|Doppelgänger| Five Hargreeves

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟕𝟑

Five's pov.

Y/n's body dropped to the floor in a puddle of her own fresh blood. I didn't get to her fast enough. I didn't protect her like I promised myself I would. I failed once again. I watched her die once again. Reginald had killed her.

I ran as fast as I could to her direction, maybe I still had time, I hoped to God I still had time. But it was futile. Without thinking right, I stepped on the last star in a miscalculation, disobeying my love's last words. And then, more literally than I was expecting, life started to drain out of me. Not just out of me, but from my whole family too. The ones who were stepping on the stars.

The pain was inmensurable. It was like I could feel every cell of my body being ripped away gorily, there was simply no comparison to the physical pain I had felt earlier when my arm was cut off of me in one swift and clean cut. This was much worse. It was agony in its pure form. And the worst was, I couldn't move at all. I couldn't stop that all. I couldn't save myself, I couldn't save my family, I couldn't save Y/n.

I couldn't save Y/n.

My brain tried to distract itself from the pain in any way it could. My senses were much more sensible now. I watched as the vision of what was before the hotel now disintegrated into a yellow-ish room of some sort, energy pulsating on every corner, something completely out of this world. I questioned more than once if that was maybe one last hallucination before death. But death never came to me. It refused to take me once and for all.

_"This wasn't part of the deal. You're hurting them."-Allison's voice. She was not being affected by the light that consumed me and our family. She obeyed dad. She didn't step on a star.

The skin on my siblings' faces turned into a sick, pale gray color. Their eyes were slowly turning completely white. It was like watching a sped up human decomposition process, while going through one yourself. It was hell in front of my eyes.

_"I can't stop now. It'd shut down the machine."-I heard Reginald's voice. No regrets in his tone. Nervousness, anxiety, yes, but no regrets. No sadness, no guilt. No mercy.

_"What machine? I don't understand."

_"The hotel was just a facade. We're stuck inside a machine in another dimension. Whoever created the universe built this place."

_"What does any of that have to do with them?"-Reginald did not respond to her immediately. But I knew. We were the batteries, the power, the energy that sustained that entire place. We were mere objects to be used. Y/n was right, she understood the truth, and she was killed for it. And he planned on doing the same to us.

The molecules on my body were taken even faster now, making me shriek and scream loudly in pain. I wasn't the only one. Every oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus in me burned.

_"The particles inside their bodies are the only things that fuel the machine."-His answer was what I expected, and hearing him say that like my family, that I spent a lifetime to save, and would spend another one if needed, was so disposable, it angered me. I had to try it one more time. I would soon not be able to speak anymore.

_"He killed Luther. He killed Y/n. He tried to kill Klaus. He won't stop until we're all dead."-My voice was strained, but it was understandable. Allison had made a lot of mistakes. I hoped she was willing to fix them as a sister.

The pain increased once again. I could feel my own skin starting to cling onto my bones, almost no more muscle or fat in between them. My eyes felt dry, just as my mouth and throat. My body was losing its strength to properly function.

_"Okay, you need to stop!"

_"I'm almost done. And when I am, you and I will get what we came here for."