[✓] 𝑃𝑅𝐸𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲. 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑

Word count: 1405

𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐒 she arrived at the Academy, Valerie checked every room on every floor, not finding a single person except for Luther, Pogo, Grace, and the unconscious body of Allison. She searched a few more times, in the hopes that she had perhaps missed Vanya, but to no avail.

By the time she had given up, the other three had regrouped at the top of the main staircase. Valerie made her way towards them, not all too fond of their disheartened looks as she leaned against the railing. 

"No sign of Vanya," Valerie sighed as she folded her arms, giving them a small shake of the head. "She's nowhere in the house."

"Maybe if you checked one more time?" Klaus suggested, giving a slight shrug as he looked towards her.

"I searched the house thirty-nine times."

"Yeah, so why don't we round that out to a nice, even forty?" Klaus grinned, his grin growing even bigger when she threw him a glare.

"Well, I'm out," Diego sighed as he walked past the group, heading towards the corridor opposite them.

"Wait, wait, wait . . . Where are you going?" Five called, prompting Diego to stop and turn to them. "Vanya's still out there, and so are Hazel and Cha-Cha."

Diego nodded. "I know. I'm gonna get my things and then I'm outta here. I got some unfinished business with those fools," he stated before continuing towards his room.

Klaus sighed while he leaned back on the wooden railing.

As Five slipped his hands into his pockets and turned to face the other man, he questioned, "Hey, did Dad say anything about the apocalypse when you spoke to him? Any clues as to how it happened?"

Klaus looked up at him, slowly shaking his head with a small frown pulling down the corner of his lips. "No. No clues. Truly terrific shave. But no clues."

"Jeez," Five groaned as he ran a hand through his hair, the other hand clutching onto the eyeball. He began to limp down the stairs, almost tripping because of how fast he was going.

"Whoa, slow down there." Valerie sped down to catch him and grabbed onto his arm, helping him balance himself. "You'll open your wound and become a bloody mess again, idiot."

"Whatever," Five muttered, grabbing onto the railing as he continued to go down the stairs.

Not having noticed this, Klaus continued to blabber, "You know, come to think of it, he did mention something about my potential, and how I've barely even scratched the surface of my—"

"How did he know about the apocalypse?" Five pondered aloud as they went down the last few steps, ignoring what Klaus was saying.

"I don't know, but listen," Klaus started, nervously glancing around the room as they reached the landing. "This whole jumping through time thing of yours, how did . . . How did you know how to do that?"

Five stopped to stare at him for a moment, an incredulous expression on his face. "I didn't. You'd realize that if you were actually sober." He shook his head slightly as he began to walk towards the living room, scoffing quietly to himself.

"Hey, I am sober," Klaus protested with a pout. "I've been sober for two—almost two days now."

Five stopped and turned to him, putting his free hand in his pocket as he humoured Klaus, "Yeah, two days."

"It feels like forty-five years," Klaus breathed out as he stared straight ahead of him, an empty look settling in his eyes.

Five's sarcastic smile dropped. "Who are you kidding, Klaus? I've seen you fidgeting all day."