1996

"Children," Reginald addressed the seven kids as he entered the room.

"As you've probably noticed, Number Eight has unlocked a new part of their power. So, to ensure that you can accomplish your mission successfully, you will have to learn to see Number Eight, when you can't see them."

Luther, Allison and Diego looked at their father confused.

They had no idea what he meant by that.

The thing was, Riley hadn't told them yet that they could turn invisible.

Only Five, Klaus and Ben knew.

Five had asked Riley why Grace had taken them to Reginald's late that evening.

The boy hoped that he would notice something if he left the door open– but nothing.

After the thing in the kitchen, Ben and Klaus already suspected it.

"But how can–"

"No questions," Reginald interrupted Allison.

He then motioned for Riley to step forward.

They were kind of excited to show the others their new thing.

It took a few days, but Riley thought it was pretty cool to be able to turn invisible.

The child took two steps forward and although it took a moment, Riley became invisible.

Reginald continued, explaining to the children exactly what each of them had to do.

Riley turned around and looked at their siblings' faces.

And they immediately felt bad.

The others (minus five) looked with a mixture of surprise, horror but also… was it disgust?

The fact that Riley was still standing in the same spot and hadn't disappeared somewhere else, like Five, didn't seem to occur to the others.

Riley didn't know for sure, but they didn't want to find out either.

To be honest, the kid was hoping the others would find it just as cool.

But their grin disappeared from their face and Riley turned and ran out of the room.

Riley hid in the attic, arms wrapped around their legs, when the door to the room opened.

"Riley? Are you there?"

"No."

"Riley…"

Allison sighed and let go of the door handle.

She sat down next to Riley.

"Rils, we never meant to– we're so sorry. We were surprised. But you can make yourself invisible. That's so cool!"

"Really?"

"Of course. I mean, anyone can be super strong or rumor someone. But you're the human chameleon–"

Allison turned her head as Riley made themself visible again and grimaced.

"You know, I always saw myself as the shield of this group."

~~~~

Riley and Klaus were still sitting in the kitchen together.

Klaus told them how he was out all night looking for Luther– in the end, Klaus finally found him in a club.

But couldn't bring Luther home because he passed out and had this wierd and unexpected conversation with their father.

"That's a lot for just a few hours," said Riley.

"I had worse nights," Klaus replied truthfully. "Like the one where I–"

The dark-haired man stopped when he saw Riley finish their coffee.

He noticed that Riley hadn't said much about themself since they and Five returned.

They always asked him if he was okay, but Klaus hadn't thought to ask back– until now.

"You know what? Enough about me. What about–"

A knock on the door interrupted him.

"Hey. Come on, you two. We're going."

Five hobbled slightly into the room and leaned on a chair.

"Where?"

"To save the world."

"Oh, is that all? Great," Klaus said and wanted to get up, but Riley motioned for him to stay seated.

"You're still hurt," Riley reminded their husband.

"Not important right now."

"Not important? Five you are–"

"Fine," Five finished Riley's sentence before changing the subject. "So, Pogo said Dad killed himself to get us all back together, right?"

"Yeah, like that?"

"So it got me thinking," Five reported. "Riley and I had to jump to the future to figure out when it happened, but Dad, he can't time travel. So how'd the crazy bastard actually know to kill himself a week before the end of the world?"

"Well, you know–"

"Don't answer. That was purely rhetorical," Five interrupted his brother.

"Well, he's been telling us we'd save the world from an impending apocalypse, since the day he brought us," Riley recalled.

"Yeah, but I always thought he just said that to scare us into doing the courts," Klaus replied.

"Me too," said Five. "But what if the old man really knew it was going to happen?"

"Yeah, but knew how?"

"No idea. But the fact remains, his plan worked. We all came home. We're here, we might as well save the world."

"Oh yeah? What, like, the three of us?" Klaus wanted to know and stood up.

"Uh, well, ideally, no, but..." Five replied.

Riley rolled their eyes and also got up to follow their husband and brother out of the kitchen.

The three of them walked down the hallway and Riley was a little surprised when Diego ran towards them.

"Where have you been?"

"Jail," Diego replied.

"Why?" Riley asked as Diego walked past them.

"Got framed for a murder."

"Okay," Riley nodded.

Diego stopped and turned to his siblings.

"Where's Luther?"

"No idea."

"Haven't seen him since breakfast."

"Yeah. Two days until the world ends, he picks a great time to drop off the grid."

~~~~

They searched for Luther, until Diego remembered something and had an idea where they could find him.

"Look," Klaus said as they walked into the bar and pointed to Luther.

Riley let the door close behind them and the smell of alcohol and desperation hit them with full force.

The teenager and the others walked past two tables and stopped by their brother.

"Trying a little hair of the dog, are we? Hm?"

"Leave me alone."

"Give us a minute," Diego addressed Riley, Five and Klaus and sat down next to Luther.

"Okay. Come on. Maybe they'll brood each other to death," Klaus commented.

Then he and the other two turned to give Diego and Luther a moment.

They moved to a pool table, where the first thing Riley did was pull up a chair for Five to sit down.

"Look, Dad was wrong to lie to you. To all of us," Diego began.

"Look, I did my time. All right?" said Luther. "Four years up there, watching and waiting because he said the world needed me. Four years of nothing but soy paste and processed air because I was naive enough to believe that dads don't lie to their kids. But guess what? The joke's on me."

Luther took another sip of his beer.

"– I'm done. With all of it. With him. With you. With this family. You wanna save the world, you go right ahead. I'm fine to sit here and finish my beer and get my... buzz on."

"You want to turn your back on me, the guys–" Diego pointed to Five and Klaus.

"– even Riley, that's fine. But Allison deserves better than that."

"Allison? What are you talkin' about?" Luther wanted to know.

"Well, we got a hold of Harold Jenkins' police file," Diego explained. "Turns out Vanya's boyfriend is a convicted murderer. Who would've seen that coming? A little hard to trust anyone who wears corduroy."

"Wait, so– where's Allison now?"

"She decided to go after Harold Jenkins. Alone."

"You should have led with that!" complained Luther.

He then got up and sprinted out of the bar– followed by Five, Riley, Klaus and Diego.

"Jesus Christ."

~~~~

Riley rolled down the window with one hand while the other held the steering wheel.

Five sat next to them in the passenger seat and Klaus, Diego and Luther squeezed into the back seat.

"You have to turn right at the next opportunity," said Five when they were on the road for a good quarter of an hour.

"Thank you, Sweetie. I almost didn't see the big sign next to the street," Riley replied.

They turned right at the next opportunity and drove down the road at a steady pace.

"Hey," Luther spoke to Riley and leaned forward a little. "Can you go any faster?"

"Hurry them again, and I'll burn you with the cigarette lighter," threatened Five and Luther leaned back in his seat.

"This is an old car, Luther. You have to be careful with it. I drive as fast as I can," assured Riley.

They thought about it for a moment and then pushed the accelerator even further.

~~~~

It was already dark when Riley parked the car in front of the cabin, which was in the middle of the forest.

The couple and their siblings got out and ran straight to the door.

Luther pushed it open without hesitation.

"Allison! No!"

Luther and Klaus dived into the hut.

Riley, Five and Diego followed the two.

"Oh my–" Riley was startled and stumbled back two steps.

Someone had slashed Allison's neck.

The teenager couldn't see how bad it was– there was to much blood.

This and Luther was holding Allison in his arms, blocking the views from the others.

"Allison. Oh, my God. Allison. Please look at me, please–"