Nothing but weird looks came from everyone in the room, and they were all looking at Astrid. It was like all the anger and judgment they aimed at Viktor had now transferred to her. Sure, the majority of them hadn't seen Astrid's dark side come out in a very long time. But nothing could've prepared them for the almost murders that took place. Viktor ran upstairs to hide from the embarrassment, and Luther just tried disassociating and acted like it didn't happen. But he couldn't shake off the suffocating feeling as his throat tightened and he begged for air.

And Astrid... where to even begin with her? Every time she caught someone watching her, they stared for a few seconds before looking at something else. Just being in the same room with the person who triggered her demons made her very uncomfortable. And after having sat in the bath of awkward silence for too long, she got up and left the room. She had no specific place she hoped to hide, but she found herself back in the theater room and started stress-eating her way through two bags of popcorn.

The food did fill part of the void inside her, but the darker shadows continued to whisper in her ears, trying to turn her back into one of them, she curled into a ball and tried covering her ears. "Stop! Leave me alone!" She pleaded, squirming on the floor like a fish out of water. "Don't hold back now, Astrid. Everyone knows who you really are!" One of them hissed. "They all think you're a monster!" Another cackled.

"No! No, I'm not!" The Shadow Girl shook her head, hands running through her hair with frustration. The darker shadows continued taunting her, saying she didn't have the guts to hurt her family and that she would always be that scared little girl too afraid to reveal her potential. Eventually, Astrid had enough and started screaming at the top of her lungs, throwing her body upwards, crashing into the snack bar, and knocking popcorn all over the ground. Her screams could shatter someone's eardrums if they even set foot in that room.

Eventually, the anger dissipated, and she slunk back onto the ground, the shadows finally settled down. As Astrid's heart pounded inside her chest, she stared up at the ceiling, she could hear the sounds of footsteps echoing down the hall, approaching the double doors. "Ast, can I come in? It's me, Sloane," The gravity girl called.  Astrid wiped her tear-filled eyes and looked in her direction. "Y-yeah... come in, but there's quite a mess," The umbrella sniffed. Sloane opened the door, assuring her it couldn't be so bad. But the second Sloane laid eyes on the scattered popcorn and the scratch marks that littered the red carpet, her eyes widened with shock.

"Well, it could be worse?" She reasoned. But the mess didn't matter to her it was her distraught and contorted girlfriend that was the top priority. Sloane sat next to her, pulling the Shadow Girl into her arms. "I'm so sorry you had to see me like that," Astrid muffled. Sloane patted her shoulders, feeling her girlfriend's tears soak her pink shirt. "It's okay, sweetheart. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen family nearly kill each other," she admitted. This made Astrid look up with questioning eyes. "Wait, really?" She asked.

"Yeah. Ben always tried to instigate stuff with Jayme and Marcus. And most of the time, it'd end up with them fighting," Sloane explained. Astrid exhaled a breath at the thought. Maybe their families weren't so different after all. "Holy shit..." Sloane chuckled, nodding her head in agreement. "That was quite a sight to see at eight in the morning," the light brunette shook her head. "So, you don't think I'm a monster?" Astrid inquired. Sloane's hand gently caressed her cheek. "You are anything but a monster to me. You are my angel," Sloane whispered. 

"You're my angel as well," Astrid said, a tiny smile forming on her face as she leaned in to kiss Sloane. They stayed that way for what felt like an eternity, as nothing but their gentle presence filled the theater. They both knew that they'd eventually have to return to the others, but at that moment, they wanted to enjoy what could be their final moments together if their plan to stop the kugelblitz had failed. Astrid snuggled her head into Sloane's chest, feeling the gentle hum of her girlfriend's heart. 

Sloane ran her hand through Astrid's straight hair, taking in her soft touch. To Sloane, Astrid was like a rare diamond buried under tons of dirt and hard to find. But to her luck, she had been fortunate that their romance was one to quickly blossom. Even though they had a rough start when they first met, Sloane wouldn't have it any other way. Suddenly, a knock came from outside, and both women looked over to it with curiosity. "Who is it?" Sloane questioned. "It's Ben. We're showing them all the... whatever it's called. The glowing ball," Ben sighed. "You mean the Kugelblitz?" Sloane clarified.

"Yeah, the kugel... whatever. Just get downstairs!" Ben instructed. Astrid and Sloane looked at each other with disappointment, not wanting the cuddle session to end. "Alright, up and at 'em," Astrid finally had the strength to get up. She couldn't let Allison see the rage and sadness-filled aftermath of their fight. She had to be the composed and unbreakable woman she longed to be. Sloane and Astrid walked back into the living room, where everyone was waiting expectantly. Astrid tried not to lock eyes with Allison, but her wandering eyes made it nearly impossible to avoid her.

Once Viktor arrived, they all went down the narrow staircase into the basement. As they rounded the corner, there it was-the ball of lightning and instant death. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Fei asked them. "So, that's what took Stanley," Lila muttered. "Along with a few other billion people," Fei added. Lila shook her head as she carefully walked around the glowing ball. "Yeah, who I didn't know and don't care about," Fei scoffed at the comment, sarcastically going along with Lila and saying this was all about her.

"I'm not saying it's all about me. It's just why should I care about a bunch of people I don't even know? The one person I cared about is Stanley," Lila spoke with brutal honesty. "All of us are irrelevant. This thing's gonna take the whole damn universe," Five spoke up. "What's it made of?" "Micro black holes collapsing at increasingly short intervals," Sloane answered. Five continued his series of questions, wondering why they weren't being pulled into it. To which, Sloane didn't have a clear answer for that. "All we know is that you shouldn't exist here, and neither should this,"

"An impossibility for an impossibility. The universe is a sucker for balance," Five nodded. "Grace has been tracking the waves. The next one is due in three hours," Fei said. "Now, how do we go about this? How do we get rid of it?" Astrid inquired. "We trap it," Sloane answered. Five then started asking all these weird questions about the Kugelblitz. But they weren't your typical average questions. To Astrid and the rest of the Hargreeves, he and Sloane seemed to be speaking scientific gibberish.

Astrid didn't know what to think. It sounded so fascinating yet so confusing. "Should I be finding this hot?" Lila asked. "No," Diego and Astrid spoke at the same time, but with the blonde had a grin on her face. Whereas Diego just rolled his eyes. "What do you think, Five?" Allison asked, finally piping up after moments of endless silence. "Could work, or we could all die horribly," Five responded. Eventually, the Umbrellas agreed to "Trap the kugelblitz," The only problem with this was they needed the right people.

"Then for this to work, we'll need Sloane, Lila, Christopher, and-" Before Fei could finish her sentence, Allison interrupted, guessing that the fourth person was Viktor. "Of course, it's always him," Allison sighed. Astrid shot her sister a dirty glance, watching as Allison went back upstairs and away from the ensuing problem. "Viktor, Lila, you guys to keep up your strength. You guys take it easy for a while, and we'll call you when we're ready. The same goes for you too, Sloane and Chris," Fei instructed. Taking Astrid's hand, Sloane and the rest of the small group nodded before returning upstairs.

~~~~~~~~

When the time came for the kugelblitz to meet its end, Astrid and her siblings watched as the group gathered around, or in Sloane and Christopher's case, floated above the kugelblitz, ready for instruction. "Okay, how do we start?" Viktor questioned. "Have you ever moved a nest of bees?" Sloane asked. "No, 'cause that's weird," Viktor quirked an eyebrow. Sloane elaborated on her question, telling them they couldn't just pick up the nest and said they'd have to build a box around it to keep the bees inside calm and then trap it. She looked to Christopher as he chattered, explaining in his cubic language how he'd be the box in this scenario.

"Exactly, Chris. Everyone ready?" Sloane asked. Lila and Viktor both nodded their heads. "One of those black holes inside is vibrating at a different rate. Whatever happens, don't let them speed up or change," Fei told them. One by one, Viktor and Lila started to create a forcefield around the kugelblitz, and Sloane slowly started to shrink the kugelblitz inch by inch, and this sparked a lot of interest in the rest of the Hargreeves. "What is she doing?" Astrid asked Ben, gesturing to Sloane. "She's using her own gravity to condense it," Ben answered.

"That's pretty cool, huh?" Luther smiled at Ast. "Seeing your girl in action?" Astrid could feel her cheeks glow with a soft pink under the orange light, and she slowly nodded at her brother. A while later, the sounds of heels clacking against concrete and soft humming filled the corridor leading into the basement. And at the bottom of the steps stood Grace, and while they couldn't see what she was holding clearly, to Astrid it looked like either a pistol or something far more dangerous. "You didn't tell me you were building a prison for God," Grace quivered.

She stepped closer to them, the glow of her missing eye illuminated her face the closer she got. "You have no right to do that!" "We're a little busy here, Grace!" Astrid called out to her. But that was not the response that Grace was looking for. Suddenly, a loud blowing noise caught their attention and it was when they all realized Grace had gotten her hands on a blowtorch. "The day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption hath come!" She chanted. Quicker than bunnies, the Sparrows and Umbrellas ducked for cover as Grace flung her blowtorch around, ropes of flames filled the majority of the basement while Sloane kept Viktor, Lila, and Christopher focused on the Kugelblitz.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Astrid hiding behind one of the brick pillars scared, and unsure what to do. Hell, everyone was unsure what to do. They never dealt with a flamethrowing maniac before. "Hey, mom, mom, mom," Diego held up his hands. "It's Diego. Please, we don't want to hurt you," He spoke calmly, despite his heart beating faster and faster against his ribcage. "The day of vengeance was in my heart..." Grace aimed her flamethrower at Diego, and just as the flames started coming for him, he hid back behind the pillar, only the sleeve of his shirt catching fire.

Out of the corner of her pillar, Astrid looked over to where Five was hiding, seemingly waiting for the right moment to blindside Grace. Astrid whistled over to him, a tiny idea sparking inside her head. "We come at her from behind, you teleport her out of the basement, and I'll snatch the flamethrower from her," Astrid explained over the continued expulsion of flames. Five gave her a quick thumbs up, and on the silent count of three, they both teleported behind her. And like Astrid had planned, she grabbed the flamethrower, aiming the nozzle at the stack of suitcases farthest from her siblings.

Silence filled the basement as Five teleported Grace out, and the Sparrows and Umbrellas poked their heads out from the pillars, hoping one part of their nightmare was over. Astrid nodded to them their answer and they returned to the others, where the kugelblitz was about the size of a grapefruit. "Christopher, now!" Sloane looked to her cubic brother. Christopher immediately broke himself into small pieces, each pointing directly at the kugelblitz and swirling around it.

Everyone gathered around as they watched the final stage of their plan put into action. Sloane returned to the ground, her powers continuing to shrink the kugelblitz until it was like a tiny pea of destruction. With Sloane's silent nod, Christopher put himself back together, containing the kugelblitz inside him. Lila, Sloane, and Viktor's powers waned, and they all panted and tried to catch their breath.

Christopher shuddered as his cubic body adjusted to the powerful force within him. The next kugelwave was due in just a matter of seconds, and this would either save what was left of their world or kill them all instantly. "Did it work?" Five asked as he jumped back to the basement. "Next kugelwave in three... two... one..." Sloane counted, taking ahold of Astrid's hand. Astrid was tempted to close her eyes just in case, but her eyes stayed glued open, eyeing Christopher as he finally stilled. To their luck, the kugelwave became a minor case of flatulence from the cube.

Sloane gasped as she looked at Astrid, who was in just as much shock as her. "Oh my god, we did it!" Sloane sighed with relief, embracing Astrid and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. Maybe there was a future for them after all!