His Only Hope

Seventh Star

Your eyes opened again in what felt like no time at all, but you'd clearly been out for at least a few seconds. You sat up slowly, clutching your aching head, and watched as Luther and Sloane embraced. You glanced to your side, revealing Klaus lying on the ground and holding up a shaking, glowing blue hand.

Thank God. If he hadn't been there - Sloane would've died.

"I left you to guard the most precious thing in the universe," Reginald was saying to Luther.

"And what was that?"

"You'll soon understand. You all will!" 

You ignored him, dragging yourself over to Klaus and holding his free hand. "Are you okay?" you whispered, voice shaking slightly. His stomach was gashed open, but - he was immortal. He'd be okay. Five wasn't. He forced a smile at you and nodded, and that compelled you to drag yourself to your feet.

Five. You needed to find Five.

You finally reached the top of the stairs, stumbling toward the railing where you'd seen him last - there he was. Missing an arm.

"Oh my God, Five," you gasped out, your voice dangerously close to a sob. He looked up and saw you, his eyes going wide.

"Eight! You need to get back downstairs!"

"Your arm," you whimpered, hurrying over and staring in horror at the bloody stump that remained just past his shoulder. "You're gonna... you're gonna bleed out, you need-"

"(Y/N)!" he snapped, getting your focus. He placed a bloody hand on your cheek, smearing warm blood there. "Focus. We're going to get through this." He turned back around when you nodded, shouting down to everyone below. "The sigil is on the lobby floor! It's the stars!"

How was he still talking? How was he not breaking down?

"Children, find a star on the sigil! Stand on it!" Reginald demanded as Five turned to face you again.

"Let's go," he said urgently, and you shook your head in fear. 

"You're hurt! Five, what if you-"

"I will be fine," he said firmly, accentuating each word. He clutched what remained of his arm, staggering forward. "Come on. We have to do this now, before the guardian wakes up."

"Seven points, seven of us?" Viktor was asking loudly, in disbelief. "We're the bells?"

You reached the bottom just as others began stepping on the white stars engraved in the floor. Sloane first, then Lila, then Viktor, then a revived Klaus - a roaring interrupted your thoughts, and both you and Five spun to watch as the guardian rose to its feet with a growl, replacing its mask that must have fallen off.

"Hurry!" Reginald shouted hastily. "It's the only way to stop him!"

Ben stepped on the star next, then Diego. Just one left, right in the middle. You darted forward, but Five reached forward to grab your elbow, missing. "(Y/N), no!"

You ignored him, still staggering forward. If anyone was stepping on the crazy magic stars, especially the ones your father wanted you to step on, it was going to be you.

"(Y/N)!" When you still didn't respond, Five spatial jumped forward, landing on the star. You jerked to a stop as he turned to look at you with a determined expression, your heart breaking.

"No," you whispered as the final star lit up. You watched in horror as your whole family began shouting in pain, their faces turning up in agonized terror. A blue light connected them all together like a lightning strike. And yet the guardian remained, swinging its scythe and striding toward your siblings.

And that was when you knew. It hit you like a bus - you really were connected to the guardian. The guardian was connected to the kugelblitz, just like you. It fed off of it, and the kugelblitz fed off of you - the only way to kill it would be to kill yourself.

Yes, the other two had been killed and you were still alive, but... they had weakened you. Killing this one would kill you.

And killing you would kill it.

You glanced over one more time at your family - they were still suffering. It was shitty that this was the last look you'd get of them. Your eyes landed on Five's face - he was so beautiful. So perfect. Just like Lila, Klaus, Diego, Viktor, Sloane, even fucking Ben. 

And so you turned, stepped forward, and stood in front of the guardian.

The monstrous beast towered over you, its shadow menacing as its head slowly lowered to look at you, swinging its scythe faster. Your heart raced in a panicked terror, and every bone in your body screamed at you to turn and run, to cower, to...

Maybe it was a good thing you were too scared to move.

The guardian raised its scythe, releasing it and slicing it across your stomach. 

Even as you fell backward in unfathomable pain, some tragic part of your mind continued spinning, thinking of how ironic it was that you were going to die in the same way you had almost died the first time around. You vaguely registered the heavy thumping of the guardian as it fell, just like you, smacking the tile painfully.

Actually, it didn't hurt. You couldn't feel anything. You couldn't think. 

The ceiling glistened like dew on the morning grass, almost blinding.

With a gasp, everything came back into focus. The room had turned gold, strange shining pillars glowing around you - but everything still seemed hazy and out of place. You could see the guardian in the corner of your eye, nothing but its armor remaining. It was dead, somehow. Even though you weren't. You would be soon.

On the other side of you, your siblings were still straining horrifically, but the blue strings connecting them were gone. You could hear Allison and your father arguing - she ran over briefly and peered down at you, shouting, but her voice was muffled, your vision unfocused. She left. 

Five was trying to talk, his eyes trained on you painfully as the life was sucked out of him. His face turned ghostly white, beginning to flake away, and you sobbed silently.

He couldn't die. Not after this. Not now.

It was like Five was trapped in a night terror, unable to speak, to move, to help you. And the same went for you.

As you watched, your sibling's faces went gaunt, their bones visible. Their eyes began turning white. They were screaming, wailing, dying- and then they fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath.

In moments, Five had crawled over to you, his gray face hovering above you, his pale eyes wide with horror.

"(Y/N)," he choked out, his hand hovering over your stomach helplessly. It was good you couldn't see it. It would surely freak you out. Maybe kill you faster. "(Y/N), you - you promised!" he shouted weakly, his hand shaking. "You promised you wouldn't... you wouldn't die! You wouldn't do this!"

His voice was angry, but his tone wasn't. His tone was devastated, dripping with hopelessness and despair and guilt, like he knew there was no coming back from this one. That it was truly over.

"I'm sorry," you choked out, coughing a little bit and feeling a warm liquid spill over the sides of your mouth. Probably blood. His only remaining hand pressed into your stomach, desperately trying to cease the blood flow.

"No, I'm sorry," he said quickly, his voice breaking as he avoided your eyes, instead focusing solely on your stomach. "I shouldn't have - I should have let you stand on the seventh star, I shouldn't have-"

"Five," you gasped, attempting to force him to look at you. When he still refused, you spoke again, finding just enough strength to speak more firmly. "Five." He finally looked at you, and you struggled to speak again, wanting to put words to the intense feelings in your aching heart. "You... will never understand how lucky I feel..." you paused, coughing up more blood, and his eyes darted around your face hopelessly. "To have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard."