euphoria ➞ number five, tua [completed]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - I'M THE BAD GUY, DUH

"Came into this world. Daddy's little girl. And Daddy made a soldier out of me."

-

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE — I'M THE BAD GUY, DUH

"I thought you said you haven't been able to conjure anyone in years," Luther said.

"Ah, yes, I know, but I'm sober. Ta-da!" Klaus jazzed-hands. "I got clean, yesterday, to talk to someone special, and then ended up having this conversation with dear old Daddy himself."

Luther sighed, "Has anyone got some aspirin?"

"Top shelf, next to the crackers," I answered.

"Hey hey hey. This is serious, guys, all right?" Klaus exclaimed. "This really happened, I swear!"

"Okay, fine. I'll play. What did the old man have to say?" Five asked, his lips widening into a faux smile.

"Well, he gave me the usual lecture about my appearance and my failures in life. Yada yada yada. No surprise there. Even the afterlife couldn't soften a hardass like Dad, right?" Klaus swung the spatula around. "But he did mention something about his murder, or lack thereof. Because-"

I straightened up in my seat.

"-He killed himself," Klaus ended dramatically.

Luther looked at him like he was a maniac, standing up. "I don't have time for your games, Klaus."

"I'm telling you the truth, Luther. I'm telling you the truth," Klaus waved at him to sit down.

"Why'd he do it, then?" Five asked.

"He said it was the only way to get us all home again," Klaus replied.

Luther scoffed. "No. Dad wouldn't just kill himself."

"Ah, you said it yourself. He was depressed," Five looked at him pointedly. "Holed up in his office and room all day and night."

"No, there weren't any signs," Luther shook his head. "Suicidal people exhibit certain tendencies, strange behaviours."

"Like sending someone to the Moon for no reason?" Klaus pitched.

"I swear to God, Klaus if you're lying-"

"He's not," I said.

"And how would you know?" Luther turned to me as if daring for me to defend Klaus.

"Because I helped him do it," I replied.

"What?" Five stood up, pushing his chair back.

"They are both correct," Pogo entered the room, leaning on his cane. "Regretfully, me and Miss Zero both helped Master Hargreeves enact his plan."

"What?" Luther muttered.

"So did Grace," I added, digging into my pocket and showing them Dad's medicine and the poison. "Father's medicine and the drugs he used."

"It was a difficult choice for all of us," Pogo said. "More difficult than you could ever know."

"The drug use started in 2005, I developed the method with Haneul ourselves, all we had to do was serve the activation liquid when he wanted us to and he'll pass away peacefully," I told them.

"Prior to your father's death, Grace's programming was adjusted by Mister Haneul, so that she was incapable of administering first aid on that fateful night," Pogo continued.

"Sick bastard," Five commented.

I felt that was directed to me at the same time.

"So the security tape we saw?" Luther questioned.

"It was meant to further the murder mystery," Pogo answered. "Your father hoped that being back here, solving it together, would reignite your desire to be a team again."

"And to what end?"

I looked at Five. "To save the world."

His eyes darkened, "You told him."

"Oh, oh right," Klaus chuckled.

"First the Moon mission and now this," Luther muttered. "You watched me search for answers and said nothing."

Pogo looked down.

"Anything else you want to share, Pogo? Any other damn secrets?" He shouted.

"Hey, calm down Luther," Five said.

"No, I won't calm down," Luther exclaimed. "We've been lied to by the one person in this family we all trusted, and you-" He jabbed a finger at me. "-how dare you let Father do this?"

"Don't jab a finger at her," Haneul stood up.

I tugged his shirt and he sat down. "You should leave, I'll deal with this myself."

"It was your father's dying wish, Master Luther," Pogo stated. "I-I had no choice."

Luther walked over to him and towered above him. "There's always a choice."

Luther sighed, walking out of the kitchen as Haneul left as well.

"Guys, I-"

"I gotta think," Five muttered, burying his head in his heads.

"Damn, Zero, how did you do it?" Klaus asked.

"Arsenic and thallium, deadly undetectable drugs, and an unnamed liquid activation poisoning that we have yet to replicate," I said, pointing at the various vials and containers.

"Jesus, you've put way too much time on this," Klaus picked up a vial and peered at it.

"How long has that been going on?" Five asked.

"Has what been going on?" I looked at him, already knowing what he's about to ask.

"That thing between you and that Korean guy," Five waved his hand around, annoyed.

"Was, past tense. And it was when you sent me back," I told him.

"I didn't even realise that the two of you were married, I thought it was just a fling thing," Klaus chipped in. trying to lighten up the mood.

"So, that was technically what, fourteen years ago in current time?" Five scrunched up his face.

"But over thirty years our time," I intertwined my hands and fiddled with my thumbs.

"Fuck," Five groaned.

"He might have done that too," I muttered quietly.

Five's head jerked up so fast I thought it would snap. "What?" He growled, his piercing dark eyes staring into mine.

I looked away, ashamed and wanting to crawl in a hole to die.

Klaus gasped, "He did whaaaaaat?"

Five looked down at the golden ring on my finger and looked back at his.

"Five, wa-wait, no-" I stammered, watching as Five tore off his wedding band from his finger.

He shoved it into my hands. "Don't give it back until you've sorted things out."

I grabbed his hand. "Don't leave. Please."

"I-I can't," he pushed my hand away, not even looking at me.

"Five!"