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It all happened so fast, Klaus found he couldn't catch his breath.
Within a beat, Ben's blazer was shrugged off, smacking the floor with a quiet thud. Within a breath, a Lovecraftian monstrosity ripped from within his stomach, the blackened tentacles snapping through the air, reaching for them, grabbing at their arms, their legs, their throats, aiming to kill. Within a mere second, Klaus felt helpless. He locked up, gawking at Ben, at Ben, goddamnit. He was their brother, and yet--
"Watch out!" Diego tackled him sideways, slamming them to the floor before Ben could hit them with his creature. They scrabbled to hide behind a marble pillar, breathing hard, shaking harder. Diego flattened his back to the stone. Klaus leaned forward, catching Ben's eye.
There was nothing there.
No recognition. No care. It were as if he had been hollowed out completely. Klaus looked at Ben and saw Reginald staring back at him. He blinked fast. A tentacle rushed past his face. He plastered himself against the pillar.
"We need to get out of here!" Diego shrieked.
And he was right. They did. But Allison and Luther were clear across the room, ducking behind debris. Five and Vanya were kneeling behind a sofa, keeping low. Ben's monster slapped vases and smashed tables, splintering wood and glass in his wake. Within mere fucking seconds, the main room had been destroyed.
Five flipped around to face them. He pointed his pointer and middle to Ben, then his thumb in the other direction: I'll take offense, you take defense. How Klaus had remembered something Reginald had taught them decades ago was beyond him. How Five had remembered--
He was gone.
In a flash of blue light, Five slipped through time-space, spitting himself out behind Ben mid-air. He kicked out.
His foot cracked against Ben's neck.
Ben reeled sideways as Five dropped to the ground, rolled onto his shoulder blades, and kipped up and back to his feet. He landed hard, just barely dodging a tentacle trashing out at him. He jumped backwards, back into a portal, blinking in a spray of blue sparks at Ben's feet. Five swept his leg for Ben's heels. Ben jerked back, threw his monster to Five.
Five was gone again.
He reappeared, stumbling gracelessly on the other side of the room.
The creature wrapped around Five's waist and squeezed, leaving him breathless before hurtling him skywards.
Klaus blinked and Five was gone.
He snapped back into frame before Klaus, tumbling unceremoniously back and against his chest with a gasp. "Jesus." Klaus was barely able to hook his hands under Five's arms before Five went boneless, head dropping to his chest, legs going loose underneath him. Klaus strained against his weight. "Diego! Diego!"
Diego flipped around. "Damnit!" He practically tore Five from Klaus' hold as he dragged the three of them flush against the pillar.
From across the room, Klaus heard Allison cry out, "I heard a rumor you stopped attacking us!"
A tentacle nearly speared through her skull, drilling through the marble between her and Luther's heads.
"Shit, this is really bad!" Klaus screamed over the destructive cacophony.
Diego snarled, "Yeah! No shit!" He dropped, then, getting to a knee enough to hold Five steady and yank at the corner of his uniform.
Klaus blanched. "Wait! What are you--?"
"He got hurt. Shrapnel from...months ago. But it was weeks ago for him, so--" And, with the hem of Five's uniform free from his waistline, the blood made itself known as a glossy smear across his stomach. Fresh stitches were freely bleeding. Diego cursed. "Damnit, the bandage is gone."
Klaus sputtered. "I think the bandage is the least of our issues right now!"
Ben's monster rushed for them. Diego ducked, shielding Five as half the pillar's side showered upon them in hard chunks of marble.
This was bad.
Five was out. Allison and Luther were helpless. Vanya was useless. And he and Diego were sitting ducks whilst trying to compensate for Five...
"Shit." Klaus squatted next to Diego. He slapped his hands over his ears, willing the chaos to subside, for it all to be a bad trip. He had experienced dozens of those, after all. For once, he prayed for it to be a lie, for it to be bullshit so he could just wake up and be home. Wake up and Ben would be there, and everything would be normal. Because Klaus wasn't sure if he could handle this. He couldn't handle a new timeline, a world where they had never existed, a world where he was never supposed to exist. He had been erased from time and space and that had left him reeling, struggling to grasp anything at all for a simple sense of normalcy and--
A hand encircled his wrist.
Klaus jolted. His head snapped up, eyes catching Five's. Five's head was tilted back in the crook of Diego's arm and, upon grabbing Klaus, he sighed hard. Heavily, as if it were agony. He gritted his teeth.
Space split around them, sucking them through nothing and everything and Klaus felt as if he were going to vomit as, Diego, and Five landed in an awkward heap at Vanya's feat.
Klaus strained, reaching out. Vanya stumbled forward, a breathless, sobbing mess. As soon as he caught her hand, they were gone, twisting and tumbling and dropping before Luther and Allison. Luther dove for Diego's leg, grabbing his ankle. Allison hugged Vanya.
Ben's monstrosity hurtled towards them.
Five screamed, his voice cracking as his powers snapped and ripped open one last portal. Klaus held his breath. The tentacles were feet, inches, seconds away--
Blue enveloped his vision. Klaus' breath was punched from his lungs as he was sucked through space with his siblings, escaping the hellish Sparrow Academy.