His Only Hope

Found the Sigil

The elevator bell dinged loudly, cutting through the fog covering your mind like a knife. The doors slid open, and the first thing your bleary eyes focused on was the body lying on the floor.

Klaus.

With a gasp, you darted out of the elevator, dropping onto your knees next to your apparently reincarnated brother. "Klaus!" you exclaimed, shaking his shoulders lightly as everyone else gathered around him, eyes wide in confusion.

"Oh my God, Klaus! Are you okay?" Viktor cried out as Lila and Diego reunited. You, however, only had eyes for your brother, who was blinking tiredly up at you. You lifted his head slightly with both of your hands, smoothing his long brown hair out of his face. 

"You're alive," you whispered in wonder, just staring down at him. Thank God.

He groaned as you and Viktor finally pulled him to his feet. "Sadly."

"Klaus," Allison gasped out as she jogged over. He leaned heavily on you for support, and you glanced around, eyes automatically scanning the room for Five.

There he was - his hair in his face, his jacket loose and ruffled.

"You look like hell," Klaus said, nearly falling when you let go of him and quickly walked over to Five.

"Why don't you try killing a guardian?" Five asked sarcastically, and then his eyes landed on you. He was in front of you in two strides, hands on your shoulders and eyes scanning your face. "What happened? I lost you." You could see genuine fear in his eyes, and guilt hit you even though it wasn't your fault - he must have been so worried when he turned around and you weren't there.

"You walked out the door, and then I did, and you were just... gone," you said haltingly, finding it harder and harder to focus. You frowned, looking at the cut on his cheek and blood smeared on his chin. You lifted your hand, wiping it off with a shaky hand. "You're hurt," you mumbled. His eyes sharpened.

"You don't look too good," he said, and you forced yourself to shake your head. 

"I'm fine. It's just... I think..." You bit your lip hard in an attempt to center yourself, your mind flashing back to the vision you'd had of Five. "When you said you killed the guardian. Was it with an ax?"

"Wait, we just killed the guardian," Viktor said, looking at you with a frown. 

"So did we," Ben added, and you all looked around at each other with a frown, your earlier inquiry forgotten.

"Klaus, I thought you were dead," Sloane breathed, clearly in shock, as she joined the group.

"Yes, yes, I'm alive and amazing, despite Dad's attempts to bash my brains in," Klaus said airily, waving his hands in the air. "But... tearful reunions later. What you guys need to know right now is that-" he paused for a moment, looking around at all of you dramatically before his eyes locked with Five's. "Dad killed Luther. And he locked me out of the tunnel." His voice was raising in pitch as he spoke. "And he rang that stupid bell!" He pointed accusatorially at the bell in question as Five strode over to where your father stood by the doors.

"What's your plan, old man?" he asked in a mock-cheery tone, spreading his arms wide. You followed behind him, struggling to keep yourself in the moment. It felt like time was slowing down with every step you took.

"We don't have time for that," Reginald said impatiently.

"You killed Luther!" Sloane shouted, her voice breaking with pent-up despair and anger.

"I had no choice. You refused to come together as a team," Reginald attempted to reason, and you felt fury fuel your body, oddly grounding you once more. 

"All of your stupid myths and stories," Ben sneered hatefully. "There were never seven bells or Norsemen! You brought us here to die! Oliver already has!"

Your eyes snapped to Ben in alarm. You hadn't even realized that Oliver was missing - just like that. Dead. And nobody was even crying. 

Except Sloane. But Sloane had already been crying.

"That's not so! Somewhere in this hotel is the key to resetting the universe. We just need to find the sigil!"

"I don't care about your sigil!" Sloane burst, clutching her stomach as though she was in pain. "None of us do!"

Oliver was gone. You should've protected him. He was Colleen's son-

"No, we barely survived that guardian with his stupid helmet and sickle!" Diego shouted, clearly riled up. You turned, surprised, as Five began jogging away.

"The... guardian we killed had an axe," Viktor said, turning to you in confusion and distracting you from Five. 

"Ours had a sword," Sloane said shakily.

"Shit," you whispered, locking eyes with Lila and Diego. The three of you all spoke at the same time. "There's one left."

"We have to go after it," Sloane said desperately.

"Because that worked so well the first time," Ben sneered as you turned to watch Five run up the stairs.

"Five!" you shouted, looking up. He was staring down from the railing, his eyes tracing the floor purposefully.

"Could you just keep it down to a dull roar?" Klaus was asking tiredly, but you looked at Five. What the hell was he doing?

His eyes locked on yours triumphantly after a moment, and he leaned forward, gripping the railing. "Hey, I found the sigil! It's the-"

He was cut off by something large crashing through the glass ceiling just in front of you - the guardian. It felt as though everything slowed down, your eyes trained in horror on the sickle it wielded as it chucked it at Five. He let out an agonized shout and fell to the ground, but you couldn't see what the fuck was going on-

Before you could react, it began throwing weapons at all of your siblings, slicing Klaus in the stomach, blowing something up just in front of Diego, and-

You gasped and fell onto your back as the beast hit you in the stomach with a ball on a chain. You desperately tried to suck in air, your mind replaying the moment it had thrown its sickle at Five. What if he was hurt? What if he needed you? And you were stuck on the floor like a -

"Eight! Get up!" Sloane dragged you to your feet, her eyes wild. Blood was dripping freely from her nose. You turned desperately to look for Five, but Diego was fighting the guardian. He grabbed the chain, dragging it toward him and dodging as it tried to cut his head off with the sickle. He punched him, hard, in the back - but his fists pounded the armor in vain, and the beast threw him to the ground, leaving him coughing up blood on the once-mesmerizing tile floor.

You watched in a daze as it went for Sloane next, raising its sickle to attack her. She held him off, but she was struggling - you had to help her.

But Five.

But Sloane. 

You finally lifted your arms with a grunt, ending your inner struggle, and formed a shaky force field around her. It hurt less when things hit your shield from the outside than the inside, you'd found. Maybe you could gather the strength to- 

The guardian struck your shield, dropping you to the floor, your forehead hitting the tiles with a loud crack and turning the world an inky black.