Chapter Text
“So, Five is… 56?”
It was just the two of them, in this dimly lit room. The Handler had left them there after she’d paraded them around like some… trophies. And, well, the first thing Ben had done once they were alone was start freaking out, so Klaus figured he was owed an explanation.
“No,” Klaus huffed, sprawled across one of two ratty mattresses in the room. “He’s 58.”
“Sorry,” Ben drawled, giving him a look. “58. Our brother- the one who’s been gone for three years, who looks 13, is actually 58. And he just- what, moisturizes really well?”
“What part of time travel don’t you understand?” Klaus whined, digging his palms into his eyes. “No! I mean, I don’t know anything about his skincare routine, but come on, man! We literally got kidnapped by the time travel mafia!”
“I wasn’t-“ Ben frowned, waving a hand in the direction of his head. “-for the kidnapping bit. I don’t know how we got here. This could be some sort of trap for the others. Some weird ruse to throw us off so we don’t know where we are.”
“She kept making time jokes, dude! Time jokes!”
“A ruse!”
“Alright, look.” Klaus hoisted himself up so he was sitting with his legs crossed, staring his brother down. “Five spent 45 years in an apocalypse that’s supposed to happen in 2019. He meant to go back to right before it, but he ended up with a younger us. Do you wanna know why?”
Ben gave him a blank look, like he still couldn’t believe he was trying to convince him of this. But he nodded anyway.
Klaus sucked in a breath, then froze. Because he hadn’t known why. He hadn’t known why until now, just now, because he put two and two together.
“Because you-“ His voice cracked. “-die. You were supposed to die. And he- he came back to now, because he couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to save you.”
He risked the fate of the world to save Ben. And here Klaus was, getting him plucked right out of the timeline. Agreeing to let him get plucked right out of the timeline. God, he’d made a deal with that lady. He’d let this happen.
He’d yelled at Five and called him an asshole for keeping it from them.
He felt Ben’s stare. It made him feel all itchy, like whatever horrors that resided in his head could sense the horrors that lived under his brother’s skin. Like Ben was peeling back his layers to peer right into him.
“I die,” he said slowly, and Klaus refused to look at him. He nodded jerkily, one hand clutching the edge of the mattress.
“So- so we need to figure out a way to help with the apocalypse,” he insisted, trying to at least distract them both from the uneasy thought. “Because Five coming back means you’re still alive, and it means I’m not stuck as the useless deadweight of the family. He sacrificed so much to get back, and now we’ve got a chance to help! If I can find information here and keep you safe, then I’ll-“
I’ll finally prove my worth.
He swallowed thickly. A hand on his knee made him jump, staring up at his brother.
Ben looked sad.
“What are you on about?” He questioned, tilting his head. “Useless deadweight? Did- did one of the others call you that?”
“No?” Klaus shook his head. “No, I- that’s how it’s supposed to be, Ben. Five’s been all weird about me with the drugs since he got back, like he knows something he won’t tell me. All of these time guys seem to think I’m no threat at all. And that lady, she said-“ He bit his lip. “She said that us being ‘extracted from the timeline’ would be inconsequential. Because you’re supposed to be dead, and I’m supposed to be some weak, screwup junkie. Just like Dad’s always said I’m gonna end up. Wasting my potential.”
A wave of embarrassment washed over him the moment the words were out of his mouth. Ben had just found out he was supposed to die. He’d just been told that his destiny was to die young, to die at the tender age of 16, and here Klaus was, whining about the consequences of his own actions.
“Hey,” Ben interrupted, grabbing his hand. “No. No. Dad’s a- a horrible asshole. He buried you alive. Don’t ever listen to a damn word he says, because his word doesn’t mean shit. You’re not wasting anything. And ‘meant to be?’ Bullshit. This whole destiny thing is just some absurd idea that people came up with to gaslight each other. The only person who controls where you end up is you.”
Ben shook his head, squeezing his hand with a smile, and despite all odds, Klaus felt some of the tension in his shoulders melt away.
“Maybe- maybe in the 2019 that Five ended up in, that stuff was true. Maybe I was dead. And maybe you never figured out your powers. But you could never be useless. You’re one of the bravest people I know, Klaus. You see stuff that could kill a grown man just with the sight of it, and you’re still so nice. You’re my favorite sibling, man.” He shrugged one shoulder. “With Vanya in close running behind you.”
Klaus laughed, surprising himself. He sat straighter with a shaky breath, blinking a few times as though trying to shake off a spell.
“Sorry,” he huffed, smiling awkwardly. “That was really lame.”
“It wasn’t lame,” Ben corrected, giving him a look. “And if it’s Diego that told you feelings are lame, I’ll have you know he cried over that one scene in that movie Allison likes.”
“It wasn’t,” Klaus admitted. “But thank you. I’ll store that information away for another day.”
“Point is,” Ben continued, although he was smiling now instead of that intense look from before. “That future isn’t our future. It didn’t happen. Five’s here now, and we get to decide what happens next.” He clapped his other hand over Klaus’s, nodding. “So, what are we doing next?”
Klaus blew out a breath, squinting up at the ceiling. After a moment, he nodded, adding his free hand to the almost secret handshake they had going.
“We need to find out what causes the apocalypse,” he decided. “Five says that these people are the ones who want it to happen. Erego, they know what brings it on. I’m sure the information’s here somewhere.”
“They won’t tell us if we ask,” Ben added, climbing up onto the bed beside him. “We’re connected to Five. They’ll probably think we’re up to something.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re stuck here with the stealthiest member of the Academy,” Klaus hummed, winking. “I’ve snuck out so many times, some of the locks on the windows are purely because of me.”
“Doesn’t sound very stealthy if they know you’re doing it.”
“Hush. I heard you climbing out your window right away. Which-“ Klaus shook his head. He didn’t need to grill his brother for information about the secret double life he’d caught him in at the club before all this happened. He’d do that later, after they’d saved the world.
It could make for some fun stories, and some potential inside information to dangle over his head in hairy situations.
“Okay,” he said instead, uncrossing and recrossing his legs. “We just need to come up with a plan.”
The sound of knocking startled him so badly he nearly fell off the mattress. Ben grabbed him before he could, turning around as the door opened and catching the Lady’s eye as she stood in the threshold of the room. She wore that same smile as before, dressed in an entirely new (stunning) outfit.
“You boys ready for your orientation?” She crooned, looking them both over with a frighteningly knowing look. But she didn’t say anything about them plotting anything, and they both nodded quickly. They hurried to their feet and she waved for them to follow, missing the look the brothers exchanged behind her.
Okay.
So their plan wasn’t full proof.
In fact, their plan wasn’t even much of a plan. It was more of a spur of the moment, silent conversation ending in a decision.
They’d sat through half of their orientation, bored out of their minds, and Klaus had decided he didn’t want to stick around any longer than necessary. He exchanged a look with Ben, who frowned when he realized what he was thinking.
But Ben had never been good at talking Klaus out of things. The taller boy was up out of his seat and walking towards the door before Ben could even hiss his name.
Klaus got all of two steps out the door before realizing one fatal error: he didn’t know his way around. He could just as easily walk right into the Lady’s office before he found anything useful.
And, well, there had to be a way to get around that. People who worked here would know where things were, except he couldn’t ask anybody without seeming suspicious. He also didn’t know what he was looking for. This would be a really nice time for a ghost or two, but the Commission seemed to be ghost-free, for some bizarre reason. Like the spirits couldn’t come into this place beyond time, or something.
Maybe…
He thought back to training the other day, when he’d summoned one of the specters accidentally. If he did it on purpose, maybe he’d have the ability to bring one here.
Ben believed in him. Five did too, for some reason. It was about time he started believing in himself.
Looking around, Klaus quickly crossed the hall and started trying doors. When he found one unlocked, he peeked inside and found (hurray!) a closet. He slipped in before anyone else could walk past, closing it behind him.
It was dark inside. There weren’t any lights for him to turn on, and the cramped space reminded him an awful lot of-
No. No. He sucked in a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out. He was not going to let himself spiral. Not when the world was on the line, and Ben was still waiting back in the other room. He was not going back empty handed.
Another breath in, then out, as he felt around in his mind for the scarcely used thrum of his powers. He found it after a few seconds, felt the cold that rushed down his spine as he lingered on it. He focused on that feeling and pulled.
He figured it wasn’t like the others’ powers. He wasn’t letting something out, like a tentacle or a burst of psychic energy. He was letting something in.
A blue glow flickered to life around his hands, bathing the closet in soft, cool light. That cold spread from his spine, tingling at his fingertips and biting at his toes. It was scary as hell, but he kept going, reaching out with his mind and searching for wandering souls.
Something tugged back and he shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut. A wave of dizziness hit him, nearly knocking him off his feet, but he shifted one and fixed his balance. When he opened his eyes, someone else was with him in the closet.
The agent from the Academy- Hazel, Five had called him- was standing in front of him. For a dead guy, he didn’t seem all that upset.
Klaus let go. The glow in his hands faded, leaving the room pitch black again. He let his back hit the wall behind him, knocking a heavy breath from his lungs.
Despite his fatigue, he laughed.
“Holy shit,” he wheezed, hands hanging limp at his sides. “I did it.”
“That you did,” Hazel agreed. Klaus couldn’t see him in the dark, but he could sense something between confusion and mild annoyance in the statement. “May I ask why?”
“Look-“ Klaus breathed in and out again, trying to stop his head from feeling fuzzy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to- to kill you, or anything. I don’t do that stuff. Or-“ He winced. “I try not to, usually.”
“It’s a kill or be killed world,” Hazel admitted. “That’s on me, I let my guard down. I must say, I’m impressed you made the shot.”
“Really?” For some reason, that made Klaus feel a little proud. Then it made him feel weird, because this guy was commending him on his own murder. “Alright, listen. My brother’s trying to stop the apocalypse, and I need your help.”
“I’m well aware of what Number Five’s up to. It’s why we were assigned to the case. The apocalypse is one of the most closely guarded cases at the Commission.”
“So, will you help me stop it?”
There was a beat of silence. For a terrifying second, Klaus wondered if he’d just wasted his time.
“Sure,” Hazel said, like he’d just asked him if he wanted to go for a coffee after lunch. “I don’t owe these bozos anything anymore. I’m already dead.”
“Cool!” Klaus laughed, clapping his hands together.
“Question, though. Are we in a closet?”
“Yeah!”
“So we’re hiding.”
“Yeah?”
“Might wanna keep it down, then, kid. They probably can’t hear me, but I’m gonna bet that doesn’t apply to you.”
“Oh!” Klaus winced, lowering his voice in another whispered, “Oh.” He pushed himself away from the wall, rubbing his hands together. “Okay. Do you know what causes it?”
“They didn’t feel it was relevant to our work,” Hazel recalled. “Probably didn’t want the information to be available in case one of you freaks could read minds or something.”
“Do you know how we can find out?”
“Well, there’s the infinite switchboard. If you have the date, you can watch it happen. I’d say that’d probably tell you what causes it.”
“Good.” Klaus nodded, throwing one hand out blindly to try and see where Hazel was. He didn’t touch anything on his way to the door, so he hoped that meant the man was out of reach. “Where is that, exactly?”
“Well, we’d have to get to the Commission-“
Klaus pushed the door open with his shoulder, squinting as the light poured into the tiny room. He nearly stumbled out as he shielded his eyes, and he heard Hazel cut off mid sentence.
“Well then. I guess we’ve got that part covered.”
Klaus watched over his shoulder as Hazel stepped out of the closet, glancing up and down the hall. He closed the door behind him, careful not to make too much noise, before looking expectantly at the former time travel assassin.
“Is this the hall they do the orientations in?”
Klaus opened his mouth, then closed it, shooting a look over his shoulder. He didn’t know who might hear him. He nodded instead, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets.
“I should know how to get there from here,” Hazel decided, starting off down the hall. Klaus hurried to keep up, trying to keep his footsteps light. He may have told Ben he was the stealthiest of their siblings, but he usually had the darkness of night to aid him. The hallways were flooded with bright sunlight.
They ended up going up some stairs, around some corners, past quite a few people who Klaus hoped would think he was just some new recruit. They found the door soon enough, though. Hazel walked right through the door to check and see, before popping his head back out with a nod.
“It’s empty.”
Klaus looked up and down the hall. Nobody else was around. Sucking in a sharp breath, he ducked inside, shutting the door behind him with a soft click.
Wow.
He understood why they called it infinite, now.
He walked up to the nearest screen, staring at it like it might have been alien technology. To him, it was. What kind of futuristic-
“They borrow most of the tech from the 1950s,” Hazel explained, like he’d somehow read his mind. “Obviously it’s got that extra oomph, but that’s the gist of it. You know, with the apocalypse, your era is about as futuristic as it gets.”
“Huh.” That sounded disappointing. Humanity shouldn’t have to peak at Highschool Musical and CD players.
He sat down in the chair, one hand hovering as he tried to figure out what to do first. There were all sorts of wires and holes, so he surely had to just plug some things in.
“Do you know the date?”
Klaus shook his head, frowning. He’d never managed to worm that out of Five, and he hadn’t had the guts to ask his ghost entourage while he’d had the chance.
“Just that it’s 2019.”
“We can try it month by month, narrow it down.” Hazel pointed to one of the wires. “Plug this in here.”
Klaus followed his instructions, sticking wires into the right spots until the screen in front of him flickered to life.
It was a street. His street, he realized. The date read January 1, 2019. There was snow blanketing the sidewalk, all shoved off the main road. People were walking around in heavy coats.
“Alright, now put this one here.”
Klaus did, and the image changed. February 1, 2019. Similar to the last, with less snow. Storefronts were decorated in obnoxious pink and red. Another plug, and it was March. Some of the grass was growing back in.
“Try this one.”
Click. Fizzz POP.
The screen screeched with static for a moment, and then the video was clear. It was sunny, people walking around like any other day.
“Okay, this-“
“Wait.”
Klaus took a chance and pressed a button, and the video footage sped up. He watched the whole day fly by, people wandering up and down the street, until-
He saw someone walk into the Academy, but didn’t press the button in time. Instead, he watched as whatever happened next was skipped over in fast motion, and-
And then the Academy burst into flames.
He jumped, jabbing his finger at the button. It went back to a normal speed just as the building came crumbling down, leaving nothing but rubble behind.
Someone walked out of the carnage, leaving down the street at an eerily calm pace.
“Holy shit.”
Klaus pressed another button, then another, and Hazel waved a hand in front of his face.
“Hey cut it out, you’re gonna break it-“
The screen flickered, then cleared.
April 2, 2019.
The world was on fire.
Klaus held a hand over his mouth, tearing his gaze away. He could hear blood rushing in his ears, could feel his stomach turning. There were- there were bodies. They were littered across the streets and hanging out of buildings, like people had tried to jump out when they’d realized what was happening.
“Shit,” Hazel hissed, but his voice sounded miles away. Klaus swallowed thickly, blinking a few times before forcing himself to look back at the screen. He jabbed another button, and the video started to rewind. The world exploded in reverse, in a burst of fire and smoke, and then it was just the Academy that was destroyed, and then it was intact and someone was walking in-
He paused it, sucking in a breath. Hazel was silent behind him. He pressed another button and it played in normal time. Two adults walked up the stairs into the Academy. He waited with baited breath as everything was calm for a few minutes. When the walls started to crumble, fire exploding from shattered windows, someone started down the stairs.
He froze the image. Stared at it.
He felt sick.
It couldn’t- this couldn’t be real.
Because it looked an awful lot like Vanya. The person was older, with long hair and sad eyes. But in this image, their eyes were white. Their whole body gave off a white aura.
And, well, he hadn’t been exactly present when Vanya had used his powers when the Academy was under attack, but he had heard his siblings describe it. He’d heard how his brother was- was bathed in white light, like a shining star.
“Why would-“ He struggled for words, pulling at his hair. “Why would Vanya do that?”
Hazel didn’t offer any input. Klaus put his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes as he tried to think. Vanya had freakishly strong powers- he already knew that. When he used them like, well, like that, he tended to lose himself. He’d heard how his brother had cried once he realized what he’d done to Cha-Cha.
So maybe Vanya hadn’t meant to end the world. And! And Five had seemed surprised when Vanya had powers, which meant that nobody knew about them in the future. So Vanya had had scary, huge powers and he hadn’t known about it, and… what?
What was he missing here?
Well… what could make the Vanya he knew end the world? What made any of his siblings angry beyond belief?
“Dad,” he mumbled, frowning down at the desk in front of him.
“What?” Hazel piped up, watching over his shoulder.
“Dad,” Klaus repeated, hand rubbing over his mouth as the other tapped against the desk. “Dad had Vanya on these pills. He kept him in the dark, didn’t want him to know he had powers. If- if I hadn’t died, and everything hadn’t happened like it did, I guess he’d still be on them. He still wouldn’t know.” He squinted up at the screen, at the scary grownup version of his brother. “If for some reason he’d just- I dunno, quit cold turkey, he’d probably be like I was the other day. My powers kept doing shit when I didn’t mean to, like summoning that ghost during training. If I’d been mad and- like, not feeling like death- I probably could’ve done some serious damage.”
“So Vanya Hargreeves without his meds is- what, a bomb just waiting to go off?”
“Yeah.” Klaus swallowed, staring at the image. “In the right scenario, I guess. We all could be. And- and in Dad’s hands? He’s training us as weapons. He wants us to…” He broke his staring contest with the screen, looking down at his hands. “He keeps saying we’re meant to save the world, but what if he’s lying? What if he’s really trying to end it?”
He’d heard Five suggest the same thing, the other day in the lounge. He’d been barely conscious, laying his head on Vanya’s lap, but he’d heard him say it.
What would Reginald Hargreeves have to gain from the end of the world?
He couldn’t come up with an answer for that one.
He didn’t have the chance to. Someone else opened the door at that very instant and he spun around in his chair, caught with his arm elbow-deep in the cookie jar. A very short man with large glasses stared at him like he was surprised to see him, which- yeah, he wasn’t technically supposed to be in here.
Klaus laughed nervously, bumping something with his elbow. The screen turned off with an obnoxious zap, drawing the man’s attention. Klaus winced.
“I can explain.”
Klaus and Ben were gone. There was no note, no sign of escape. Neither of them had shown up for breakfast.
So, obviously, Five was already on edge.
Finding a Commission message in the wall only made his day worse.
He’d heard the telltale woosh and looked up to find that flash of blue light by one of the paintings on the wall. He was up in an instant, mind rushing with all sorts of scenarios. Had they taken his brothers? Was this a hostage situation? Were they coming for the rest of them?
He pressed the panel and it popped open, allowing him to reach in and snatch the message. He opened it and tossed the tube aside, unrolling the paper at record speed.
Reginald Hargreeves causes the end of the world. Do not engage. Protect the others.
PS- Ben and Klaus are totally okay.
Love, your favorite brother ;)