Inspired by my own TUA & Avengers crossover fic. Much wow.
His father didn't say where they would be going, but the sense of foreboding was unmistakable.
Pogo's face was grim when he opened the door, unable to look at Klaus when he held out the umbrella to his head and led him behind Sir Hargreeves.
While it was a short walk, it was eerie, probably because of the rows of graves they passed by. Klaus kept his head down, not wanting to turn to his left where a wailing lady was floating beside him; nor did he craned his neck to look behind him, where he could feel a cold flutter of breeze that was akin to fingers reaching for his nape. Pogo and Sir Reginald didn't react to the noises and the number of presence accompanying them so Klaus pretended not to see or hear any of them.
But god they were so noisy and Klaus wanted them to stop and leave him be. A few minutes of peace was all he wanted.
"We're here," Sir Reginald announced primly, looking down at Klaus inscrutably, one eye behind his monocle.
It was a mausoleum; smaller, but the size of it wasn't able to ease Klaus's anxiety as to what lay beyond the old double doors.
Sir Reginald reached out to Klaus, and for a moment Klaus thought his father would pull him close and hold him to assuage his fears the way he had seen a father did to his son once when Klaus and his siblings rescued the two.
Sir Reginald did nothing of the sort. Instead, he held Klaus firmly by the shoulders and ushered Klaus inside when Pogo opened the doors.
"You'll stay here for eight hours," Sir Reginald said, his tone no more than what he used in reading the news to them. "Once I return, I expect progress from you, Number Four."
When Klaus came back later, his temperature was no different to the spirits that kept him company, the spirits that oppressed him.
The slight difference was Klaus could feel the chill seeping to his bones, his teeth chattering. He was alive compared to the ghosts who could feel nothing but hatred and thirst for vengeance.
When a living boy who could hear and see them was placed in the middle of their sanctuary, they moved to drive the intruder out, not knowing that Klaus wanted to escape just as badly.
Nobody could break through the padlocked door.
Not even Klaus.
Sir Reginald was dissatisfied with the results.
The following week, Klaus returned to that dreaded place.
Sir Reginald remained dissatisfied at the lack of progress.
The following week, he brought Klaus again and put him there with additional three hours.
Klaus accidentally summoned a random ghost in the middle of lunch, and Sir Reginald reprimanded him for the interruption.
The ghost was from the mausoleum, the one Klaus remembered the most because of her disfigured face and bashed head. It was nothing personal.
It wasn't counted as an improvement to Sir Reginald—a disappointment, more like.
"Focus and stability. Those two should be fundamental to you, Number Four," Sir Reginald said, pushing Klaus to master them once more.
He didn't forget to return Klaus to the mausoleum.
Klaus already lost count, but he knew it has been a year already.
The first time Sir Reginald brought him here, it was his birthday. The birthday he shared with his siblings.
Klaus was too sick with dread to eat the cake Mom made for each of them. He didn't want to waste a good birthday cake with colorful icings and tiny candles lit on top, so Klaus forced a few forkfuls of them.
"Thank you for the cake, Mom," Klaus said sincerely before excusing himself.
He went to the bathroom and promptly threw up what he had eaten. What he flushed down the toilet was a disgusting blob of blue and white icing mixed with bile. Klaus wasn't in a hurry to clean up. In an hour, Sir Reginald would come and fetch him.
The slow trickle of time was torture.
Klaus was shivering when he crossed the threshold. The doors closed behind him, and he could hear the thick lock clicking in place with finality.
Belatedly, he noticed his companions restless than usual, which was ironic because they should have gotten used to his presence while Klaus wasn't. He never did.
He sat in a corner, head low as he murmured a birthday song. The act managed to give him a little comfort, distracting him from the boy who sat opposite him and was asking him for help to find his mother.
Klaus felt sorry that he couldn't help. He has this ability that only brought him fright, that only made him wish he was in Vanya's place instead. The outside world celebrated his name among his superpowered siblings, but they never knew what kind of lives they have, what kind of life he has.
His own brothers and sisters didn't even know where he was right at this moment.
"I'm sorry," Klaus said to the boy. He was always there whenever Klaus was here, though this was the first Klaus addressed him. "I can't help you."
Because I'm a disappointment myself.
He must be, among the rest who have powers. When he thought about it, Vanya was the luckiest of them, because Sir Reginald didn't expect any from her aside from improving her violin practice. And she was improving.
Klaus yearned for that simple life, but most dire of all was to be out of here, out of the mausoleum that he despised.
He closed his eyes, and since it was his birthday today he should be afforded that one wish.
Klaus fervently wished to be out.
He hardly registered his fists glowing blue, the ghosts scrambling to get away from him and avoiding the explosion that busted the doors open.
Klaus ran away and never looked back.
Klaus avoided the crowd of bodies that met him on the streets. A left turn and a right and he was already lost in the maze of a city.
He should have gone out often.
The rain poured again, and he was forced to wait under a stop shed. After two hours, the weather worsened and the evening deepened. Klaus was getting hungry every minute.
He rubbed his hands together to warm himself. A part of him was glad that the chill came from the climate this time and not from… other sources.
Still, it appeared that he would be cold again tonight.
He wondered if his siblings were looking for him. Probably not at this hour; Sir Reginald had surely given them the training bullshit every time Klaus wasn't around. How about tomorrow when he wasn't present at the table? Would they ask for him and look?
He would miss them: Mom, Ben, Vanya, Diego, Allison, Five, even Luther.
Was Klaus ready not to see them again? Suddenly, running away seemed a very bad idea.
Some time later, the rain stopped, and the big clock read 3:14 AM. No kid should be out at this hour, but Klaus ambled around.
Outside was infinitely loads better than inside the mausoleum, he thought, until the alleys became darker and each turn he would make were somehow ominous.
Klaus made a sudden right that inexplicably rose the hairs on his neck. A ghost? No, it didn't completely feel like that.
"Hey, boy, isn't it past your bedtime?" a male voice leered, prompting Klaus to run faster without turning to see what the man looked like.
Klaus didn't pause as the heavy footsteps were upon him, menacing and creeping nearer and nearer—
He collided with something solid—or rather, someone.
"I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't looking," Klaus mumbled hastily, sidestepping from the man he hit.
"Obviously, if you can't even look while apologizing," the man scoffed.
Klaus hazarded a glance up to the stranger and found arresting green eyes staring back at him. The green-eyed man held his shoulder with one hand and refused to let go.
"I'm sorry, really," Klaus said, shrugging away the man's grip. He began to panic when it barely budged. "Sorry, sir, I just have to—"
"Escape that?" The man cocked his head slightly. "I don't blame you. That's one ugly spirit."
Klaus stopped struggling and looked back to find a grotesque form that wasn't clearly a man, horrifying than any of the ghosts Klaus had encountered before.
He wasn't lacking with bad days, was he?
The green-eyed stranger regarded Klaus briefly, unperturbed at the sight of the appalling creature. "Stay close," he said.
And Klaus watched, wide-eye in fascination as something formed at the man's hand. The movement was quick, but Klaus couldn't have mistaken it.
A knife shot past from the same hand and went straight in the middle of the creature's face. At least, if that was its face. It howled in pain and thrashed towards them in swift succession.
The man flicked his wrist, and then green chains appeared and bound the monster easily and pulled it to the ground as if knocking its breath out. The man murmured something unintelligible, and the creature was no more, disintegrated right in front of Klaus's eyes.
Klaus gasped once the moment caught up to him. "Was that—you did magic!"
"You think?" the man said, leaning down. "You'll be forgetting that now. You saw nothing."
He snapped his fingers and sparks flew across Klaus's eyes. Klaus blinked. "I can't forget that!" he insisted, indignant.
The man seemed perplex. "What?"
"You did magic. Green magic!"
The man's brows rose higher, considering. "You resisted it," he stated flatly. "How could you…" He waved a hand dismissively. "And you also saw that," he said accusingly.
"Um, yes. Shouldn't I?" Klaus remembered that yes, he shouldn't have. It was a weird creature that was unlike and akin to a ghost at the same time.
"Humans shouldn't," the man snapped. "Unless you're one of those with extra senses." He hummed to himself. "I've read of your kind."
Kind of useless now to deny. "I can see ghosts," Klaus admitted, chewing on his bottom lip.
"I have the same conclusion," the man said dryly. "I'm more interested how you can repel my memory-altering magic."
"I don't?" Klaus was confused as to what this man was driving at.
"Come with me," the man ordered.
"Hey!" Klaus exclaimed when the man pulled him by the elbow. "My dad said I shouldn't leave with strangers."
"You shouldn't have talked to strangers, but here we are," the stranger pointed out. "Besides, not at least interested with my magic?"
Klaus sure as hell was. "No fair," he grumbled.
"That's what I thought." The man smirked. "More to the point, I shouldn't be a stranger to you or to any of your kind."
Klaus wondered what was up with the third person and 'your kind' thing. What a weird guy. "Fine, I'll bite. Who are you, mister?"
If it was even possible, the man's smirk widened.
"A god."
TBC