"the only real problem in life is what to do next"

★・・・★・・・★

The old car screeched down the street as we raced back to the Academy. When we got back to the mansion, we all rushed to get Alison inside.

"Come on! Let's go!" Five ordered urgently.

Luther was carrying her inside the house. "I don't think she's breathing!"

"If we don't get her upstairs, she's gonna die," Klaus exclaimed as we called for Grace and Pogo.

Luther laid Alison down on their metal medical table.

Grace examined Alison's cut. "She's suffered a severe laceration to her larynx. One of you will need to give blood."

"I will," we all announced in unison. 

"I'm doing it," Luther demanded.

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

Luther had a look of desperation plastered onto his face. Alison must mean a lot to him.

"Hey, don't sweat it! I got this, big guy," Klaus stated bravely.

He ran over to the other side of the table and stood next to Grace. Klaus smacked his hand against his forearm. "I love needles!"

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

Klaus pouted, but backed off.

"I'll do it," Diego moved next to Grace and lifted his sleeve.

Grace nodded and turned around with a large needle in her hand. As soon as Diego saw it, he fainted and collapsed on the ground.

"Stick him," Pogo ordered.

★・・・★・・・★

Klaus, Diego, Five, and I all sat in the living room waiting for further news on Alison.

Diego paced and said, "The bastard that nearly killed our sister's still out there, with Vanya. We need to go after her."

"Vanya is not important," Five stated.

"Hey, that's your sister. A little heartless even for you, Five," Diego scolded Five on his emotionless statement.

"I'm not saying I don't care about her, but if the apocalypse happens today she dies along with the other 7 billion of us," Five reasoned.

I shrugged, "Five's right. We need to find Harold Jenkins."

"Harold Jenkins is our first priority," Five agreed with me.

Diego nodded. "I agree. Let's go."

We all stood up, except Klaus, and began walking out of the room.

"You guys count me out," Klaus announced lowly.

"What? You're not coming?" I questioned him. Now was really not a good time to split up. Everything was falling apart, and if we didn't find Harold Jenkins everyone would die.

Klaus averted his eyes quickly. "I mean, you know, no offense or whatever. It's just... I kinda feel like this is a whole lot of pressure for newly sober me so—"

Diego cut him off. "You're coming," he demanded.

"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 attempted to convince us to let him stay at the Academy.

Five rolled his eyes. "Klaus, get up."

"You can't make me," Klaus spoke in a childish tone.

Diego swiftly pulled a knife out of his holster and threw it at Klaus, almost hitting him.

Klaus jumped and sighed. "Oh, then again, a little exercise couldn't hurt."

★・・・★・・・★

After leaving the Academy, we drove back to Harold Jenkins's house looking for more answers or clues. What we found was absolutely shocking.

The man, who was supposed to be the most dangerous human alive, laid right before our eyes on a broken wooden table. There were multiple sharp objects including: knives, scissors, pens, and more that were lodged into his chest. Blood was splattered all over the dining room walls, and the entire house reeked of death.

"It's not exactly what I was expecting," Klaus stated as we all stared at Harold Jenkins's dead body.

"The understatement of the year," Five added.

"No sign of Vanya," Klaus announced.

Diego motioned for us to leave. "Let's get out of here before the cops come."

We all began making our way out of the house until Five paused. "In a minute," he ordered.

He walked over to the dead body and kneeled down next to it. Pulling out the small brown bag with the prosthetic eye, Five lifted the eyepatch that covered Harold's face.

"Come on, Five, what're you.." Diego trailed off and looked away disgusted.

Suddenly, I realized what Five was doing and gasped, "The eye is his."

Five pushed the eye into the man's socket. I cringed as it went in and made a 'squish' sound.

"Ugh, wow!" Klaus giggled.

"Same eye color, same pupil size," Five paused and looked up at me, "This is it! The eye I've been carrying around for decades, it's found it's rightful home."

"And they lived happily ever after," I awed as I placed my hand over my heart.

Five laughed as he took the eye out of Harold's socket.

Diego changed the subject. "We got the guy we needed to kill to stop the apocalypse."

"Yay! Let's go." Klaus started to wander out of the room, but Diego grabbed onto his shirt and yanked him back.

"No, wait. It can't be this easy." Five stood up and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "Look, this is the note that I got from the Commission."

Diego, Klaus, and I gathered around Five to look at the note.

"This is the note that says 'Protect Harold Jenkins,' aka Leonard Peabody," he said as he pointed towards the body.

"Yeah?" Diego questioned uncaringly.

"But who killed him? Who did this?" Five went on.

Klaus spoke up. "I have a crazy idea. Crazy, but why don't we find Vanya—"

Suddenly, Klaus's sentence was cut off and the scene around me changed from Harold's house to the Academy. Five had jumped us back to the mansion on the staircase.

He faced me. "Let's split up and look for Vanya."

I nodded an 'okay' and began walking in the opposite direction as Five.

After searching numerous rooms within the massive house, Five and I met back on the staircase.

"Anything?" He asked.

"Nothing," I shrugged. "I doubt she even came back."

The front door opened, and Klaus and Diego walked in.

"No sign of Vanya," Five told the two men.

"She's not in any of the rooms?" Diego asked.

"None of them," I responded simply.

Diego sighed. "Well, I'm out." He patted Klaus on the shoulder and began walking off.

"Wait, wait," Klaus begged.

"Where are you going?" Five questioned. "Vanya's still out there, and so are Hazel and Cha-Cha."

Diego turned around. "I know. I'm gonna get my things and then I'm outta here. I got some unfinished business with those fools."

I sighed and pleaded for him to stay. "You can't just leave now. Especially after all that we've done!"

"That's the point, kid. We are done." Diego motioned towards the fake eye in Five's hand. "We got the guy; we stopped the apocalypse. There's nothing more to do."

As Diego walked away, I thought about what he had just said. Was he right? Is everything really over now?

I couldn't wrap my head around the possibility of our end-of-world problem not being a problem anymore. It just seemed too easy. 

Five addressed Klaus, "Hey, did Dad say anything about the apocalypse when you spoke to him?"

He thought for a moment before shrugging, so Five asked another question. "Any clues as to how it happened?"

"No. No clues," Klaus pondered. "Truly terrific shave! But no clues."

I laughed softly at his ridiculousness, while Five rolled his eyes and began walking away swiftly. I followed him down the steps as Klaus began talking about something else. "You know, come to think of it, he did mention something about my potential, and how I've barely scratched the surface of my—"

"How did he know about the apocalypse?" Five interrupted.

"I don't know, but listen," Klaus continued with his story. "This whole jumping through time thing of yours, how did you know how to do that?"

We all paused at the bottom of the steps in the foyer of the house.

"I didn't," Five exclaimed, a hint of anger present in his voice. "You'd realize that if you were actually sober."

"Hey, I am sober! I've been sober for almost 2 days now," Klaus objected.

Five scoffed. "Yeah, 2 days."

"It feels like 45 years," Klaus agonized.

"Who are you kidding, Klaus? I've seen you fidgeting all day," Five remarked.

Klaus crossed his arms and stepped forward. "Well, I guess we're both fighting our addictions, then."

"I'm not an addict," Five stated.

"Yeah, you are. You're addicted the a drug called: the apocalypse," Klaus accused Five.

"You're wrong," Five denied with a slight tremble in his voice. 

Klaus chuckled sarcastically. "First sign: Denial."

He turned on his heel and was about to walk away, but Five teleported in front of him.

Five pointed his finger at Klaus and spoke in an menacing tone. "You and I, we're not the same."

"I've seen that look in the eye of someone who doesn't know who they are without their high anymore." Klaus placed him hands across his chest. "Trust me. You gotta just let it go."

I watched the two brothers glare at each other. Without looking away, Five pulled the prosthetic eye out of his pocket, and threw it across the room. The glass shattered all over the floor in tiny pieces.

"Figuratively, but yeah, that works too," Klaus announced, taken aback by his reaction.

Five stormed out of the room and walked over to the bar in the living room. I followed him and sat down on a stool next to him hesitantly.