1998:
November 10th, 5:45 p.m.

Another fifteen minutes, Riley thought, looking almost longingly at the clock.

They had been in a bad mood all afternoon since everyone else could do whatever they felt like.

Only Riley sat at the old piano while their music teacher walked around them, paying close attention to every single note.

The middle-aged woman had a small smile on her lips.

Riley was her best student.

She was always happy to teach them, even if she felt sorry for the child and their siblings.

The children's father didn't seem particularly… caring.

The blonde woman pushed the thought aside as Riley played the last tone.

"Very good, Riley. You're getting better."

But not good enough, Riley added in their head.

The child dropped their head for a moment and turned to Miss Sheffield, who had stopped next to them.

"Would you like to try again?" asked Miss Sheffield.

Riley shrugged.

They didn't want to. But they would do it if Miss Sherffield asked them to.

Riley's music teacher nodded and decided to end the lesson for the day– the child deserved it.

Grace accompanied Miss Sheffield to the door while Riley remained seated at the piano and continued tapping on the keys.

"She's right," came a voice from the door.

Riley turned around, startled.

"Vanya, you scared me."

"I'm sorry. But Miss Sheffield is right. You're getting better."

Vanya didn't want to admit it, but sometimes she secretly listened in on Riley's music lessons.

She also hoped to be able to play a musical instrument someday, but first she had to find the right one.

Vanya sat down on the small stool next to Riley.

"Would you play some more? Please?"

The corners of Riley's mouth twitched upwards and they nodded.

"Of course. Any request?"

"No."

The child turned back to the piano and began playing one of their favorites.

Riley didn't know the name. Miss Sherffield played it every now and then when they had some time left at the end of the lesson. And maybe they played the wrong note sometimes.

But that didn't seem to bother Vanya.

She seemed to like, whatever Riley was playing, and listened attentively.

Riley was glad that Vanya had sat down with her.

Unfortunately, the two didn't spend as much time together as they would have liked.

So after they finished playing the first piece, Riley decided to play a second one.

This was a little faster than the first.

But halfway through, Riley stopped abruptly, when the vase that was on the piano, suddenly broke.

"What was that?"

Reginald entered the room, followed by Grace and Pogo.

"We just–"

"I kept practicing and Vanya was listening when the vase suddenly exploded," Riley explained.

"Nonsense," said their father. "A Vase does not just explode."

"This one did."

"Number Eight, watch your language."

"Sorry, sir."

Reginald walked over to the Piano and picked up a piece from the vase.

He looked to Grace and Pogo and then back to the children.

"You two can go," Reginald instructed Riley and Vanya.

The two children knew better than to argue and left the room as quickly as possible.

"What just happened?" Riley whispered once the adults were out of earshot.

"I don't know," Vanya muttered. "But nothing good, that's for sure."

"Maybe it was a ghost," Riley searched for an explanation and was already playing with the idea of ​​going ghost hunting.

~~~~

The car stopped in the middle of the road with screeching tires.

"Come on! Let's go!"

Riley turned off the engine while Luther and Klaus carried Allison to the front door.

"I don't think she's breathing."

"If we don't get her upstairs, she's gonna die."

Five and Riley opened the door and quickly stepped aside to let the others into the house.

"Mom! Mom, we need your help!"

~~~~

"She's suffered a severe laceration to her larynx," Grace explained.

Allison was lying on the lounger. Riley was standing around Allison with Five, their siblings, Grace and Pogo.

"– One of you will need to give blood."

"I will," said Riley, Five, Klaus, Diego and Luther at the same time

"I will."

"I'm doing it," said Luther.

"I'm afraid that's not possible, dear boy," Pogo told him. "Your blood is more compatible with mine."

"Hey, don't sweat it. I... I got this, big guy," Klaus tried to reassure Luther. "I... I love needles."

He stood next to Grace and held out his arm.

"Master Klaus Your blood is... How shall I say this? Too polluted," Pogo objected again.

"Move."

"Yeah, go on."

"I'll do it," said Diego.

He switched places with Klaus and rolled up his sleeve.

Grace turned to him with the needle.

Diego made a strange noise and collapsed to the ground.

"Stick him."

After Grace finished with Diego, she turned to Allison.

Five let go of his sister. He had been holding Allison's throat the whole time so that she wouldn't bleed to death.

The teenager took a few steps back.

Since there was nothing more they could do, Riley took Five to the bathroom so he could wash the blood off his hands.

~~~~

While Five changed, Riley decided to make coffee for themself and the others.

On the way to the kitchen, Riley walked past Klaus' room.

"I'm done listening to you! Just go away. Go away, please," Klaus complained.

Riley paused out of curiosity.

"I like the sober you," said a second voice that Riley couldn't place.

"Yeah, well, sobriety's overrated."

"Look where it's gotten you, though."

"Well, where has it gotten–"

"Klaus, is everyth–"

Riley opened the door and the words stuck in their throat.

"B– Ben?"

"Ri?"

Ben and Riley stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

Riley then looked at Klaus, who was just as confused as his siblings.

They opened their arms and tried to hug Ben, but Riley ran right through him.

Riley's smile disappeared from their face.

But only for a moment.

"It's good to see you again, Ben. I missed you."

"I missed you, Ri. But how can you see me?"

"I don't know. But it's so good to see you."

"Yeah, same. I could use your help with him."

Ben nodded in Klaus' direction.

"Why what's going on?"

"Klaus is looking for drugs."

"Klaus–"

"Ri, don't please," Riley's brother begged.

He didn't like Riley looking at him as disappointed as they did right now.

"I can't talk to the person I love. People... still don't take me seriously. I want to be numb again."

"You’re a colossal wimp," Ben commented.

"Oh, yeah, really?" Klaus replied, rummaging around in a stuffed unicorn.

"Yeah, really," Riley agreed with Ben.

"Hey!"

Ben snapped his fingers to get Klaus' attention.

"Life isn't supposed to be easy. Life is hard. Bad things happen. Good people die."

"Wow, playing the dead card again, huh? You need new material, bro."

"You are just angry because you know he is right," said Riley.

"And I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about Dave. You know, I'm tired of seeing you wallow in self-defeat."

"Well, then avert your gaze. Both of you."

Klaus threw the stuffed unicorn away from him and stood up.

"You're better than that. And Dave? He knew it, too."

Klaus sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. You're right. I'm... I'm... I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Thank God."

"Psych!"

Klaus threw the pills into his mouth.

Ben had enough and punched his brother in the face.

"Ow!"

The pills fell out of Klaus' mouth and stared at Ben in surprise.

"You just Patrick Swayzeed me. How did you do that?"

"Uh, I... I didn't. You did. I thought."

"You think so?"

"Klaus, I think he's right. That's probably why I can see Ben," Riley pointed out.

"No. I think it's you," Klaus contradicted.

"Me?" Riley asked.

"Yeah. It probably has something to do with your shield."

"My protective shield?"

"Oh, come on. The yellow shimmer around the house. The others are blind if they don't notice."

"And what do you mean by that?", said Riley, crossing their arms over his chest. "That this increases your powers?"

Klaus nodded.

"You know, I like the sober you, Klaus," explained the teenager.

Before Riley's brother could say anything, Diego appeared.

He wanted to talk to them.

~~~~

"The bastard that nearly killed our sister's still out there, with Vanya," Diego began.

He, Riley, Five and Klaus had sat down while Luther wanted to stay with Allison.

"– We need to go after her."

"Vanya is not important."

"Hey, that's your sister. A little heartless even for you, Five."

"I'm not saying I don't care about her, but if the apocalypse happens today, she dies along with the other seven billion of us. Harold Jenkins is our first priority."

"I agree. Let's go."

"You guys count me out," Klaus spoke. "I mean, you know, no offense or whatever. It's just... I kind of feel like this is a whole lot of pressure for newly-sober me, so..."

"You're coming," Diego instructed him and didn't allow any objections.

"No, no, no. I mean, I think we can all agree that my power's… I mean, it's pretty much useless. I'd just be holding you guys back."

"Klaus, get up," Five said.

"You can't make me."

Diego pulled out his knife and threw it so that it landed between Klaus' legs.

"Oh, then again, a little exercise couldn't hurt," he mumbled and got up from the couch.

~~~~

"It's not exactly what I was expecting," Klaus commented.

He and his siblings stood in a house and looked at Jenkins or Peabody's body.

He was lying in the middle of the living room and Riley counted at least two dozen knives, scissors and the like stuck in his chest.

"The understatement of the year."

"No sign of Vanya."

"Let's get out of here before the cops come."

Diego and Klaus turned away from the body.

"In a minute," said Five.

He crouched down next to Jenkins and tore off the bandage that covered Jenkins' right eye– or rather, covered the place where his eye would normally have been.

Then he took the glass eye out of his pocket.

"Come on, Five, what are you..."

Five put his eye in its socket.

"Ugh, wow."

"Same eye color, same pupil size," he murmured. "Guys this is it. The eye Riley and I've been carrying around for decades, it… It's found its rightful home."

"We got the guy we needed to kill to stop the apocalypse," said Diego and Five took the eye out of its socket again.

"Yay!" Klaus said happily and turned around. "Let's go."

He turned towards the door, but turned back when Diego grabbed Klaus by his vest and held his brother back.

"Wait, wait."

"This simply can't be this easy," Riley muttered.

They pulled the original message to Cha-Cha and Hazel out of their jacket pocket.

"This is the note Five and I... borrowed from the Commission. The one that says, 'Protect Harold Jenkins', aka Leonard Peabody."

"Yeah?"

"The question is, who killed him? Who did this?", Riley asked and pointed to the dead man.

"I have a crazy idea," said Klaus. "Crazy, but why don't we find Vanya–"

Five sighed, took Riley's hand and jumped back to the academy with them.

"– and ask her what happened?"

"If Vanya got away from this asshole, she might be headed back to the Academy," said Diego.