( you're going to die in your best friend's arms. and you play along because it's funny, because it's written down, because you've memorized it, because it's all you know )

chapter thirty-two !

FROM HERE, THE STORY GETS COMPLEX AND ALMOST SADDENING. You really should have seen it coming. Vincent did. He saw it very well. 

Vincent knew from the moment he stepped foot in the theater that Vanya Hargreeves was about to end the world in that this was where the story came to an impartial end. This was where it all went sideways, where Vincent became nothing more than a lonely star in the sky, floating and floating and floating. This was where the Commission's prophecy would see itself true.

He was oddly calm about it.

Being faced with the prospect of death was something Vincent had never once allowed himself to fawn over. He was afraid because he would always be afraid, but the acceptance was something he'd built up for years.

He would be fine. Maybe.

Maybe not.

The ringing in Vincent's ear was incessant, panging in his head painfully. He didn't know why it was happening exactly, but he did know that it was strongly unpleasant. He already wanted to leave the theater and they had barely even walked inside.

Upon entering the lobby, Allison stopped the others abruptly, scribbling something out on her notepad before holding it up for the others to see. "I NEED TO GO ALONE," it said, something that Vincent immediately began nodding quickly in agreement with, pointing at it.

"Allison, I can't let you do that, alright? She's beyond reasoning." Luther retorted, shaking his head.

"Do you hear the music?! It's started!" Diego called out, gesturing to the entrance to the stage.

"Do you want us to think she's gonna listen? After everything that's happened?" Luther huffed to Allison, glaring at Vincent when he mocked the questions under his breath in a high-pitched voice. "Okay." He said slowly.

Allison nodded momentarily before turning around, jogging into the area where the performance was happening. Vincent watched her, unable to swallow down the bubble of anger in his chest. His irritation was at an all-time high in this place, and he had no idea why.

It felt invigorating and yet so horrible, so beautifully horrible.

Vincent whipped around to stare at Luther, grinding his teeth hard. "You're a stupid fucking asshole. Using her as a distraction is quite possibly the worst idea you've ever had," He huffed. "Tackling Vanya won't do dick."

"It'll be our best chance to incapacitate Vanya." Luther argued.

"Oh fuck you, motherfucker," Vincent spat out, taking a step forward. "I fucking—"

"Vincent," Klaus mumbled softly, eyes wide. "Your eyes are glowing white."

Vincent snapped out of his anger immediately in favor of being overtaken by an ice cold fear. His shoulders stiffened as he brought one oddly shaky hand to his eye, rubbing at it harshly. He remembered this. He remembered the figurine in Harold Jenkins house. He remembered how white his eyes were. He remembered how white Vanya's were. He remembered. How could he not?

"Okay, what the fuck?" Diego exclaimed, pointing at Vincent. "What's wrong with you, dude?" He questioned, though his tone was gentle and concerned. It was a weird but welcome change of pace.

"I— fuck," Vincent muttered, his voice feeling light years away from his body. He didn't think he liked it. "I'm— gonna go to Vanya."

"Hey! That's a bad idea." Luther protested.

"You're a bad idea," Vincent grit out. "Figure out your bitch plan. I can guarantee you I have a better one." He didn't wait for their reactions, turning around and walking through the doorway into the theater, sighing heavily at the sight of Vanya playing the violin, Allison a few paces ahead of him.

Vanya was good. She was very good. Vincent would have been jealous had he been in the correct headspace. At the moment all he could focus on was the glow of Vanya's eyes. The ones that surely mirrored his own.

The moment ended as fast as it came. Luther and Diego ran onto the stage from either side, and Vincent was pleasantly unsurprised when Vanya stood and whipped her violin bow out, eliciting a huge flash of blue light and throwing both men to the front.

Vincent watched the men roll before looking back up to Vanya cautiously. He hated the power he felt at his fingertips, coursing through him in such a way that he had never quite felt before. He hated that he liked it.

The audience screamed, predictably, as Vanya forced those behind her to stay seated and continue playing their instruments. It was a bit mesmerizing to watch. So mesmerizing that Vincent barely even noticed Luther and Diego corralling audience members out of the theater.

Diego jostled Vincent's arm. "Hey, kid! A little help here?" He shouted before his voice lowered a little, his hand gripping Vincent's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Vincent blinked harshly, looking over to Diego. "I'm grand," He muttered. "Is Five here yet?" He followed up with, grinning a little when Diego rolled his eyes.

"No, he's not," Diego responded. "But I'm sure he will be soon. Don't worry." He patted Vincent's upper arm before walking off.

Vincent would still worry.

He ducked behind an auditorium seat beside Diego when Vanya sent out another flare of blue, one hand covering his right ear, the one that was ringing the very most. He didn't know what was happening, and the chaos had barely even begun.

"She's stronger than expected." Diego muttered, glancing back at Vanya momentarily.

"Yeah," Luther agreed. He looked over to Allison, who moved her head to the side in a jerky movement. "Yeah, we're fine, thanks for asking." He replied.

Vincent wanted to throttle him.

"Look," Luther continued, to Allison. "I almost lost you once. I wasn't about to lose you again."

"Alright, well so much for the element of surprise. What else you got?" Diego questioned, peeking up when Alison smacked her hand against one of the seats. "No shit, Allison. Tell us something we don't already know."

"She's talking about the violin," Luther cut in. "It's a lightning rod. If we can take it from her and stop her from playing we might have a shot."

Vincent opened his mouth to speak, but cut himself off with an embarrassingly loud whimper of pain, sharp and harsh in his head. He brought both hands up to his ears, squeezing his eyes shut tightly.

He felt someone's hands on his arms, someone trying to get him to stand up, someone yelling at him, someone shooting at him.

After a moment that felt like an hour more than anything, his eyes flew open and he scrambled away from the hands on him, looking around frantically.

Five stood there, crouching down away from the gunshots and looking at Vincent with a great amount of concern. "What just happened? Why are your eyes like that?" He asked Vincent, having to yell through the noise.

Vincent blinked hard. "Where the fuck did you come from?" Is all he could get out.

Five rolled his eyes. "Handler was a trap."

"Oh. Yeah. No shit," Vincent spoke weakly. "What do we do?"

"Five! I thought you bailed on us!" Luther said loudly.

"Had an errand to run." Five responded. "This is not good." He added, gesturing to the gunfire.

"You know these guys?" Asked Diego.

"Yeah, I do." Five agreed.

"And?" Diego asked.

Vincent looked over when Five did, chuckling breathlessly. "We're screwed," Five said, at the same time that Vincent said "We're fucked."

Diego threw a couple of knives at some of the shooters, but Vincent could only focus on the ache in his head. Klaus ran in after too, yelling something unintelligible. And Five— Five teleported onto one of the shooters, wrangling a gun away from him.

Vincent managed to scramble up, allowing the incredible amount of power he felt to flow out of him.

And flow, it did.

A large spark of blue came from Vincent along with a choked off gasp, and all he could do was watch as he drained five of the shooters of their energy.

Now, Vincent did not know he could do that.

It felt terribly odd, but so horribly nice that Vincent couldn't have noticed the fact that he had, in fact, been shot quite a few times. It didn't matter.

Vincent saw Klaus. He saw Ben. He saw the tentacles. He felt rooted to his spot, watching everything from an outsider standpoint.

And then he turned to face Vanya, only to find her already staring at him.

He quirked one eyebrow up. She quirked one back, still playing that violin of hers.

Vincent didn't feel any fear looking at her. In fact, he felt no fear at all. He felt a bit like a God. He thought maybe being the ender of the world wasn't so bad. It felt incredible, at least.

Vanya seemed to think so too, he thought.

Staring at one another was weird, but neither of them could help it. It was like looking in a mirror, a horrible fucked up mirror. They were bad people, weren't they? They weren't Gods. They were worse than that.

Their eyes glew white and their power drained and killed and destroyed. They, Vanya and Vincent, were the moon and the sun. And the sun always dies first, doesn't it?

Truthfully, the ache in Vincent's head had relinquished to a dull hum. He couldn't feel it anymore. He couldn't feel anything at the moment. He wasn't sure why. He took a step forward, and another, and another.

Then Vincent too was on the stage beside Vanya. Vincent was taller than her. The power around her was white. Vincent wasn't sure if he looked the same or not.

He hesitantly looked over at the seats, making direct eye contact with each of the Hargreeves siblings, staring at him like he'd just betrayed them all. Perhaps he had.

He looked at Five last, and sent him one two-finger salute that Five did not reciprocate. Five looked afraid, either because he thought Vincent was going to hurt him or because he thought he would have to hurt Vincent. Vincent didn't want to know which one was the correct answer.

The ceiling was crumbling now. It gave Vincent an excuse to look away from Five. He knew they were surrounding the stage. They were going to try something stupid.

They each ran at her, as if it would do them any good.

And Vanya, sweet Vanya, whipped her violin string out and held each of her siblings up, draining them of life the same way Vincent had with the Commission men. Vincent stayed at her side, watching for a moment before he made eye contact with Allison, who stood behind Vanya with a gun to her head.

Vincent grinned at Allison's frightened expression. He put one hand up, five fingers and a bloody bloody palm— hey, where had all that blood come from?—, before counting down from five silently.

At one, Vincent tried something stupid. He placed a hand on Vanya's shoulder and squeezed, letting out one pained sound as he managed to absorb a great amount of power from her, taking and taking and taking but also giving and giving and giving. He would keep her alive, even if it killed him in the process.

He didn't know he could do that, either.

At one, Allison shot the gun beside Vanya's ear. Both efforts resulted in Vanya's body tilting back, power surging out of it.

Vincent made the grave mistake of keeping his hand on her shoulder, and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly when the ringing in his head came back full force, so much worse than before.

He didn't remember stumbling off of the stage, but he had. His face was bleeding a lot, he thought. From his ears and his nose and his mouth. Maybe his eyes, too.

Vanya was alive, he heard. But the moon was hit, he heard the others yelling about. He couldn't hear so well.

He laughed a little to himself.

He was the sun and Vanya was the moon. The sun helps end the moon, but the sun goes out first.

Vincent didn't think there had ever been a story quite like it before.

•••••••••••••••••
A/N: it's been forever! im sorry! everything has been so stressful lately, but here we are!

this chapter. this chapter took me forever to write for something so short and chaotic. I do hope you enjoyed it and arent too mad at me yet. trust me, the next chapter is where the real pain comes in. but keep in mind! there will be a book 2. just keep that in mind. not for any reason or anything....

anyway! the next chapter (the final chapter of Book 1) will ALSO be coming out sometime today. So be prepared for that shitshow. the ending has been planned forever. like since the third chapter of the book.

anyway! I'm sorry for the long wait. I have been having trouble writing and being happy with my writing. I'm not even sure if I'm happy with this chapter at all. But, I digress. I needed to get something out.

have a good day. sorry if u read this book for a lot of relationship stuff and instead got yearning and painfully slow burn and pain. chapter 33 will be out sometime soon. ;)