasn't like you were going to do it just because! 

"Let's never do that again," Viktor panted from in front of you as you finally hopped out of the tunnel and into...

The Buffalo Suite. Huh. You should've known it would mimic your world.

"What, narrowly escape the apocalypse?" Five asked, his voice still gruff and tense. You shrank back a bit, feeling bad, before finally comprehending the truth of your situation.

Now you had to fight the Guardian. Reginald hadn't made it sound easy. And Luther was dead. Oh God, Luther was dead. How had you almost forgotten?

No - Klaus could talk to him. It would be okay.

"Yeah, it's kind of our thing, isn't it?" Diego asked in a distracted tone, searching around the room with his harpoon. Why the hell did he have a harpoon?

And wait... where was Klaus?

You looked up, surprised to see Ben flicking the tail of the Buffalo mount. Wait - wasn't it the head before? Weird.

"Same suite, just ass-backward," Lila observed.

"No hyperbole there," Five muttered, and you bit your lip, looking around anxiously.

"This is some hardcore Alice in Wonderland shit," Ben said in disbelief, and Diego glanced back at the tunnel, frowning.

"Yeah, well it only gets weirder." You turned and watched as Reginald came flying out of the tunnel, shutting the door behind him.

"At last, the other side," he gasped breathlessly, pressing his back into the door.

"Where's Klaus?" you asked nervously, your voice raising a pitch. Not Klaus. Not Klaus. Please, not Klaus.

"Children, I'm sorry, but your brother..." No. "I did all I could, but he didn't make it through in time. The Kugelblitz has claimed its last victim."

"No!" you shouted, lunging forward and stopping abruptly in front of your father. Tears welled up in your eyes as you glared up at him, pure hatred simmering under your skin. "You're a liar. He was right there! He was right behind us!" You raised your hand, electricity sparking off of your fingertips, but Five grabbed your arm and yanked you back. You spun to snap at him instead, but he was already glaring at Reginald. It caught you off guard.

"Eight's right. He should've been behind us the whole time." The excess electricity from your fingers sparked against his hand that was holding your wrist tightly, and he winced and let go. You yanked your hands back, appalled, and quickly apologized. 

"I'm so sorry -" Before remembering that Klaus had been left behind. "We're going back," you decided, turning back to face Reginald, furious. "We're not leaving him there."

"There's nothing to go back to," he said, lowering his head for a moment. "Children, there will be time for tears later. Right now, we have to keep moving." He hastily began to walk toward the door, and you watched him blankly, disbelief filtering through your mind.

Without Klaus, you couldn't talk to Luther. Both of them were gone. Forever. All because you'd been selfish. "Both of them?" you whispered, your voice breaking with devastation. You looked up, breath hitching in your throat. Diego was staring at you, his eyes watery and expression blank. Allison was looking at the floor, but you saw her swallow hard.

No. You turned to look at Five, struggling to keep your tears from falling. He opened his mouth as though to say something, then stepped forward and pulled you into a hug. You sobbed silently into his chest, hiding from your siblings as he rested his chin on your head. His arms wrapped around you tightly, one hand holding your head to his chest and the other resting on your lower back. You could tell he was looking at everyone else - you felt his head shake slightly. You weren't sure who it was at.

A moment of silence passed, and then Diego spoke. "Let's go beat this fucker into the ground."

You sniffled and pulled away from Five, determination replacing your pain. "Let's." Everyone looked around at each other, exchanging various looks of devastated outrage on Klaus's behalf.

As a group, you marched to the elevator, footfalls ringing with purpose. Reginald was waiting there, his hands behind his back and a solemn look on his face.

Something still wasn't right. How could Klaus have not made it on time? Had he waited for Reginald to go first? You didn't have time to think about it - the elevator dinged ominously, and everyone stepped out with gloomy expressions to face the nightmare that was rapidly approaching.