(chapter forty.) talking with hazel
❝ THE WOMAN YOU TORTURED... ❞

☂

"SHE'S GONNA MAKE IT."

Everyone rushed out of the car, Five and Klaus trying to reassure Diego as they went inside the Academy. Because of his speed, Paris decided to take his aunt back to the Hargreeves and while doing so, he had placed his hand on top of his aunt's neck and helped her heal her damaged vocal chords and anything else harmed. But because the wound was deep, the cut was not closing as much as Paris wanted it to.

"Where is she?" Diego asked, his tone loud enough that it echoed through the empty entrance. He rushed immediately towards where he knew his mom and Pogo were going to be at and when he finally made it to the room, Grace was seen holding a syringe that was pierced into Paris' skin. Paris waved at them but he stopped when he noticed his bloody hand.

"She's going to be fine," he said, clearing his throat a bit while putting his hand down. "I managed to heal any damaged vocal chords and she suffered a severe laceration to her larynx. Grace is taking out blood because Aunt Poet lost a lot and we don't want her to not wake up, right?"

"There," Grace said, patting the boy's thigh and taking out the needle that was on display. At coming to see that, Diego whimpered and fell on the ground, causing everyone to look at where his body now laid.

"Only he would," Paris breathed out, standing up. But because of the powers he overused, he stumbled, holding on the chair he was just sitting on. Five headed towards him immediately and everyone stared at him. But Pogo and Grace smiled a little as they knew and turned around to stitch Poet up and give her the blood Paris gave. "Thanks."

"Am I the only that wonders what's going on between them?" Klaus asked, standing between Luther and Allison. They also nodded and Five disappeared before coming back and had food, that he could find, in his hands. He passed them to Paris and everyone looked at each other, wondering why all of a sudden Five was being so nice.

They all ignored it, though, and continued to do whatever they needed to do. Allison and, surprisingly, Luther had stayed behind to keep a close eye on Poet as she hadn't woken up, yet. Her throat now withheld stitches and her shirt was still stained with an excessive amount of blood. The two waited for her to wake up, but while they were doing that, Klaus, Five, Paris, and Diego were looking for Vanya, only to find Harold Jenkins dead. What a surprise. As they all came back to the Academy, they all separated; Paris went towards his aunt, followed by Diego, Klaus went wherever Klaus goes when he feels at his worst, and Five, well, after being told by Klaus that he was addicted with the apocalypse, was now sitting by the bar, making himself a margarita.

"How is she?" Diego asked as soon as he popped into the room Poet was held in. She was on the bed, her throat all sewed up. He stepped closer and Allison and Luther stood up from their chairs and walked away to give him space. They stood by the doorway and Allison placed her hand on Paris' shoulder, rubbing it comfortingly.

"She's doing better than before," Allison answered. "Her breathing is okay. Her heart is beating well. She's doing fine and is going to be fine, Diego."

"And you?" He glanced at his sister for a second but she waved him off.

"I just got a concussion," she replied. "But we need to talk. All of us. It involves Vanya."

"Wait," Diego said, his eyebrows furrowing together as he looked to his side. Everyone looked at him and he looked up at them. "I just heard a knock. I'll see who it is. Take care of her. She wakes up, call out to me."

He and Paris walked off and headed towards the voice speaking with Five. But before Paris could stop the man, Diego had already ran off towards a man standing in the middle of the room, kicking him on the back. The man fell on the floor, clearly not expecting the hit.

"Diego, stop!" Five yelled and Paris sighed, walking away and sitting next to him. When he sat down he was offered a margarita, but he simply stared at the drink and Five nodded slowly. "Right. Still illegal."

"Get up," Paris and Five continued to watch the two fighting and it was grunts and cursed that were only heard.

"Before you're going to kill him, Diego," Paris started, his blue eyes glaring at the back of Diego's head, "you might want to hear what he has to say. After all, you seemed to have cut him off when you hit him."

"I'm gonna kill you for what you did to Poet," Diego spat out, knife in hand. Paris winced here and there as he watched kicks and punches being thrown. He winced even more, though, when he saw that Diego pierced one of his knives on the man's thigh. But he next saw black and realized that Five was covering his eyes.

"That's gotta hurt," Five commented as he inhaled sharply and Paris exhaled loudly, backing his head away so he could take a peak and see what was going on. But Five didn't let go and he continued watching what was going on while his hand was still covering the blue-eyed boy's eyes. In a matter of seconds, though, when Paris heard a crunching sound, Five had disappeared and had hit Diego with a glass vase. Diego fell on the floor and the man held his ear in pain. "I draw the line at biting." He walked towards the man in the suit. "Hazel, whatever you came here to say, I suggest you make it quick, before he comes round."

"I left my partner, quit the Commission, came to volunteer," the man answered and Paris was confused for a second before he realized that Five said "Hazel." So, this might be one of the people that tortured his aunt and Klaus.

"For what?"

"To help stop the apocalypse."

Five chuckled, taking a sip from his margarita. Paris and the man glanced at him. "Hm."

"What on earth could be so funny to you right now?"

"Before I answer that," Five started, "why do you wanna help us?"

"Let's just say I have a vested interest in a doughnut shop," Paris looked at him weirdly, taking in his words while trying to understand them.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, pal, but you're a day late and a dollar short. The fact that you're here right now, means, without a shadow of doubt, that the apocalypse is over."

"Really? How do you know?"

"The mark is dead," Five answered while glancing at Paris who did so, too. "Found him this morning. You were the last known unknown left in the equation."

Hazel chuckled. "Shit. Really?"

"Mm-hmm," Five hummed before continuing. "And if you're out, then Hellrider ain't riding."

"Oh!" Hazel was beaming with happiness as he breathed deeply, not believing the kid's words. "Alright." He walked off and sat next to Five, taking a drink of the margarita Five made. But his gaze averted towards Paris. "Who are you?"

"Paris Capulet," Paris replied. Hazel's eyes widened.

"As in—"

"Poet Capulet," Paris sarcastically smiled. "The woman you tortured and almost left to die if it wasn't for me who healed her."

"Is she okay?" Hazel asked, staring at the two and the two shook their heads. Well, Five shook his head and Paris nodded. "What happened?"

"Someone sliced her throat opened," Five said and Hazel inhaled sharply. And no one spoke after Five uttered those words and looked off, wondering.

"So now what?" Hazel questioned.

And Paris felt those words echo in his head. Now what? He knew that Allison and Poet needed to go back to working and he needed to go back to school. Maybe he should just be home-schooled.

He stood up, and walked away, his thoughts too loud that for a second, he was waiting for his aunt to say something and comment about them.

☂

"Holy shit!"

When Paris walked into the room Poet was held in, he never expected to hear those words. And he never expected those words to come from his aunt waking up while trying to stand up.

"Hey, hey, hey," Allison immediately headed towards her friend's side and grabbed her arms. "Poet relax. Relax. You're okay. You're okay. You're back at the academy."

"I had a horrible dream," Poet softly spoke and she closed her eyes, running a hand through her hair. And she placed her hand on her throat, gasping a little as she came to feel something. "It wasn't a dream, was it?"

"No," Allison replied, her eyes becoming blurred with tears before she hugged her friend. "You saved my life, Poet. If you wouldn't have moved me, I would've been dead already."

"Yeah, you're lucky you freaking idiot," Poet laughed before she coughed. She felt her throat hurt and it felt like shit. It did. It felt like a sore throat getting worse and worse by each passing day and it fucking hurt. "Where's Paris?"

"Here."

Poet looked at where the voice came from and Paris sped towards her, hugging her tightly. Poet could hear the shaky breaths he let out and she knew how hard this was for him. After all, he saw something no 14-year-old had to see.

"Thank you for saving me," Poet spoke in his ear and he tightened his hold. "Your dad and mom would be proud." He simply nodded, but it wasn't because he didn't appreciate her words. He did. But it was because he felt a lump from in his throat and he was afraid if he spoke he would start crying. Poet looked around and she furrowed her eyebrows. "Where's Vanya and Diego?"

"Uh, we don't know where she is," Luther replied and Poet looked at Allison. "And Diego is—"

"Passed out," Paris simply answered and Poet furrowed her eyebrows in confusion but ignored it and focused on the question in her head.

"Did you tell them?" She asked Allison and Allison's face fell out of guilt.

"I wanted everyone to be here," she said and she sighed while turning to look at Luther. "Vanya has powers."

"Powers?" Luther questioned. "Uh, I don't understand."

"I do," they all turned around and found Pogo standing by them all. "It's time for the last of your father's secrets to come to light."

Everyone was shocked by the end of the explanation of Pogo and how everything went. Of course, Poet already knew what Allison did as she still remembered everything from the day before. The day before. And it wasn't very long until Paris sped off and woke Diego up while alerting him that Poet was awake. And he also told Five, knowing how he cared for his aunt, and went to go tell Klaus.

Poet stood up from the bed and even though she wasn't supposed to, took off the needle pierced in her skin and her feet finally landed on the floor. She was helped by Allison and she stretched her back, cracks heard.

"That bed is so uncomfortable," she said. "But it is better than the ones my parents had."

"What did your parents have?" Luther questioned and Poet snorted softly.

"The floor."

"Sweets," she looked at the doorway and saw Diego there with a relieved look on his face. He jogged towards her and hugged her as tight as he could, though he let go when she patted his back as a sign that she wasn't able to breathe. He pulled away and held her forearms. "You're okay? Did you drink any water?" Poet shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but Diego didn't give her a chance to speak. "Why didn't you guys give her a glass of water for Christ sake! Her throat hurts and no one here dared to bring her water?"

Poet chuckled but she stopped when she felt the world spin around. "Woah."

She held on to Diego's arms and Diego caught her just in time when her knees gave out and she almost hit the floor.

"You need to rest," he said and Poet gave him a thumbs up.

"She can rest in my room," Allison said but Diego looked at her over his shoulder.

"She's going to rest in my old room," Diego said and walked away, making conversation with Paris as the boy stood next to him.

"Paris..." Five called out and Paris looked at him, stopping in his tracks. Five mouthed, "Tell her."

And Paris nodded, leaving everyone to question what Five told him.

"You're acting weirder than usual," Klaus commented.

"You're one to speak."