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The first thing Klaus notices when he wakes up is that it’s quiet. There’s no wind roaring in his ears, no bright white light blinding him, just the soft sound of Vanya’s footsteps coming towards them and the occasional bird.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
Klaus groans. “Emotionally or physically?” he replies, which is when he notices the second thing.
It’s too quiet.
He frowns and rubs his temples, glancing around. Ben... Ben isn’t here. More than that; he’s really not here, Klaus can feel his absence, like the snapping of a cord or the chopping off of a limb. It’s so totally different to when he’d leave before, when he just wanted to put some distance between them, that Klaus knows something is wrong.
“Ben,” he murmurs, pulling himself to his feet. Then, louder, “Ben!”
His siblings turn to stare at him, Diego and Allison confused, Vanya looking stricken. He ignores them, stumbling towards the room Vanya had been kept in, the room Ben had disappeared into and never come out of.
“Ben!” He peers inside, but there’s no sign of his brother, and Klaus can feel his heart beating furiously in his chest as he begins to panic.
He spins to look back at his siblings. They’re all still staring at him - no, they’re staring at his hands, mounting horror on their faces. Klaus follows their gaze, down to his fists clenched tightly and his side and - oh. They’re blue.
That would explain the dead Swede to Allison’s left, or the blind FBI guards surrounding Vanya.
Klaus has never been one to turn away a good opportunity; he concentrates hard, pulling every ghost in the vicinity towards him.
“Where is he?” he demands of the nearest one. The ghost shakes its head, moaning lowly, so Klaus moves to the next. “Come on, come on, where is he? Elvis hair, leather jacket, answers to ‘Ben’, probably driving you all up the wall right now?”
None of the ghosts answer, not even the more recently dead ones. Klaus’s hands go to his hair, tugging at it desperately. “Please,” he croaks, his voice surprisingly sore - had he been shouting? He must have been because now the ghosts have joined in, their voices rising in tandem with his own, and his siblings’ lips are moving but he can’t hear them, can only think benbenben where is ben -
There’s a roaring in his ears and his vision swims; when he blinks, Diego appears in front of him, a hand on his shoulder, though Klaus has no memory of him moving. And - oh. They’re on the floor. Klaus doesn’t remember that, either.
“Need - ‘alm down - Klaus,” Diego says, though Klaus doesn’t think he’s heard that quite right. Whatever. He’s so goddamn tired.
Klaus slumps against the wall, the blue haze around his hands beginning to flicker and die, and the shouting begins to quiet.
“That’s good,” Diego says, clearer this time. Klaus blinks slowly at him, making a half-hearted attempt to get out from his grip.
Thankfully, Diego gets the hint, shifting away from him. “You wanna tell me what all that was about?” he asks.
“I thought Ben wasn’t here,” Allison adds. Klaus drags his gaze up to her, standing a foot or so away, watching him closely.
“He’s not,” he says, and, oh, there are tears in his eyes. Funny, that. “I can’t find him.”
Vanya steps forward then, coming to crouch next to him and Diego. Her hand lands on his knee, hesitant, but somehow reassuring. “Klaus…” she says, softly, so softly, and Klaus knows.
Still, “I… He’s gone, Klaus,” Vanya says, tears slipping down her cheeks.
“Oh,” Klaus breathes, and it doesn’t feel enough for Ben, for the guy who’s stuck by him for almost twenty years now, but it’s all he’s got left. Oh , because Ben is gone, and Klaus doesn’t know how to process that, doesn’t know how to deal with the broken tether, the missing limb.
Ben is gone.
Oh.