October 01, 1989

At the twelfth hour on October 1, 1989, 43 women worldwide gave birth to children. This was unusual in that. As that, none of the women had been pregnant that morning. Lady Nora Soraya, an eccentric billionaire and famous adventurer, made it her mission to find and adopt as many of these children as possible. She took in the children she felt sorry for. They're families, who didn't want children because they were afraid of the suddenness of it all. Nora got 23 of them.

Third timeline

Viktor walked lost in thought through the streets of the city in his new surroundings. He was frustrated. But everything was really going wrong. The Hargreeves family had parted ways again. Viktor had tried to prevent the situation from escalating. But to no avail, he had failed. (After all, Viktor was only the insignificant number seven). His thoughts were such a total mess that he wanted to erupt like a volcano.

After a while, Viktor stopped abruptly. The cause was music. Not singing, but a clear melody. It seemed to calm him somehow. Viktor looked up. He saw a trio performing a little street concert of sorts. The trio was playing quite well. So in tune. Viktor moved closer and listened spellbound to the trio playing.

A girl was playing the violin. She had wavy long brown hair tied back in a side braid and a few purple highlights peeking out. Her skin had a very light skin tone.

The second girl played the flute. Her hair was bright golden blonde, long and straight. It was tied back in a ponytail. Strands of dark blue hair peeked out. Her skin also had a very pale complexion. Unfortunately, Viktor couldn't make out the colors of the girls' eyes from a distance.

A boy was playing on a kiteboard and looked very well groomed. Somehow this boy looked familiar to Viktor. Very familiar. When he took a closer look, Viktor began to wonder. That was ... Klaus! Viktor almost didn't recognize Klaus. Klaus looked so different from how Viktor remembered him. Viktor didn't recognize the Klaus in front of him. Klaus and well-groomed, that was totally surreal.

(What kind of weird game was going on here?) What else caught Viktor's eye was. The trio looked younger, around twenty years old. But actually, they should all look about thirty. (Right?) Well, at least Klaus did. (What was that all about?) Something wasn't quite right here.

When the trio played the final chords and ended the piece, the people standing around listening applauded loudly. The trio bowed with smiles on their faces. Viktor clapped enthusiastically and out of respect.

The crowd slowly dispersed. The trio began to stow away their instruments and clear the space they had been using.

Viktor approached the trio carefully. "That was wonderful." Viktor complimented the trio. "Thank you for the compliment." the girl with the violin thanked him. Now Viktor could also see the color of the eyes of the first girl with the violin. The color of her eyes was a brilliant purple. Okay, weird. Maybe it was some kind of genetic defect or something.

"Can you play an instrument too?", the girl with the flute, asked Viktor curiously. The eyes of the second girl with the flute were a clear dark blue, almost reflecting the night sky.

Viktor woke up from his thoughts. "Yes, I can play the violin. By the way, call me Viktor. Viktor Hargreeves." Viktor said politely to the two girls and shook their hands.

"Melody. Melody Soraya." The girl with the violin introduced herself and shook Viktor's hand.

"Cecilia. Cecilia Soraya." said the girl with the flute and extended her hand to Viktor as well.

So that's what the girls were called! Then Viktor looked uncertainly at Klaus. "Klaus. Klaus Soraya." Klaus said. Viktor looked uncomprehending. "What are you staring at in such disbelief? The three of us are siblings." Melody tried to lighten the situation. But she achieved the opposite. Viktor blew a fuse. "Uh ... actually, Klaus and I know each other." Viktor stammered, confused.

Now it was up to the Soraya siblings to look uncomprehending. "No, I'm sorry, you must be confusing me with someone else. But that doesn't matter. It's still nice to make your acquaintance," said Klaus kindly. Viktor didn't know what to do. "Yeah, probably," Viktor said between clenched teeth. "You don't have to be embarrassed about confusing someone, as long as no one beats you up about it." Melody said.

Suddenly, Viktor noticed that all three of them were wearing something on their arms that was flashing red. "What's that flashing on your arms?", Viktor asked unsuspectingly, pointing to it. The trio looked at their arms. There was silence for a few minutes. Then the trio looked up again. Viktor looked at the trio questioningly. "What's going on?", Viktor asked cluelessly. "We have to go, we have something to do," said Cecilia casually. "Aha, okay," Viktor said slowly.

Viktor was still trying to come to terms with this strange situation with Klaus. (What had Five said about the whole issue again?) Viktor just couldn't think of it. "Excuse me? What did you say?" Viktor asked, snapped out of his thoughts. "I asked if you would like to come with us?" Melody asked casually. Viktor thought about it for a moment. "Sure, why not? Come on, I'll help you tidy up the rest." Viktor said politely. "That's really very kind of you, thank you." Klaus thanked him. "Not worth mentioning," said Viktor.

When they had packed everything up, they set off. "Maybe you can play at our next little concert?" Melody suggested. "Yes, I'd love to, if that's all right with you," said Viktor, a little unsettled. "We'd be very happy, actually." confirmed Cecilia. "Ok, I haven't played for a while and I miss it a bit," said Viktor honestly. The four of them were silent for a while.

A restaurant soon came into view. Viktor had second thoughts. He couldn't pay after all. "Don't worry, you're our guest today, we'll pay for you," said Cecilia. As if Cecilia had read Viktor's mind. Viktor smiled gratefully. Then the four of them disappeared into the restaurant ...

In the meantime

Diego and Lila were just in a store. The two of them were looking at baby clothes as they were expecting a child. But they had no money to buy any of it. The recent events were still very deep-seated. They had to find a job to keep their heads above water. Lila had the idea of going for a walk and browsing in a store and looking at baby things. It was a nice distraction to clear her head.

Just as they were about to leave the store, it was attacked by ... super villains? Lila and Diego looked in disbelief.

"Go on, empty your pockets and give us your money!" a man's voice shouted loudly. This man had smashed the door to pieces. But he was strong. It reminded him of Luther earlier.

"I heard the rumor ...", said a woman's voice. This voice sounded very familiar to Diego. (But that couldn't be true, could it? Couldn't it?) Please, Diego was wrong. But Diego wasn't wrong, he was right in his assumption. He recognized Allison.

"Cover your ears!", Diego said quickly to Lila. By the time Diego had said that, he was already covering his ears. Lila simply imitated him.

Allison looked different than Diego remembered. The Allison looked completely different from the one he knew. Then Diego recognized the strong man. It wasn't Luther, but Mark, whom he had met as Sparrow. But even he looked different. Much wilder and more brutal than he remembered.

Diego would have loved to intervene and fight to protect the humans, but he was defenceless himself at the moment. Diego and Lila had no more powers. They had lost them when the universe was reset. But Diego wondered one thing. (How could the two (now super villains) have their powers?)

They didn't have much time to think, because they had to jump to the side as something whizzed just past them. Diego looked up, it was that Sparrow Fei who had let a raven whiz past them, but she also looked like a real super villain. (What the hell was going on here?) Diego asked himself.

The two had somehow managed to hide behind a shelf in all the commotion, but who knew how long that would last.

Suddenly Diego had to scratch himself furiously. (What was wrong now?) Lila looked at Diego worriedly. "Diego, what's wrong? Why do you have to scratch yourself like that?" asked Lila with a nasty premonition. "I ... I don't know! Why are you asking like you have a hunch?" asked Diego nervously. "Because you have the symptoms of paradox psychosis right now!", said Lila. "That means what now?", asked Diego. By now, Diego was sweating non-stop.

"A paradox psychosis is best avoided. That means there's another version of you around right now, and it's going through a paradox psychosis itself. That's probably the super villain over there, who's also scratching himself to no end and sweating as well." Lila explained. Diego looked in the direction Lila had indicated, and sure enough. There really was a version of him. It was enough to drive you crazy!

"Well, who do we have here? A couple hiding. How cute," Five's voice mocked wickedly. Uh oh, it looked like they'd been found. Not good. Not good at all. "Shit****!", Diego exclaimed. "Diego! That's not the five you know! Or the others! They're all super villain versions that probably belong in this timeline!" Lila whispered to Diego with realization. "That makes sense, of course. Run!" Diego shouted curtly and dragged Lila behind him.

Even if Diego couldn't process it quickly enough to understand it. There were more important things to do right now, such as surviving. "Don't run away, we haven't even played with one yet," said the evil super villain version of Five.

Diego and Lila didn't even think about stopping, they just kept running. Even if that wouldn't help much, as they suspected that this version of Five could also teleport and travel through time. Perhaps that would also mean that this version of Five would also understand and recognize the time paradox. (Would it be a good idea to ask this version of Five for help?) (No, definitely not, that would be murder itself.)

Diego's rogue version was now vengeful due to the Paradox psychosis. He threw his knives around, directing them at random people. One knife shot straight at Lila and Diego. The two of them didn't see the knife coming. In the next moment, Lila, of all people, was caught directly in the stomach. (Shit! No! The baby!) Lila fell to the ground, breathing heavily. "NO!" Diego shouted, stunned.

His super villain versions had seriously hurt his love and killed the unborn baby! That was going too far. He would punch his alter ego now! Diego was furious. Nobody attacked his family. Okay, that sounded kind of weird, being mad at himself, but Diego wanted revenge. Maybe it was partly due to the paradox psychosis that drove him to murder.

Just as Diego was about to make his move, he had to duck because a knife shot in his direction. He tried to dodge, but the knife seemed to be following him. That was no good. Diego wasn't looking where he was going, tripped over something and fell to the ground. He was overcome with fear. He turned around and saw the knife whizzing towards him. Diego closed his eyes and waited for the pain. But ... the pain didn't come.

Diego cautiously opened his eyes again. He saw a girl who reminded him of Sloane, Luther's wife, only ten years younger, around twenty. She must have had the same power, too, because the younger version of Sloane was finishing off the rogue version of Diego. Sloane changed the trajectory of the knives and shot them back at the evil version of Diego. The two fought a fierce battle. ...