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Patch was not willing to wait. She didn't want to sit around, weighed down by what she knew, while Diego was busy Not Coming. Detectives had to follow their hunches, she knew, and her gut was telling her to open the damn door. But she didn't.
The thumping stopped. It ended with a harder one than before, a weight collapsing against the surface, and she bit down hard on her lip to keep from saying anything. She was not willing to wait for Diego, because he was an idiot, he was hotheaded and stupid, he didn't think things though, he wouldn't help here! Even if it was his brother.
She didn't open the door.
Klaus was not willing to stay. Stay awake, stay hopeful, stay upright... His face was pressed flush with the table, tears running over the tape that had no business staying on his face while he was sobbing this hard. He was only staying put because he physically had to, and he was only staying strong because of Ben.
No one was coming. The maid had come and gone, Cha-Cha and Hazel had gone and come back, and now someone else had paused outside the room, only to disappear with his last bit of hope. He was going to die here. He was going to die, become one of the ghosts that frightened him so much, tortured into submission by these maniacs in masks.
Diego was not willing to lose anyone else. There was too much at stake here, Five had just come back, after so many years of radio silence and lost hope. If he got one brother back just to lose another... And as he drove his thoughts turned to Mom, lifeless and blank like the robot she'd been treated as by so many. He pushed harder on the gas. There wasn't a chance in hell he was losing one more family member to these masked freakshows.
"Grow up," Ben was lecturing again. What Klaus wouldn't give to make him shut up for just a minute.
"You're doing great, you've pitted them against each other. They're fighting, you're alone. Test the tape, twist your wrist- it's like that time-" Klaus shut him up with the harshest evil eye he'd given in years.
Patch was pacing, back and forth. She wished she could give some sort of signal, but there was no guarantee that what she'd heard was a prisoner at all. A second pair of footsteps joined hers, the man cosplaying as Black Widow running up to her.
"I'm here," he assured her, pulling his knives into hand. "Alright, I'll go in, draw their attention-"
"Shut up Diego," she snapped. "I already have a plan, and I'm going in first." She took the keycard, the door creaking open ever so slightly.
Klaus's head shot up, his eyes wide with disbelief and hope. Someone was here? He looked to Ben, who just looked uncertain. He groaned around the tape.
Patch grabbed one of Diego's knives, illiciting a hushed sound of anger. She cut free his hands and passed him to Diego, stepping further into the room.
"Hey, hey, look at me. Are you actively dying?" Diego had his priorities straight... he assumed. Klaus shook his head, but his chest heaved and his hands wandered over the pockets all over Diego's chest and body.
"Fucking- idiot. I don't have any drugs," Number 2 growled, swatting his hands away.
"My darling brother," Klaus crooned, but only after smacking his lips. "My dearest brother... always my favorite.... you're telling me you have NOTHING?"
Ben scoffed.
Diego smacked his hand over Number 4's mouth. "Idiot."
Patch gave them both a Look, pulling her gun.
"Where are they?" She asked Klaus, still all business. "Diego, get him out of here, I've got this."
"Hell no-" he tried to argue, but Klaus interrupted him, pointing to the bathroom. The door creaked open, the barrel of a pistol showing.
"Police! Drop the gun, or you're going down!"
The gun dropped.
"I'm coming out. Don't shoot." The voice made Diego's hair stand on end, and Klaus clutched at his brother's arms. It was actually the strangest part of the whole endeavor, how frightened Klaus seemed. He never was scared of anything... anything real.
"Hands behind your head, asshоlе."
"Okay. Just... don't... shoot," Hazel entoned, and something was very wrong.
Patch didn't see what Diego saw, and Klaus didn't know what was happening, he was just very rudely dropped to the floor.
The knife curved, exactly right, exactly like he practiced, and though it didn't hit her, it knocked the gun from Cha-Cha's hands. That was all he needed. He tackled her, and Patch went for Hazel, and in seconds, both were subdued. Patch cuffed together, radioing for backup, and kept them down.
Diego found Klaus hiding behind the bed. He was whispering to someone Diego couldn't see, as per usual.
It was... sad. He was all banged up, pretty much naked, his neck was bruised and cut, his chest was covered in blood.
Diego's hands ghosted- no, that's a bad word, they hovered over his chest as he tried to decide what to focus on.
"It's okay." Klaus was the first to speak. "I didn't think anyone would notice at all..." He looked to Ben, who looked back with tight lips and a scowl.
"Eudora did." Diego had to swallow back the stutter that tried to bare its head. "She knew... something was wrong. I'm- I'm so sorry, man."
Klaus looked up at him, his eyes wide and his head quirked. "Why? You- I always- I didn't-"
"How long were you here?" Diego demanded. "How long did you spend- alone here, hurt, tied to a chair- they'd have killed you, Klaus!" He was being more physically affectionate than he had in... years, probably ever... wiping his brother's face clean, pushing his hair back, strangely wet...
Klaus shrugged. He wasn't used to this. "It's- fine, it's fine, I was fine. I had everything under control," except for the wildly disturbing ghosts describing their murders in great detail- "they even gave me water and-"
"Klaus-" He shook his head. "When you say they gave you water-"
He was (in)conviently interrupted by a shout from Detective Patch. "Stay down!" She insisted, clicking her safety off.
"Klaus, stay here," he spat. "We're going to talk about this," he swore.
Great. More torture.
Klaus heard the pounding in his head louder than he heard the sounds of Diego and the detective, and for the hundredth time, he wished he was high. Hell, he'd settle for drunk.
The conflict escalated. Seemed like maybe this wasn't the first time Hazel and Cha-Cha had fought while handcuffed together. Klaus took two seconds to grab his coat off the table, and resisted the urge to open every pocket he had hidden shit in. Now was the time to escape. He yanked free the vent, and was halfway in when he heard a cry of pain... feminine, but that could include Diego as well! He turned back, back into the room that held him hostage, back to the people who tortured him and the people who saved him... There was a briefcase on the bed. There was no good reason he should take it- He didn't need a briefcase, but he knew these people were involved in some crazy shit. If he could just be helpful. Helpful, useful, for once in his life, if he took this briefcase and it held some secret to the universe type bullshittery...
He shoved it into the air vent in front of him.