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Standing in the swaying barn a slight breeze drifts across the field and into the open air carrying the slight scent of blood from the dying bodies strewn across the grass. Inside the barn, standing in a line, is Luther, Allison, Five, Vanya, Diego, Lila and Klaus.
“So, are you assholes done with the heart-to-hearts, or can we go home now?” Five snarks across the group. His face is covered in blood but he otherwise seems strangely content after the mass murder that just occurred. With a laugh the group begins to turn inwards, forming a semi-circle.
Twirling around, pattering their toes and disrupting the piles of dried hay laying on the ground, Klaus squeezes in-between Diego and Lila, breaking their chained hands and throws their arms over the couple’s shoulders.
“Soooo, how’d you two meet?” Klaus drawls fluttering their fingers.
“Jesus christ Klaus, no, I’m not doing this” Diego responds with a dry look on his face as he lifts Klaus’ arm off his shoulders and strides forwards to connect the circle with Luther.
“Oh, that’s alright you big lump, I didn’t want to talk to you anyway,” Klaus needles on waving his dropped hand through the air, “I really wanted to talk to you” they chirp, turning to Lila with a bright smirk.
“So, Lila was it, lovely name, how’d you get to be so close with brother mine over there. Y’know, awful choice really, he’s so… him. Y’know?” Klaus drones on making smiles appear on the group's faces. The taunts wash over the siblings and provide comfort after the massacre that just occurred.
“Oh, I like you,” Lila remarks, “Get this, we met in a mental asylum. Diego over here was drowning in daddy issues-”
“A running theme in our family” Klaus juts in.
“-And was totally set on saving the president. Like, hellbent on it. Wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it” Lila finishes with a smirk of her own aimed at Diego a few feet in front of her.
In response, Diego lifts up his middle finger and says, “Yeah, but I also met you in a mental asylum.”
“Alright ladies you’re both very pretty, now, can we please get a move on? I don’t know about you all, but I personally would like to get back to 2019” Five interjects before the bickering can continue any longer.
“Yeah, yeah, we get it old man. Alright, team huddle!” Klaus cheers, rushing forward to join the group, pulling Lila along with their arm still around her shoulders. Allison and Luther reach over to the other, linking their hands together, and Diego reaches out towards Luther’s shoulder and Vanya’s wrist. On the other side, Five gets into a slight crouch and begins to power himself up; a light blue film appears whirring over his hands. However, right before Klaus’ hand can connect with Vanya’s a voice comes from behind them.
“Now, isn’t this sweet?” chimes in a syrupy tone from behind the group.
“Shit,” Diego says as he reaches for a knife.
There, holding a semi-automatic firearm is the Handler. Her tall hat gently sways with the breeze and her bright, tailored outfit is immaculately clean despite the sea of dead bodies she had to climb through to reach the siblings.
Caught off guard at the back of the group Five froze right before he could jump. The Handler had a gun trained on them and could kill them all before he could make it.
“Shit” Five echoes.
Startled, the siblings detach themselves and get into defensive positions. Klaus keeps close to Lila and raises their arms in a pseudo karate move. Luther steps in front of Allison and settles back defensively and Vanya begins to power up; her skin fades into a now-familiar shade of white. Five, already beginning to activate his powers gains a calculating gaze and crouches down even lower; ready to spring forth at any moment, A new, fierce tension crawls through the air and begins to strangle the barn’s occupants. Gone was the light, familial air of before.
“Oh, Lila. I had so many hopes for you. But, it seems you just live to disappoint me don’t you?” the Handler states simply. Her tone was carefree and light but her eyes carried a deep-rooted hatred. The gun in her hands rests delicately on the group and stops any further movement.
“Well, it seems you’ve outlived your usefulness to me. I officially fire you from the Commission, blah, blah, blah” the Handler states dryly before smoothly swinging her arm around towards Lila and unceremoniously firing bullets into the woman's chest.
Blindly, Lila swings her hand out and seems to grasp onto something at the last second, but her body hits the hay all the same.
With a cry of rage Diego swings out a knife the same time Five finally jumps forwards and the Handler hit the ground not a second later with a knife piercing her throat. In two spots the golden straw begins to colour red.
Pivoting the second the knife leaves his hand Diego falls to his knees next to Lila’s prone form. Tears begin streaming down his face as he grasps her chilling body to his chest.
“No, no, no. W-wait a second, y-your gonna be okay…p-p-please” Diego starts to mutter to himself. Slowly, he begins to rock back and forth, resting his head on Lila’s chest as if that will make her heartbeat start up again. His calloused hands shakily run through Lila’s hair only succeeding in smearing blood through her dark locks.
In shock, Allison, Luther and Vanya seem to freeze in the corner. Their faces are fraught with distress, arms raised as if to stop a movement but everything in the barn seems to have frozen. The air seems to pick up, no longer a gentle summer breeze but a harsh reminder of the carnage surrounding them.
Laying on the ground Klaus rolls over and turns to face Lila’s body. Shock lays across their face. At the last second, right before the first bullet rang out, Lila had pushed them out of the way so that Klaus couldn’t be hit in the crossfire.
From his position standing over the Handler’s once-again dying body, Five lifts his head to look towards Diego; a sullen look overtakes his face before he can school his features down into a stone-cold mask. He may not have cared for Lila, but the image of Diego breaking down over her body incited Five’s ever-present instinct to protect his family. Only, this time, there was nothing to protect. Not anymore.
Gasping for air, Diego stopped moving and instead begins to silently shake over Lila’s body. Hitched breaths break the silence of the barn, but still, little movement is made.
Klaus, seemingly the only sibling not frozen at the moment, begins to rise to their feet and sways the few steps towards Diego’s fallen form. Reaching out, they go to place their hand on Diego’s shoulder before a sharp breath forces itself out of Lila’s body.
Everyone’s head whips towards the small group as Lila’s chest heaves.
“L-Lila?” Diego hesitates, his voice rough with the force at which his previous sobs had ripped out of his throat.
Opening her eyes, Lila peers upwards at Diego with tired eyes. She raises a shaking hand towards her chest and, with Diego’s help, begins to pull herself into a sitting position. The straw pillowing their bodies scratches at them.
Once she’s up, Lila takes a second to caress Diego’s cheek with a rare tenderness before she turns towards the Hargreeves siblings and opens her mouth.
“Okay, what the fuck was that? Which one of you fuckers is immortal?” Lila lets out with a coarse rasp.
“What?” the siblings respond in tandem.
“Right before I died I copied one of you fuckers and suddenly I meet this little brown girl on a pink bicycle and she’s scowling at me and next thing I know I’m back here” Lila informs them briskly.
“What do you mean immortal? None of us are-” Five goes to dispute before Klaus’ eyes light up with something like recognition.
“Oooohhh, fuck” they let out.
At this intermission, everyone turns to look at Klaus, but only Five and Lila seem to understand the other’s words. Their eyes lighting up with a sort of dreadful understanding.
“Wait a second, what do you mean ‘oh fuck’ Klaus?” Luther asks.
“It’s you, isn’t it? You’ve died before haven’t you?” Five demands with a fierce look on his face. His face has schooled back into its usual mask, but his eyes are filled to the brim with a fiery rage.
With that, a look of panic falls on the remaining sibling's faces.
“It would seem so. Huh. You know, I always just thought that I was really lucky” Klaus comments absentmindedly, but the look on his face seems stuck on shock and bewilderment.
“Wait, what the fuck do you mean lucky Klaus?” Allison cuts in. Her voice is a little raspy, but she seems charged with anguish.
“Ah, well. You know, after decades of drug use you overdose a few times here and there and I always just thought I was really good at getting away with it, you know? Like, a master of drugs or something. But this makes so much more sense. And honestly, know that you mention it, Lila, I remember meeting bicycle girl. Apparently, she’s god, capital ‘g’, and she does not like me very much. Threw me out a few years ago, right before apocalypse numero uno” Klaus drones on nonchalantly, his tone and face even out becoming more and more inquisitive as the words spill out.
“You mean to tell me that you’ve died more than once, and apparently met god, and you never thought to, I don’t know, TELL ANYONE!” Five screams as he advances towards Klaus’ now cowering frame.
“Well, when you put it like that it sounds bad!” Klaus responds as he begins to run in the opposite direction.
“Oh, no you don’t, come here you bastard!” Five shouts after them as he fires up his ability and hops after Klaus.
As well, Luther, Allison and Vanya seem to finally break out of their stupor and they begin running after Klaus as well. Their faces are now all clouded over with horror and an overwhelming amount of frustration.
“Your family’s insane, you know that?” Lila whispers to Diego.
“Yeah, I know” Diego responds as he grasps the other's head and leans in to rest their foreheads together.