ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴅɪᴠᴏʀᴄᴇ
'ᴡᴇᴅᴅɪɴɢ ɪɴᴠɪᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ'

The plan to save the universe hadn't worked, instead it had sped up the end of it. Inanna hadn't been at the academy to witness it collapse but she had been knocked off her feet by a Kugel wave as it swept through the city starting back up with its the destruction, and until Five returned to the hotel with the others, hoping that Inanna would be there, Inanna didn't know the true extent of the damage that had been caused — Not only had they barely made it out alive, they had lost Fei and Christopher to the Kugelblitz and if it wasn't for Five risking his life, Ben and Anna would have been killed too.

"I thought I told you not to have too much fun without Five" Lila said, watching Inanna as she struggled to place a bandaid over the gash on her forehead while Delaney held up a compact mirror in front of her.

"Oh yes, smashing my head on the corner of the bar is my idea of fun" Inanna looked up at Lila as Delaney pulled back her hair to stop it from getting stuck to the bandaid. "Next time you should join me".

"Wouldn't you enjoy that" Lila smiled as Inanna nodded.

Once the bandaid was secured over the cut, Delaney let go of Inanna's hair, covering the bandaid with her red strands that fell in front of her face.

Inanna balled up the left over rubbish from the bandaid and shoved it into her pocket as she looked over at Five who had his back turned away from the others.

Five was thinking, his unsettling lack of voice told Inanna that much, but Inanna didn't know if he was trying to form a new plan to save the universe or if he was accepting that it was over.

"So, how is it that we're still here-" Allison spoke up and Inanna shifted her gaze over to Five's sister who was lent against one of the pillars next to him. "-but the whole of the universe is going down the cosmic shitter?" Allison asked.

"Maybe we're just the last to get flushed" Viktor suggested.

"Wasn't talking to you" Allison crossed her arms over her chest as she looked away from Viktor.

"Hey, has anyone seen Klaus?" Luther asked.

"Or Dad?" Sloane asked, trying to recall when she had last seen their father.

Inanna shrugged leaning back against the couch she sat on with Delaney and Anna, she hadn't seen either of them in the time she had been at the hotel by herself.

"They'll be here" Diego said.

"Really?" Ben asked. "Did they... hit traffic?" Ben asked. "Look, people, we're alive because we're special, right?" Ben looked around at the others. "We're the only ones who can save the universe".

"What's the point in saving the universe if there isn't a single soul left to save?" Inanna asked, raising her brow as Ben turned towards her.

Anna nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "For once, I agree with her. What exactly is there left to fight for? Shouldn't we just be spending our last hours with the people we love?" Anna asked.

"Anna" Ben smiled as he pressed his hands together. "You are barely tolerable when there is one of you, don't make my life more miserable by agreeing with the homicidal tiny version of yourself, okay?".

"Keep talking Squid Boy and i'll join an alliance with her to murder your ass" Anna said as Allison raised her hand.

"Question" Ben pointed at Allison as he turned to her. "Didn't we just try to save the universe and fail miserably?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, it's because his plan was stupid" Diego said pointing at Ben. Allison hummed with a nod of her head. "I got a better one" Diego said.

"'Course you do" Ben muttered.

"We go with the large hard-on particle accelerator" Inanna furrowed her brows at Diego's words. "You guys do some science, and..." Diego clicked his tongue and mimicked a bat hitting a ball. "We launch the Kugelblitz into outer space. Didn't think I knew that, did ya?" Diego looked from Luther to Ben. "It's in Switzerland".

"It's 'hadron', not 'hard-on', ya moron!" Ben shouted.

"Oi!" Lila shouted to Ben. "At least he's trying, you shitty little squid. What have you contributed?" Lila asked.

"Actually, he did blow up half his family" Diego pointed at Ben.

"Oh, you wanna talk about family problems?" Ben asked walking towards Diego. "You know what should have blown up is your face on that neck!" Ben said.

"I wish I had a cake to hit you with it in your face!" Diego retorted, pretending to smack Ben in the face with a cake.

Inanna looked passed Delaney to Anna. "If the next Kugel wave doesn't wipe me out, please kill me" Inanna said, becoming increasingly more irritated with Ben and Diego as they began arguing in Korean and Spanish.

"With pleasure" Anna smirked, extending her hand to Inanna in front of Delaney to seal the deal.

Inanna rolled her eyes as she shook Anna's hand, causing Delaney to look between them, wondering what deal they had made while she had been failing to understand what Ben and Diego were saying.

"Hey!" Five shouted to be heard over Ben and Diego's bickering. "You guys done?" Five asked walking towards the others. "The universe is disappearing outside" Five pointed towards the large windows above the hotel doors. "So you can keep rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic if it makes you feel better" Five tucked his hands into his pockets. "But the fact remains that we are too late".

It was the latter. Five was accepting their fate.

Ben and Diego scoffed as they separated from each other. "Five, come on" Luther chuckled.

"It's over, Luther. We failed" Five responded.

"Come on. It can't be over over" Viktor said dropping his feet from the coffee table they had been propped up on.

"Yeah, come on, Five. We gotta figure this out, man" Diego said nodding to his brother.

"Okay. How about we take a step back?" Five suggested. "Look at the big picture here. Most of us have spent the last 28 days trying to stop the world from ending. What exactly have we accomplished?" No one responded at first, knowing that they hadn't accomplished anything as when they thought it was over, something worse occurred.

"Well" Luther spoke up. "We made some friends along the way" Luther smiled at Sloane next to him.

"Incorrect!" Five pointed at Luther. "You know what we've done? Nothing. We made things worse every single time".

"Amen to that" Allison muttered under her breath.

Five sighed, momentarily catching Inanna's gaze before she averted hers away from him. "Look, when I went to the Commission, I had a conversation with my 100 year old self. And my last words were, 'Don't save the world'" Five repeated the words that his older self had said to him.

Inanna looked back at Five, knowing that Five would have most likely told her days before if she hadn't had cut him off and shouted at him. Inanna had her reasons for not wanting to listen to Five then but now she regretted it.

"'Don't save the world'?" Viktor repeated.

Five nodded. "'Don't save the world'".

"And where was Red?" Diego pointed to Inanna. "You talk to her too? Cause I'm sure her 100 year old self would have slapped your 100 year old self for saying that" Diego said.

Five turned his head away from Diego, dropping his gaze to the ground. He didn't want to answer, but he could feel Inanna's curious eyes burning into his skin.

"She wasn't there" Lila said before Five could answer.

"Wasn't there?" Diego repeated with a shake of his head. "Then where the hell-".

"Diego" Inanna shook her head. She could only assume that if she wasn't there, she was dead and Five being unable to answer made her believe her guess was correct.

"What?" Diego looked from Lila to Five before he looked at Inanna. "You two found each other after you got lost in time, you expect me to believe that you weren't at the Commission too?" Diego asked Inanna.

"I'm dead, Diego" Diego shook his head, not wanting to believe her. "Right? I wasn't at the Commission because I'm dead" Inanna looked to Lila who nodded. Inanna nodded her head as she leaned back against the couch. With the amount of times Inanna had cheated death, she knew there would be a time when she wouldn't. "Always knew it would eventually happen" Inanna muttered.

Diego looked from Inanna to Five. "That's the stupidest thing i've ever heard. I'm not buying any of that. Red is dead and your older self told you not to save the world?" Diego crossed his arms over his chest as he spoke to Five.

"Is it?" Luther tilted his head, looking between Diego and Five. "Well, whatever we're doing's not working. All we ever do is save the world for a day, pat ourselves on the back, and then everything goes to shit again" Luther said.

"Yeah, maybe we're the problem" Viktor suggested.

"Oh, yeah. Us" Allison scoffed and Viktor shook his head at her response.

"So, wait" Lila looked to Five. "Your big plan is no plan?" Lila asked Five.

Five pointed at Lila. "Exactly. Conscientious objection. Why the hell not? We've tried everything else" Five said before his eyes found Inanna's again. "Look, maybe this is just what the universe needs. I say, embrace the apocalypse. See what's on the other side".

"What if it's... nothing?" Sloane asked.

Five nodded. "Then it's been nice knowing you all".

It fell silent for a moment and Delaney took Anna's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together as she leaned her head against Anna's shoulder.

"Whatever's on your bucket list, I recommend you do that now" Five sat down across from the others once he had finished speaking.

Inanna didn't know exactly how she felt. Since before she had arrived in 2019, she had wanted to get back to her family, but the ones that were still living when she had jumped into the timeline did not know her and had now been killed by the Kugelblitz at some point in the past days. Not saving the world and waiting for the end to come didn't sound like the worst thing in that moment to Inanna and she hoped that when she finally did go, she'd see her family again, though she doubted she would.

Luther and Sloane smiled at each other before Luther spoke up, breaking the tension that hung around them. "Well, on that... super happy note, we've, um...Oh, what the hell" Luther and Sloane stood up, unable to hide their happiness. "We've, uh, got a little announcement to make".

Sloane raised her hand up to her face, showing off a hand man ring that sat on her finger and at the same time she and Luther both said "We're engaged!".

"Kill me, Jesus" Ben muttered turning away from them.

Five sighed and mumbled "Idiots" under his breath.

"You are what?" Inanna and Anna said simultaneously. Inanna and Anna glanced to each other before looking back at Luther and Sloane.

"Now?" Allison asked.

"Yeah" Luther nodded. "Look, we realise the timing is less than ideal. But, obviously, it's now or never. Am I right, Five? Inanna? You two got married at the end of the world" Luther looked between them.

Five sighed as he glanced to Inanna who was already looking at him, both of them wishing that Luther hadn't brought them up.

"Don't drag us into this, please" Five muttered.

"What he said" Inanna said averting her gaze back to Luther.

"Okay" Luther mumbled.

"Whatever time we have left we wanna spend it with all of you" Sloane said as Luther wrapped his arm around her waist. "So we're super pumped if you would join us in the banquet hall at six pm for a celebration of our love, and the official union of what's left of our two great families" Sloane said looking around at those in front of her.

"Dress code is creative black-tie" Sloane chuckled leaning her head against Luther as he spoke.

"Show me the ring then" Anna leaned forwards, extending her hand out to Sloane.

Sloane was too excited to ask for Anna to ask nicely and extended her hand out to her sister as her smile grew larger on her face and she crossed the space between them.

Anna took Sloane's hand in hers, admiring the ring that Luther had made for her. "You made this?" Anna asked Luther as she turned Sloane's hand so Delaney and Inanna could see the ring.

"Yeah" Luther smiled with a nod. "It's a moon rock" Luther pointed at the ring.

"We can see that" Anna chuckled.

"It's beautiful" Delaney looked from the ring to Luther with a smile.

"Yeah" Inanna nodded. "You did good, Luther".

Luther was rather surprised by Inanna's compliment, but thanked her and Delaney as Anna stood up to hug Sloane. "As weird as I think this whole thing is, as your big sister, I'm happy for you" Anna said leaning her head against Sloane's.

"You're only two months older than me" Sloane chuckled.

"Two months, two weeks, two minutes" Anna shrugged pulling away from Sloane. "No matter what you're still my little sister".

Once Anna had sat back down, Sloane and Luther began handing out the invitations they had made the others, taking them out of the baskets they had placed them in to carry them from their hotel room.

"And you did all of this yourself?" Lila asked pointing at the small jar in her hand.

"Luther helped too. We stayed up all night" Sloane said.

"Dad?".

Reginald Hargreeves and Klaus appeared at the top of the stairs, their sudden return shocking all of them as they had assumed they had been Kugelblitz.

"Where the hell have you been?" Inanna asked sitting the jar that Sloane had handed her onto the table, the invitation addressed to both her and Five.

"Well, my tiny Sugar Mama, I have missed you too" Klaus tilted his head to Inanna as he pressed his hands together.

"Gather 'round, children" Reginald ordered. "Quickly now!".

Delaney and Lila looked to Inanna. "Do we- do we leave?" Delaney asked the question that Lila was about to ask.

"No" Inanna scrunched her nose up at the suggestion. "I'm not missing whatever shit my good ol' father-in-law has to say".

"The hell have you been?" Diego repeated Inanna's question.

"Oh, Reg and I-" Klaus pointed at Reginald. "We got tangled up in a whole father-son-end-of-the-world road trip kinda thing. You know?" Klaus said.

"You two are hanging now?" Ben asked.

Reginald nodded. "Yeah, we laughed, we cried, we played in traffic, and long story short, I'm immortal now" Klaus said.

"Whoa, wait. You're what now?" Luther asked.

Inanna's brows furrowed as she glanced to Five who looked just as confused as the rest of them.

"Klaus, have you gotten into the bath salts again?" Allison asked.

"I think the more pertinent question is, why are you all sitting around and playing with jars?" Reginald asked.

"They're invitations" Sloane said to her father.

"Nobody's playing" Luther stated.

Sloane extended one of the jars to Reginald. "Luther and I are getting married" Sloane said.

"All of space and time is collapsing and you lot are planning a wedding?" Reginald asked in disbelief looking at the jar he had taken from Sloane.

"Yeah, and, uh, the thing is, um" Luther stood up and walked over to Reginald and Sloane. "Space is limited. So it's kind of a per-plate situation, so, you know" Luther took the jar from Reginald's hand.

"Is this how I raised you?" Reginald asked. "To fiddle while Rome burns?".

Klaus stepped towards Reginald. "Remember what we talked about, Reg" Klaus mumbled. "Remember to breathe".

"Quiet, I'm on a roll" Reginald responded.

"Dad, have you been taking your pills?" Sloane asked.

"As a matter of fact, I haven't" Reginald said putting his hands on his hips. "And I can confirm that i've never felt better in my life. You thought you could dope me up and slow me down, take control of my affairs and squander my fortune. Well, Klaus here was good enough to wean me off that wretched poison" Reginald gestured to Klaus. "And now that the fog is lifting, I can see all your dastardly designs with a bracing clarity".

"You took him off his meds?" Sloane asked Klaus. Klaus nodded hesitantly. "What were you thinking?".

"He's the only one doing any thinking at all. All of you could learn a thing or two from this impressive young man" Reginald turned to Klaus.

Diego chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "The world really is ending! Oh my God" Diego laughed.

"As for the rest of you, your training is to resume post-haste" Reginald ordered "We're running out of time and we have a mission to complete" Reginald said.

"I'm ready. Let's do this" Ben said to his father.

"Let me guess" Five spoke up. "Project Oblivion?".

"What's Oblivion?" Delaney asked Inanna. Inanna shrugged, unsure of what Project Oblivion was.

"How do you know about that?" Reginald asked turning to Five.

"I heard all about it from Pogo" Five said.

"Now, there's a name I haven't heard in some time" Reginald muttered.

"And he confirmed what i've always suspected about you" Five pointed at Reginald.

"Which is?" Reginald asked.

"That you're a sadistic lunatic who's planning on gambling all of our lives in another pointless mission" Five said.

"And you'd take the word of a disgruntled chimp over that of your own father?" Reginald asked.

Five glanced to Inanna and Anna as the question that they have all wondered since arriving in 2019 formed on his tongue. "Why did you adopt Anna?" Five asked Reginald. "Pogo told me that it was because you saw leadership qualities in Inanna" Five turned his head towards Inanna as he spoke her name. "But if you were waiting for us to arrive, why did you need to adopt Anna when she was a baby?".

"Pogo was correct" Reginald nodded as he turned to Inanna "From the short conversation I shared with your wife I realised that although you may dreadfully lead your juvenile siblings, Inanna steers you" Reginald spoke to Five.

"That doesn't answer my question" Five said tilting his head.

"I assumed that my daughter would hold the same leadership skills that Inanna has" Reginald said. "But I fear that I was not only wrong about Anna, but I was also wrong about Inanna" Reginald turned to both Inanna and Anna as he spoke. "You have both failed me and continue to fail me".

Anna sunk further into her seat, averting her gaze from her father, who had spent years comparing her to Inanna, pushing her to be someone he barely knew. She could feel her throat tighten at his words, knowing that no matter what she had done or would do, Reginald Hargreeves would always find a flaw.

"It is an awful shame-".

Five blinked in front of Reginald who had continued talking, even after seeing the upset his words had caused his daughter. "Watch how you talk to my wife" Five threatened with a glare as Delaney took Anna's hand in hers again and rubbed her thumb over hers.

"Five" Inanna looked between Five and Reginald as they both turned to her again and she shook her head, telling Five to leave it alone.

Luther took a step towards Reginald as Five stepped back. "Nobody wants you here, Dad" Luther said. "You should leave".

"Hey, you don't speak for all of us, big guy" Ben argued.

"Feel free to join him" Luther responded.

"I see" Reginald nodded. "So this is what it's come to. Insurrection".

Klaus shushed Reginald. "That's not the kind of erection we're driving for here, all right?" Klaus said. "Everybody just needs to be cool. Clearly, you guys are on a different chakra frequency right now" Klaus looked around at the others before taking hold of Reginald's arm and leaning his head against his. "Hey, Pops, let's go have a nice cup of tea in the suite" Klaus suggested.

"Let go of my arm" Reginald said.

"Luther, Sloane. Oh my God. I'm beyond thrilled" Klaus said as he began walking backwards with Reginald. "You guys are gorgeous. Amazing. Send me your registry!" Klaus shouted, forcefully dragging Reginald with him.

Once Reginald was out of sight, Anna released a heavy breath that she had been holding in while Reginald had stood in front of her. Anna dropped Delaney's hand onto the couch, mumbling "Fuck this" as she stood up.

Delaney called after Anna, watching as she walked in the opposite direction to Reginald and Klaus, needing to get away from everyone including Delaney.

"Just give me five minutes, Del" Anna ran her hands through her hair as she responded to Delaney. "Please".

Listening to Anna, Delaney took herself down to the bar with Inanna, deciding that when Anna was ready to talk to Delaney, she would come and find her.

Five, however, had accidentally stumbled upon Anna on the stairs as he went back to his and Inanna's hotel room, holding the invitation jar that Inanna had handed him when she passed him with Delaney.

Five had thought about blinking away from Anna, but he believed she already knew he was there. She did. Five's footsteps and quiet mumbles about the wedding, had alerted Anna to his presence. And Anna, though she wouldn't say it, would have preferred if Five had just blinked away as the last thing she wanted was to have an awkward conversation with him.

"Are you going to the wedding?" Five asked Anna as he tucked his hand into his pocket and leaned against the wall.

Anna nodded as she lifted her head up from her knees, leaning back against the wall opposite Five. "Are you?" Anna asked.

Five shook the jar in his hand, rattling the small rocks inside it. "My wife my not be a huge fan of parties but she makes an exception for weddings" Five smiled faintly as he looked to Anna.

Anna chuckled quietly. "You really love her, don't you?" Anna asked as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

Five's brows furrowed softly as he nodded. "I don't think she realises just how much I do love her" Five muttered.

"She knows".

Anna kicked her legs out as she turned on the step to face away from Five. Anna patted the step next to her only flicking her eyes up to him briefly. Five hesitated at first but eventually sat next to Anna, sitting the jar on the step next to himself.

"Thanks for-" Anna scratched her jaw as she nodded towards where they had been previously sat. "What you did back there" Anna rolled her eyes as the words left her mouth.

"Should have tossed him over the banister" Five said earning a small laugh from Anna as she nodded her head.

"We could throw him off the roof" Anna suggested with a shrug. "Or- or we could set his suite on fire and watch him run out" Anna's eyes lit up with excitement.

Five shook his head at Anna's suggestions. "You know" Five turned his head towards Anna. "I never thanked you for helping Inanna at the academy, I don't know what we would have done if you weren't there" Five said.

"You would have had to kill her" Anna stated. Five shook his head. Five believed that killing Inanna would have been the last thing he would have done, and even then he knew he would have rather died than take her life. "You would have had to, Five. It would have been her or you. And don't say you would let her kill you because-".

"I would" Five turned his gaze ahead of them. "I'd die so she could live".

"And she'd die so you could live" Anna mumbled under her breath, knowing that Inanna would put those she loved above herself, the same way Anna did.

be prepared for a couple
of very happy finanna
chapters...