▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅
❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀʀᴋᴇʀ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚  ▎❛ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴅᴇᴄᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴡɴ
ᴡɪᴛʜ ʙᴜʟʟᴇᴛ ᴄᴀsɪɴɢs  ( ғᴀ ʟᴀ
ʟᴀ ʟᴀ ʟᴀ, ʟᴀ ʟᴀ, ʟᴀ, ʟᴀ ) ꒱


❝ OUR FAMILY'S ONLY BIG
ENOUGH FOR ONE
DISAPPOINTMENT, AND THAT
SPOT'S ALREADY TAKEN BY ME ❞

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"Ugh," Lila groaned as she walked over to Alexa and Five. "I swear you two are the sappiest, grossest couple on the planet. I get twenty cavities for every second I spend around both of you, together."

"What do you want, Lila?" the brunet asked, his voice tinged with irritation; in an uncharacteristic moment, he'd forgotten about the mission and had been treating this as a date with his girlfriend until his sister-in-law stomped all over it.

The blonde chimed in more pleasantly, "so, how worried do you think we have to be about this Cleanse thing?"

Lila's tone became infinitely more friendly as she turned to talk to the younger female, all but blatantly ignoring Five. "Hard to say. You know, I used to think the Keepers were ninety percent batshit but since I've been roofied with dodgy marigold and I'm shitting laser beams out
of my eyeballs, I'll give 'em fifty-fifty."

Annoyed that Lila had not only ruined their time together but was now also ignoring him, Five forcefully interjected, "right. Well, after this, we'll go back, find Jean and Gene. What do you think, Love?"

Alexa smiled a little at their persistent rivalry but before she could respond, Diego came over to join them, carrying three stuffed reindeer. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, you know," Alexa said offhandedly, "just who can aggravate who the fastest— Five or Lila."

"My money's on Lila for sure," Diego answered immediately, adding in a loud, conspiratorial stage-whisper, "do you know how annoying she can be?"

The brunette adopted a faux-offended look. "Hey!" Then, she smiled and added sweetly, "thank you, darling."

Five huffed, his expression becoming disgruntled. "I'm so glad my family has faith in me that I'll keep my cool."

Alexa patted him fondly on the arm. "Well, honey, you don't exactly have the best track record with that sort of thing."

Any exasperation he'd been experiencing from their current conversation vanished and he felt the tips of his ears warm. He knew that his girlfriend rarely used endearments because she liked his name— she'd told him as much, unprompted— so whenever she did use them casually, it made him more flustered than he would like to admit. To distract himself, he looked around the small fair for something that could provide a change in subject. While he did find one, it was not necessarily the direction he'd wished to go. "That elf. He's staring right at us."

Diego glanced around, his face scrunching in confusion. "Who?"

Alexa followed her boyfriend's gaze and saw the elf in question. She sighed, murmuring, "I really miss my old powers sometimes."

"That elf over there," Five pointed out for his brother's benefit. "He's been staring at us."

"Stop being weird," Diego scolded him.

He brushed off the other man's chiding. "Trust me. There's something up with this guy."

"Maybe he likes you," Lila offered, then she smirked at Alexa. "Looks like you have some competition."

But the blonde didn't even entertain her joke like she normally would've; her gaze stayed firmly on the elf, which clued Lila in on the fact that she was being serious.

The elf that had been staring at them jerked the handle to the ride he was monitoring, bringing the Merry-Go-Round to a stop. The carolers' singing dramatically slowed down until they fell silent. Around them, the villagers stopped what they were doing to focus on the various Hargreeves in the area.

The entire town screeched to a halt.

Their façade of a picturesque Christmas town rapidly faded as men and women dressed as elves pulled guns out from piles of presents and under their cloaks. Alexa grabbed Five's hand and squeezed it tightly, just in case he could still do the blink he'd done all their lives. But, he didn't think the middle of a fire zone was the best place to start finding out, so he simply used the grip to jerk her into motion. The four of them ran for cover, which wasn't easy on the snowy ground. Alexa's feet slipped several times, her hold on Five's hand faltering as his longer strides allowed him to get ahead of her. There was a flash of purple and suddenly, he was gone.

"Five!" she shouted, but her words only reached empty air. She forced herself not to panic— this felt uncomfortably similar to her flashbacks of him running away from the Academy— and kept her head low as she ran with her siblings.

Noticing that his sister was losing ground, Diego fell behind to keep pace with her, pushing her ahead so that he was between her and the bullets. He raised his voice to call out to his wife: "Lila, use your eyeball thing!"

"I'm trying!" She ran backwards, swinging her head side to side as she stared intently at the townspeople, hoping to activate her lasers.

"Where the hell is Five?" This, he directed at the blonde.

"I don't know!" she replied. He could hear the slight panic in her tone and how it shook a little on the last word.

While he would've given her reassurance any other time, he'd rather not be shot to pieces, so instead he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a nearby statue. They slid a bit upon landing but gathered themselves together enough to hide behind the cement block. Lila found refuge behind a nearby shed as the gunmen continued to approached them steadily.

Alexa's hands were clamped tightly to her ears as the sound of hundreds of bullets chipped away at their hiding place. Her stomach was tied in knots, more out of guilt than anything else— she couldn't do anything. If she'd had her old powers, she could produce a shield that would protect them from being shot at. If she had her old powers, she could transfer some of her protection to her siblings so they'd be invulnerable, too. If she'd had her old powers, she could create light-based weapons that would slice through the small, makeshift army.

But, she didn't.

All she could do was cower against her brother and be completely, entirely useless. Oblivious to her inner turmoil, Diego tried to get Lila on board with his plan. "Hey! Don't worry. I'm gonna go out, okay? You wait there."

Of course, she objected, "no, you stay! I'm gonna go."

"No, you stay. I go," he argued back.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Just let me make my own choices for now, okay?"

"I have laser eyes!" she shouted in reply. "I'm more powerful than you! Besides, you have your sister to protect!"

He scoffed in response to her first point. "They're not even working!"

"They're gonna work! I feel it!" Lila insisted.

"Why can't I just do something for myself right now?"

Despite the situation, the brunette rolled her eyes at that. "You'd never do anything if I didn't tell you to!"

Knowing their tendency to go back and forth for a while, Alexa uncovered her ears and shifted into a straighter position. "I'll go out!"

If anything, at least her declaration got them to agree on something as they both yelled in unison: "this isn't about you!"

Growing tired of their argument, Diego stopped bickering with his wife and extracted himself from the blonde. Before his sister could protest his actions, he leapt out into the fray. But he didn't just leap; he seemed to slow down mid-jump as the bullets pulled towards him, almost like he'd become magnetized. They spun around him in a deadly whirlwind before he landed, thrusting both arms out towards their enemies. Blood soon stained the previously pristine ground as he felled the entire force single-handedly.

"Did you see that?" he asked, awed.

But his excitement was short lived as he heard a final gun cock behind him. The elf from earlier had escaped Diego's onslaught, but he wouldn't live for long. Lila nailed him with her laser eyes, cutting him cleanly in half. "Yes!"

He turned to her, both proud and exasperated. "Really? You gotta one-up me like that?"

Alexa stood from behind the statue and grimaced at the sight of the elf's entrails, which were now steaming in the chilly air. She smiled at her brother, though she hoped it didn't look as forced as it felt. "That was really cool, Go-Go."

Unfortunately, her efforts weren't as noticeable as she'd wanted them to be and he frowned at her expression. "What's with your face?"

"What? Nothing's with my face!" She turned to let Lila take a look. "See? There's nothing wrong with my face!"

The brunette shook her head. "No, there's definitely something wrong with your face. Spit it out, poppet."

Alexa sighed and searched for a suitable response that wouldn't be the complete truth. "I'm just worried about Five, is all. Where did he go? When will he be back?"

The pair exchanged a look before Lila said, "yeah, that's not entirely it. Tell us before I make your mouth move for you."

Seeing that she wasn't going to get out of this with an excuse, she admitted softly, "I just. . . I felt so useless just now. You guys were out there doing. . . all that." She gestured vaguely to the aftermath of the fight, the steaming remains of the elf, and the splatter of blood staining the snow. "And all I could do was hide. My powers— my new powers—aren't meant for combat. I can't create shields or weapons anymore. I can't help the way I used to. I mean, what good are healing powers in a fight?" Her voice cracked slightly as she finished speaking.

Lila softened at Alexa's admission, stepping closer to place a hand on her shoulder. "We all have our roles, yeah? You don't need to be out there punching people in the face or cutting them in half to make a difference. That kind of gory violence was never really your style."

Alexa looked away, biting her lip. "But I want to help."

"You are helping," the brunette said firmly. "What if one of us gets hurt next time? You'll be the one putting us back together. You're a vital part of this team even if you don't have the same flashy stuff going on."

Diego nodded in agreement. "She's right. I mean, sure, you're not deflecting bullets or shooting lasers out of your eyes," he added with a smirk at Lila, "but healing is powerful. Probably the most important thing we need right now."

"Yeah, well, I guess I'll just have to get used to standing on the sidelines," she muttered, kicking at the snow to avoid meeting their sympathetic gazes.

Lila grinned and patted her on the shoulder. "Not the sidelines, poppet. Think of it as backstage. You're the one making sure the whole show doesn't fall apart."

Diego gave his sister a considering look. "Come to think of it, it's a wonder why you weren't born with healing powers. That's always kinda been your role in our family, hasn't it?"

This time, the blonde's smile, though still small, was a little more genuine. "Thanks, guys. I'm just. . . still getting used to everything."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

Things at the diner had also taken a turn for the worse. Ben did his best to ignore the hostile glares, but that left him only one other option: wonder about his. . . connection with this strange girl. She had gone about her job, taking care of other customers, but he saw that she glanced back at him, too. When the sound of gunfire reached their ears faintly through the glass, Rosie came over to her friend. "Gary, what the hell's going on?"

He stood from his chair and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We've got to get you to safety now."

"What? Why?"

The older man glanced at Ben. "We didn't want to tell you until we knew for sure, but this man and his family are dangerous. It's better to get you away from them as soon as possible."

As he started to push her towards safety, Rosie began to protest. "Gary, I don't know anything about him! What threat could he possibly be to me?"

Gary's grip on Rosie's shoulder tightened as she struggled to pull away, her eyes wide with confusion and frustration.

"Rosie, please," he urged her, his tone tense but protective. "There's more at stake here than you realize. You've got to trust me."

But the brunette wasn't backing down. Her gaze flicked back to Ben, who was standing across the diner with a vaguely annoyed expression, as if irritated by his own confusion. Rosie, too, had never been a believer of love at first sight— that's not what this was— but there was an odd sort of need that nagged at her to be closer to the Asian man, and any risk of being moved away from him made a fierce, inexplicable anger rise inside of her.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why!" she demanded, crossing her arms and planting her feet firmly on the ground. "If he's such a threat, why do I feel like—"

"Rosie!" Gary growled, trying to shield her. "We need to go!"

But Ben had already crossed the room. "No one's taking her anywhere."

However, before he could get close enough to reach out to her, another villager stepped forward and tasered him in the stomach. The electricity shot through his veins, causing him to stagger backwards. As he groaned in pain, his disobedient tentacles burst to life and exploded from his back.

The older man ignored Ben's pain and made another attempt to urge her from the room. "Come on. Let's go. Come on."

She yanked her arm out of his grip. Without fully thinking it through, she ran over to the Asian man with a worried exclamation of, "Ben!" While she was a bit disturbed by the sight of the appendages retracting into his back, it didn't put her off entirely. She did stop short, though, and didn't touch him. "What are you?"

There was the sound of a gun's safety being taken off and, when she turned back to the townspeople who'd she once considered family— if not friends— she found one of them pointing the weapon at the brunet. He gazed resolutely at the barrel of the gun and his tone was measured as he replied, "you can trust me."

"Don't listen to him," Gary warned her. "Come with us."

The tension in the room spiked as the villagers shifted uneasily, unsure whether to attack or back off. The air was thick with the threat of violence, and Rosie could feel it building like a storm about to break. She didn't know what was happening between her and Ben— why she felt this way— but in this moment, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she wasn't about to let anyone take her away from him. Ben was the first to rush towards the door. With a final glance in Gary's direction, she followed suit.

Her heart stung with the thought of all those years in their care and how easily they could just throw it away. 

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

"Klaus, you idiot! Start the van!" Ben yelled at the fourth Hargreeves as he and Rosie ran towards the car.

Klaus was talking to another woman and he turned to wave at them excitedly. "Hey, hey, I did it! I found Jennifer!"

Diego, Lila and Alexa came racing towards them from the other direction, his brother shouting to get his attention: "Klaus! Klaus! Start the van!"

Jennifer? Rosie thought, her pounding feet stuttering to a halt. She didn't think that was right. There was no one in the whole town of New Grumpson by the name of Jennifer. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Now that she'd heard the name spoken aloud, blinding pain split across her skull. She let out a cry of discomfort and clutched her head as she sank to her knees on the asphalt.

Ben's own feet screeched to a halt and he hurried over to her side. "Rosie! What's wrong? We have to keep moving!"

"I. . . can't!" she gasped, cradling her head in her palms. Her eyes were screwed tight against the sudden onslaught of agony; it felt as though someone were driving an anvil through her mind.

Klaus turned back to the woman, frowning in confusion. "Are you sure you're Jennifer? Because our Ben-er-ino's not the friendliest, so he wouldn't have picked up a random—"

Seeing that she was quickly losing her window, the brunette pulled out her gun and held it level with the man's chest. She met his gaze evenly. "You shouldn't have come here."

Then, she shot him point-blank. Klaus's body jerked at the impact and he began to fall. Alexa's stumbled to a stop, her mouth dropping open in horror as she watched her brother collapse towards the ground. Her words got stuck in her throat, which clogged up and kept her from screeching out the "no!" of terror that wanted to slip past her lips.

It was happening again.

She was going to fail her siblings, just like she always had. It didn't matter what kind of powers she had, the outcome was always the same: she came up short. That was why she was number eight; she was their weakest link, their most useless member, the liability that held them back.

Diego stared at his brother in horrified shock while the woman hurried over to where Rosie was still frozen on the ground. She put her still-cocked gun to the brunette's head. "Did you touch any of these people?"

Rosie let out a sob, more in pain than fear of being held at gunpoint. Upon seeing the woman in danger, white-hot anger rushed through Ben. He'd never been particularly protective in his life previously, but now the desire to keep this woman safe from all harm filled every pore of his body with insistent, irrational need. He acted on instinct and sent his tentacles flying towards the stranger. One knocked her gun aside, the other impaled her through her throat. Bright red blood spattered the ground in a violent burst. Some of it got on Rosie due to her vicinity, but she hardly seemed to notice as she rocked back and forth in an attempt to ease the storm in her head.

The death of the unknown woman was enough to shake Diego into action. He put his hands on his sister's shoulders and spun her to face him. In doing so, he saw that her face was white with fear, her blue eyes glassy and unseeing. He could see the puffs of her breath in the chilly air and realized that they were coming in erratic bursts. Trying to stay calm (which had never been his strong suit), he said, "Al, listen to me. You have to snap out of this. Klaus needs you. We need you. You wanted to know your role in the team? This is it. You can do this."

But she couldn't. She knew that even without trying.

It was too similar.

In her mind's eye, she saw Luther telling her to protect their brother. She saw herself trying to convince Ben just to do the job and get out of there. The blood. There had been so much blood as the tentacles ripped their brother to shreds.

And Five.

Five was gone, he hadn't been there to help them. He hadn't been there when their siblings shut her out. It was happening again.

She was going to spend years alone because her siblings blamed her for Ben's death— and rightly so. It had been her fault, because she'd been too weak. Her powers never worked when it mattered.

Her brother's screams echoed in her head, louder and louder, drowning out Diego's pleas. She could still see it: Ben, torn apart by his own powers, the tentacles he'd always hated turning on him. Her fault. All her fault. She had been too slow to protect him.

And now Klaus was next.

"Al!" Diego's voice was sharp, cutting through the fog of her panic. "Look at me!"

She finally blinked, her eyes meeting his. "I-I can't," she stammered, her voice barely a whisper.

"Yes, you can!" Diego's grip on her shoulders tightened, forcing her to stay in the moment. "I don't care what you think happened before. You can save Klaus. You can save him right now."

Her breath came in sharp, frightened bursts as she glanced down at Klaus, lying on the ground with blood soaking through his shirt. She felt nauseous, her stomach twisting in knots as she sank into the snow next to him. Her trembling fingers hovered over him and she tried to focus, tried to summon her powers, but the harder she tried, the less they responded. Nothing. No warmth, no healing energy. Just emptiness.

Desperately, she pressed her hands to his chest as if that would bring forth the necessary energy. Blood squished up from the wound as she put pressure on it, staining her fingers red. Ben's blood. Klaus' blood. Five was gone. Her fault— it would always be her fault.

"We have to get him in the van!" Lila exclaimed after giving Alexa a few seconds to get her powers working— or not. "She can keep trying there!"

Alexa realized she was crying only when she rose to her feet shakily and saw the world blur around her. The bitterness of failure in burned in her throat— funny, you would've thought she'd gotten used to it by now. Even though she vaguely saw Ben— Sparrow Ben, not her Ben— helping her brother into the car, it did nothing to assuage the emotions that clouded her mind. It didn't matter that a version of him was alive— he wasn't her brother (in fact, he hated her.) Besides, she was probably going to let him down somehow, too.

She numbly climbed into the middle bench, positioning Klaus in her lap as she continued her attempt at healing him. She didn't even register Diego starting up the van or how the engine revved as he ran down the Santa that was shooting at their other siblings or Baby Shark that still played on repeat. All she could see was his ashen face and hear his shallow, gasping breaths and that sound— that tiny groan— felt like a punch to her gut. He was slipping away, and it was all because of her.

Diego opened the passenger door as he pulled up next to their siblings. "Get in!"

For once in their lives, they did as he said without argument. Unfortunately, their scramble meant that Allison sat in the third seat next to Klaus and Alexa while Five took shotgun again. Upon seeing her brother's faltering state, she took one of his gloved hands and glared at the blonde. "He's dying! Why aren't you doing anything? You're supposed to be able to heal him!"

Allison's words pierced through the fragile composure Alexa had left, their sharpness reverberating in her head like the crack of a whip. She flinched, her hands trembling against Klaus' chest. She had failed Ben, and now she was failing Klaus. It was all happening again, like a nightmare she couldn't wake from.

"I am trying," Alexa whispered, though her voice barely made it past her lips.

"Trying?!" Allison's voice rose, her eyes blazing with fury. "Trying isn't good enough! He's dying because you're too scared to do anything! You're just— useless! What's the point of having healing powers if you can't use them when you need to?"

"That's enough!" Five's voice cut through the chaos like a knife, sharp and commanding from the front seat. He twisted around, his eyes locking onto Allison with a warning that made her flinch. "Back off, Allison. She's doing what she can."

Their sister scoffed but fell silent, the disgust on her face saying just as much as her words had. Then, an idea occurred to Lila. Since she was sitting in the seat Alexa had previously occupied— between Five and Diego— she reached across the physically-younger man to the glovebox where they'd stashed the Marigold. As she passed it behind her, Allison's anger turned into alarm as she objected, "no! He doesn't want that."

"You can't just let him die!" Luther pointed out. "He stopped breathing."

The blonde flinched at his tone, all too reminiscent of the accusing one he'd used just after the. . . incident. They were heading down the same path and once it became clear she couldn't save Klaus, they would all start icing her out. It would be worse this time because Five would do it, too. He would see her failure— the one person she'd never wanted to appear weak in front of.

"He's right. Give it to him!" Viktor insisted.

None of her siblings believed in her.

Why should they, when she didn't believe in herself? They all knew she would fall short; they were just taking the best course of action that wouldn't cost them their brother. If they kept letting her try, they would certainly lose him.

Allison hesitated for only a few seconds longer before she caved under her siblings' encouragement. "I'm so sorry, Klaus."

Silence fell in the car as they all waited with bated breath. Then, a miraculous moment later, Klaus gasped to life once more. His siblings gave him watery smiles of relief, though the man himself was less than thrilled. "W-w-what did you do?"

Mistaking his question for worry, Luther patted his hair reassuringly. "You're okay. You're okay."

Klaus feebly shook his head in protest, unable to ask the question in the tone he wanted to do to his weakened state. "What did you do?"

"I saved your life," Allison told him, her voice still shaky.

Diego reached over to the console where the stuffed reindeer were being kept and handed it behind him. Alexa hugged him to her with one arm, the other reaching for the toy, which she gave to Klaus, who absentmindedly held it to his chest. To help relieve the lingering terror of nearly losing their brother, Viktor commented lightheartedly, "well, that was a weird fuckin' town."

"Hey," Luther spoke up, looking over at Rosie, who had curled up against the side of the van with her head pressed against the cool glass, "who's the girl? Is that Jennifer?"

Before anyone could give him an answer, they were slammed into sidelong by another force. Glass shattered as their car flipped over. The change in gravity sent stuffed animals and other loose items tumbling around them while their bodies moved with the impact. The resulting landing jolted everyone enough to knock them unconscious— or nearly.

Before Rosie slipped fully into blackness, she was vaguely aware of two people approaching the vehicle. They were older, a man and a woman, who wore identical coats and glasses. They observed the scene apathetically before their gazes landed on her. She was hefted onto the man's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. As he turned towards their car, she made one last attempt to reach Ben, stretching her arm out towards him. "Help me. . ."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

Alexa was, unsurprisingly, the first to recover from their near-fatal accident. As her siblings slowly roused themselves around her, she could only focus on Klaus. He grunted slightly as he straightened, but found that he couldn't move far since the blonde was still hugging him. He tilted his head up to look at her, taking in her frozen expression. Doing his best to sit up, he shifted so that he could pull his sister into his arms, his germaphobia all but forgotten. "Lexi, hey, Lexi. It's okay. I'm okay."

"Oh my god, Klaus," she sobbed, suddenly finding her voice. Her hands— still stained red with his blood— fisted against his sweater as she pressed her face against his chest. She could feel the warmth of his body— his real, living body— and imagined she could even hear his heart beating steadily. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry—"

He'd been prepared to be angry. He'd been very clear about no Marigold, and of course Allison hadn't paid attention to what he wanted. But now, seeing his sister's devastated, guilty response to this unexpected turn of events, he found he didn't have the desire to blame her. After all, he knew how much Ben's death had affected her and it was obvious— even with his emotional obliviousness— that his almost-death was having a similar result.

After checking to make sure he was okay, their other siblings got out of the car to take in the damage. Five lingered behind, twisting around in his seat to watch the pair for several long minutes. Eventually, he followed the others to give them some space. As he stood outside, he realized that, for the first time in his life, he had no idea what to do. Comforting someone had never come easily to him but he was more than willing to be there for Alexa. But she hadn't turned to him; she'd wanted Klaus. He knew that was a perfectly logical response after almost losing said brother, but now he felt listless and. . . inept. He'd never been inept at anything (well, except time travel, but even that was different.) To take his mind off of this conundrum, he engaged in the conversation Lila, Diego and Luther were having about Gene and Jean.

Meanwhile, Klaus and Alexa had moved to sit on the edge of the open trunk of the van. He'd located his baby wipes and was carefully cleaning the drying blood from her fingers, both of them falling into a thoughtful silence. Alexa kept her eyes downcast, watching Klaus's hands move as he meticulously cleaned her fingers, as if he were grounding her in the present. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she had failed him—failed all of them.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again, her voice quiet enough so their siblings couldn't hear. "I know the Marigold was the last thing you wanted. I should've—" Her voice caught as she got choked up. "I should've tried harder. You probably hate me now."

"Lexi, stop," he told her firmly, shaking his head. "I don't hate you. I could never hate you." His tone was unusually serious, and for a moment, the trademark humor that was always there was gone. "You were trying to help. And I know you. You always want to help." He paused, his eyes softening as he looked up at her.

Alexa shook her head, tears welling up again. "But it wasn't me. It was Allison. If I could've just. . ." Her voice trailed off, cracking as she tried to hold back a sob. "I couldn't save you, Klaus. I couldn't save Ben. I failed—"

"Hey," he interrupted her sternly, some of the lightheartedness in his tone coming back, "our family's only big enough for one disappointment, and that spot's already taken by me. If you wanna fight the reigning champion for the title, we're gonna have to schedule something. Unfortunately, my schedule's chock-full with all of this world-saving business."

The blonde managed a watery laugh, some of the steeliness returning to her gaze. "Klausy, you aren't—"

He pointed at her strictly. "If you dare finish that sentence with 'the family disappointment' I'll be very insulted. I fought hard for that spot!" He dropped his finger and sighed. "But I also fought hard to lose it. Three whole years down the drain. Three years clean and sober."

Alexa took his hands in her now-clean ones and gave them a reassuring squeeze. "Just because you have your powers back now doesn't mean you can't remain sober."

"It's going to be so much harder," he replied mournfully.

"But it doesn't have to be. I've seen you, Klaus. Don't you remember the sixties? You were clean then and managed your powers better than you ever had! And all that stuff with Dad in the last timeline? Don't tell me you made me suffer his presence for nothing," she tried to joke, though it fell a little flat.

Klaus shook his head. "But what if they're harder to control? Lila can't activate her lasers on command. Even Five struggles to blink! If he's having a hard time, what hope do I have?"

Alexa noticed that he specifically left her out, which she was grateful for. She redoubled her efforts to convince him, pointing out, "it's different this time. Can't you tell? You're stronger than you've ever been. We're all together now. I. . . I care more; I'm not so swamped by my own grief that I can't see clearly. We'll help you. I know we don't use the p-word much, but you should know that we— and I think I can speak for all of us— are proud of how far you've come and we won't let you slip now."

The look of shock that crossed her brother's face made her smile for the first time since everything had happened. Words of appreciation were rarely spoken in their family thanks to their father's influence so when they were, it was clear that they were meant. Unable to respond verbally, Klaus leaned forward and pulled his sister into a hug, which said just as much that he had forgiven her of her shortcomings, however unworthy she was of his understanding.

She soon realized that she felt warm. Not just heater-warm or normal-body-temperature-warm, but compassionately warm (which was as best as she could describe it.) Glancing down at her arms, her eyes widened as they took in the golden light that was emanating from her skin. It washed over Klaus, then the car as it expanded from within her.

When the light faded, their siblings looked at the van in shock. Allison scoffed. "Of course your powers would manifest now, when it's just fixing a damn car instead of doing something actually important, like saving our brother!"

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

The group decided to split up after that. Ben went after Jennifer. Luther, Allison and Viktor were going to confront their father. Klaus explained to Alexa that, while he wasn't mad at her, he needed some time alone to process what had just happened, so she made him promise that he would come find them if he felt himself slipping. This left Five, Alexa, Lila and Diego to dig up more about Gene and Jean.

During the car ride to the headquarters, the blonde reclaimed her middle seat. She didn't say much during the drive but reached for Five's hand and held onto it tightly. Although he knew it wasn't exactly the right emotion to have, he was pleased when she curled up against him to rest her head on his chest— at least it gave him something to do, some way he could help her. For once, Diego didn't make a snide comment or roll his eyes at their interaction; instead, he kept his eyes on the road and tried to give them as much privacy as sitting next to them allowed.

Once they arrived, Diego gave Viktor the keys to Wanda so their other siblings could continue on— but of course not after warning him to take care of the van, especially since it was in the best shape it had ever been in, even before he'd bought it. It was only a few minutes later that Five pushed open the doors to the founder's office with the others following close behind him.

"Welcome to the Keepers HQ, courtesy of Jean and Gene."

Diego looked around the formal room with distaste. "Jean and Gene didn't give us much to go on."

"Stay focused for once, darling," Lila scolded her husband. But it didn't matter how focused they were; even a cursory search showed that anything useful had already been taken. "All the files are gone."

"Yeah, it certainly looks that way."

The brunet wasn't willing to give up so easily. "While you three stand around twiddling your dinks, I got recon to do."

"There's nothing here, Diego," Lila insisted.

He merely glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "Our targets left in a hurry, correct?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So. . . haste makes waste, mami," he replied, leaving the room moments later.

Lila wandered over to a nearby bookshelf and began to leaf through the left behind novels while Five searched another shelf. Alexa crossed the room to stand next to him and leaned into his side, causing the brunet to glance over at her, his expression softening with fondness. He wanted to ask her how she was holding up, but he knew that was a stupid question— he could see the answer for himself— so he waited for her to speak. She finally did, talking for the first time since Klaus had gone his separate way. "So. . . where did you go?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"During the fight," she replied, her voice faltering slightly on the last word. "You. . . you disappeared. I didn't know if you were ever coming back."

Oh. He knew exactly what she was alluding to, and the thought made his stomach twist with guilt. He set the book he was looking through down and turned to her, taking her hands in his. His green eyes were sincere as they met her gaze, trying to convey his conviction. "Love, I will always come back. I told you that we would stick together from now on, didn't I? I intend to keep that promise with every fiber of my being. Nothing will happen like it did when we were fifteen, okay? It's just. . . these new powers," he trailed off, sounding frustrated. "I can't make sense of them. I can't blink where I want to or even when I want to. It just. . . happens. I've never had that sort of lack of control before."

He was glad to see the relief fill her eyes, though he was wary of the curiosity that was paired with it. A part of him knew what she was going to ask even before she did. "That still didn't answer my question. Where did you go?"

"A. . . train station," he replied reluctantly. "I never mean to go there, but it seems that's the only place I can blink to. Trust me, it's not great."

But, of course, that didn't deter the blonde and, predictably, her eyes lit up with interest. "Oh! Can we go? I want to see it! Please?"

Five sighed, knowing that she was likely so invested in his powers as a way to take her mind off of Klaus' accident. Distraction was the best way she could compartmentalize and, yet again, it was something he could do to help. So, of course he gave in easily. "Fine. One quick look, then we're coming right back here. Got it?"

She straightened and gave him a two-fingered salute. "Sir, yes sir!"

As Alexa tightened her grip on him, he gave her a wolfish smile for her use of title (even if she had said it in jest) then, they disappeared in a whirl of purple, slipping through time and space.