Chapter 3

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, Klaus' esteemed father, immediately scowled at the sight of his least favorite son. "What in God's name took you so long? I expected my son who can conjure the dead to have brought me forth ages ago." The ghost of the man perfectly mirrored his memories of the abusive asshole. Stiff spine, pressed suit, monocle firmly lodged on his face… The only difference was in addition to the scowl, there was a tightness to his features he'd never seen before, as though he was thoroughly uncomfortable. Good. Hopefully the experience of being summoned was just as horrible as what Klaus had gone through to get him here.

Klaus scowled right back. "Oh, yeah, well, you see, it's complicated." He put as much venom into his tone as he could without fully crossing into darker territory.

"You were poisoning yourself," Daddy Hargreeves grouched at him.

Klaus couldn't believe there was ever a time he'd been scared of this man. This monster. This asshole who locked a child in with his worst fears just for not being the perfect little soldier. He prepared to shout all his father's failings, including his utterly incorrect observations, but then just shook his head. There was no point. Not yet, at least. "Well, what did you expect? You'd just died. I was beside myself with grief." The sarcastic tone to his voice was plain for any to see, but of course, his father chose to ignore it.

"Don't you dare try to use me as an excuse for your weakness," his father scowled imperiously. This shade of the man didn't quite manage the full effect however, and Klaus refused to be cowed by him when for once, Klaus had all the power.

"Oh, right, well, yeah. You had nothing to do with it," Klaus shook his head, not even bothering to touch on the abuse he'd suffered. His father had never seen it as abuse before, and that wasn't about to change just because the man was dead. It would be pointless and a waste of breath, and it would fall on -hah- dead ears.

Father shook his head and looked down his nose at him. "You children like to blame everything on me."

He couldn't even own up to his faults in death. "Well, you were a sadistic prick. Not to mention the world's worst father." And truly unobservant. He'd focused his full attention on Klaus the moment he'd appeared, and didn't even look at his surroundings. Ben and Frank were both out of his direct line of sight, but witness to the entire conversation. In life, Ben had been a sycophant just like his other siblings, looking out for himself even as he tried to seem 'nice.' In death he still held his superiority over Klaus, disagreeing with his life decisions even as he learned more about what Klaus had gone through, what had made him into who he was. Klaus truly believed the only reason Ben stuck by his side was because he was the only person alive who could see him, and most of the other ghosts were insane and not good company at all (Frank as the obvious exception). Frank had never been impressed by his father, and he was the one who had opened his eyes to the man's faults in the first place. He was the reason Klaus didn't wind up like the rest of his siblings.

"I just wanted you to live up to your potential," the man in question had continued speaking. "You especially. You're my greatest disappointment, Number Four. You only scratched the surface of what you were truly capable of, if only you'd focused. Instead, you pump yourself full of poison because you're afraid."

This is where Klaus smirked. Enough was enough. "You know, I suggest you get down off your high horse there, dear Papa. You never had our best interests at heart. And for all your superiority complex, your favoritism and your lessons, you were the one who never learned." With a casual flick of his right hand, all the furniture and detritus in the room raised into the air, and all except the bed he was still sitting on began to circle them. "I didn't need you to unlock my full potential, I had a much better teacher than you could ever be." At this point, telekinesis was easy. He didn't have to focus to maintain it. At one point, he had been weak enough that he couldn't use his other powers simultaneously, and now it was second nature. But he didn't need to worry about intimidation this time. He wasn't threatening or blackmailing someone, he was speaking to one of the dead, so none of that mattered. Everything dropped into its previous location, and Klaus instead focused on his father's ghost. For the first time in his life, he was the one truly in control. "Now, tell me everything." He added an inescapable compulsion to the words, one he regularly used with great effect when gathering blackmail material.

"I - what - what are you doing?" His father visibly struggled, his infamous composure faltering to the man's obvious discontent.

"Tell me. Why?" Klaus demanded, applying more leverage. His father was strong, he was pushing against Klaus' power, but death was Klaus', and it had been since he was born. He didn't specify what he was asking about, as he found that often gave better information than specific questions. Open-ended questions generally meant he'd be supplied with whatever the spirit in question believed he was after. It provided him with the things they often hoped to keep quiet, or at the very least, reveal on their own terms.

"Everything I did, everything I put you through, it was to prepare you, all of you, for something bigger than yourselves," the words dragged themselves out of his father's mouth, and he did not look happy about it.

"We were just kids," Klaus frowned.

"You were never just kids," the words came faster now. "You were meant to save the world."

"Wait, wait - so you knew? You knew all about what Five has been going on about? The apocalypse?" Klaus could feel the disbelief on his face.

"I knew that I had to bring you all back together, one way or another. The fate of the world depended on it."

"Wh-what? What are you saying?" It sounded like a non sequitur, but his father never wasted words like that.

"The only way to get you all back together was something momentous," the words came out stiffly, yet matter of fact.

"Wait - you, no… You don't mean you killed yourself?" he demanded. The silence was answer enough, and Klaus cackled. "Oh, Christ, you could never do things the easy way, could you?" His father looked surprised at the reaction, but still steadfast in his plan. "You couldn't have picked up a phone?"

"Would you have answered? Now listen to me, Number Four. What I'm about to say is of great importance -" Klaus waved his hand, and his father's voice cut off.

"No, you listen. You made a few miscalculations. Or at the very least, you failed quite spectacularly in your observations. Just because I didn't follow your schemes, wasn't the perfect little soldier like your dear Number One, it doesn't mean I didn't learn how to use my powers. Clearly. That's your problem, Dad. You never could see past yourself. Your way or the highway. We were always just tools to you, and you never knew what to do when we didn't react like you wanted. Because locking a child in a mausoleum will help with the fear of the dead? Because taunting a prideful brat will make him fall in line? Because forcing Ben to use something he told us was called 'The Horror' would make him less afraid of it? No. You're a fool, you've always been a fool, and now your idiocy has ended with you dead, and me having power over you for once. What, did you think you'd make contact with me and I'd just pull you back to the world of the living? That it would be temporary? I do have the control to return some form of corporeality to the dead now, but I would never waste it on you. Now, why don't you tell me the top three things you did your best to hide from us, and then I'll banish you back to where you came from."

Like before, there was some difficulty in applying his power to his father, but it was still easy enough to push past the barrier. (Okay, he was lying to himself a little. It was really difficult. More so than with any other spirit he had pushed this way. But this was also the man who had abused him his whole life, so he felt justified in the fib.) "I - am not from Earth. I sent Number One to the moon not to keep watch, but to occupy his attention and keep him away from me. I never even opened his letters. And -" he cut himself off, and struggled for several moments before finally continuing, "I had Number Three rumor Number Seven and everyone else into believing she was ordinary."

Klaus' eyes widened, but he followed the promise he had made to himself and pushed his father back through the veil and into the afterlife before he even had time to splutter out more protests. He didn't even care about the extra strength it took to fully dismiss him - no way was he going to have his father wandering around again. He didn't even want to chance accidentally running into him. With that done, Klaus leaned back, pondering what he had learned. Dad was an alien? Vanya had powers? He was less surprised about the Luther revelation, massive tool that he was (he kind of felt like that truth had been thrown in there in an attempt to prevent the Vanya one from coming out, not that it had worked), but the other two secrets? Hmm. He was almost tempted to ask his father more questions, but he didn't want to deal with the man face to face again. Other than the alien thing, he was sure there was information in his father's notes which would be more helpful than another pissing contest anyways.

"Vanya has powers?" Ben yelped, finally speaking up.

Klaus fixed him with a look. "You're more surprised about that, than about Dad being an alien? Come on Ben. Seven kids born on the same day in the same suspicious circumstances and one of them randomly doesn't have powers? Seems unlikely to me."

Now that he knew it was there, he could feel the sticky sensation of Allison's rumor coloring all his childhood memories of Vanya. He wondered if knowing those memories were lies would make a difference… He pressed at that barrier just as he had the barrier between life and death, levering his willpower against whatever it was Allison's power ran on, and was surprised when he fell through it. He remembered shattered glass, and soundproofed rooms, and dead nannies… No wonder his father had eventually created Grace. You could only cover up so many deaths before people started getting suspicious about that unfillable position in the Hargreeves mansion. But then, money really did fix everything, and it's not like their family hadn't come under scrutiny under multiple occasions and didn't get away scott free. Seems their family had a knack for that. (Now the silently screaming nanny ghosts made sense - of course he couldn't hear them, they had probably been yelling about wanting revenge on Vanya.)

Klaus reclined fully back on the bed, suddenly feeling the weight of how much he had used his powers today. His father being an alien - that was probably why his ghost was so much harder to manipulate than what he was used to. It felt like he had been wrestling an uncooperative hoard as opposed to the single spirit. Not to mention dragging him through from the beyond - there'd never been a reason to try before, and like every other time he used a new facet of his power, it took so much more of his strength. Fighting what Allison did to him had been the final straw, and he felt kind of dizzy.

Both his ghostly stalkers took note of his state.

"Found a new limit, then?" Frank questioned.

Klaus shrugged as best he could as he rested his eyes for a moment. "Aliens," he snorted. Does that count as a second new facet of his power? Could he summon ghosts from other planets too? Did he have to be aware of the specific planet in question? Could he find some ghosts from planets far superior to Earth and use their knowledge for his own benefit? Did he really want Earth to have more ghosts than it already did? Questions probably best answered when there was no longer less than a week until the world ended. (At least he wouldn't have to worry about a language barrier if he did decide to summon some - as part of his power, Klaus had always been able to understand the dead, regardless of what language they spoke.)

"-aus? Klaus?" He heard his name being called, extremely muffled but getting closer all the time. He let out a groan. Stupid Number One.

He again experienced the impulse to leave and not bother looking back, but that wouldn't solve this apparent apocalypse issue, and even if he had survived it and somehow managed to never bump into Five, he didn't really like the thought of living in a destroyed world for the rest of time. He enjoyed his luxuries. And unfortunately, the Academy was the best place to be if he was going to contribute anything or even just keep an eye on the situation.

He left the room, and meandered his way back to the main house, encountering Luther rather quickly. He was again taken by just how huge his brother had become. He briefly wondered if that was part of why their father had sent him away, before ultimately deciding he didn't care.

"Finally. Do you know where Five is?"

"Is that really all you've been yelling at me for? No, I don't know where Five is," Klaus rolled his eyes. Of course.

"Well we need to find him. This is important. We need a family meeting."

"A family meeting? Wow, am I invited? Nice to know I come second to Five," Klaus turned away, and stumbled slightly, still dizzy from earlier.

"Are you still high?" Luther's tone was stuffed chock full of that smug superiority he favored (just like Dad). "Of course you are. Look, do you know where Five might be?"

"He's probably back at Meritech again. He did seem rather fixated on it," Klaus shrugged, walking away from Luther and towards the sitting room.

"Meritech?" Luther questioned.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "The prosthetics company. Let me know when this 'meeting,'" he put the word in air quotes, "is going to be." He threw himself onto the couch, and made it clear he wasn't going to respond further, and eventually listened as Luther pounded away. Good.

"Looks like we have the house to ourselves, boys," Klaus waited until he heard the front door slam before he spoke.

"It's absent of your siblings, at least," Frank shrugged.

Yeah, Pogo and Mom were still home, but neither would enter his room without knocking, unlike his siblings.

There was no better time to see what his father wrote about Vanya. (He cared less about the notes on himself, now that he knew his father really was so blind as to buy into the addict persona.)

It was a short walk to his room, and Klaus not only locked the door behind him, but also shoved a chair underneath the handle. Just in case.

The notebook turned out to be a treasure trove of information, and Klaus stayed fully engrossed right up until the sounds of fighting told him his siblings had returned.

If he had not already thought his father was a psychopath, the notebook would have cinched it. Vanya had apparently been a cocky little brat, right up until she went on the pills. She had known she was more powerful than the rest of them, and their father had known it too. She was uncooperative in training and threw temper tantrums pretty regularly, about anything and everything. All the dead nannies were just from them trying to get her to eat breakfast. And then, at the tender age of four years old, she'd scared Daddy Hargreeves enough that he thought she was a lost cause. If she wouldn't listen to him, wouldn't follow his rules, then she wouldn't have her powers. He'd used Mom (who had still been only Grace at the time) and Pogo to confine her, and Allison to rumor her. Because that wasn't enough, he not only drugged her with a mind-boggling and dangerous mix of depressants, anti-psychotics, and mood altering medications, but also resorted to psychological abuse and manipulation to keep her from questioning her position. All the restrictions, the isolation, the emphasis on how she would never be special - it had all been intended to break her spirit and keep her from questioning. And it had worked, for the most part. Vanya had grown into an extremely meek adult. The only exception to that was her book. And suddenly, his opinion of the book skyrocketed. The fact that she had even thought to publish something like that was astounding, and the fact she managed to go through with it? He wished he'd been able to see his father's face when he heard about it.

With his curiosity about Vanya sated, he flicked through some more of the book, only stopping when the fighting grew loud enough he could no longer ignore it.

He wasn't amused to be disturbed, but he dutifully put the book back in its hiding spot and moved into the living room where all of the others were congregated.

In the fight about whether Mom killed Dad, he just stood in the background and laughed. They were right that there had to be a fault in her programming, but wrong about what it was. In order for their father to successfully commit suicide, he would have had to alter her programming enough that she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him. Obviously he hadn't been the most careful about it, presumably thinking he'd be able to magically find his way back relatively quickly. It's a wonder the man had even managed to pass through the veil in the first place, with all he had planned.

In the end, he voted against Luther solely because Number One pissed him off. (Diego had too, with the stoner boy comment, but there was no way to match how obnoxious Luther had been to him since they all returned to the Academy.) He couldn't care less about the robo nanny, and if she was as important and as much of a person as they all claimed, then Pogo should have been able to fix her if nothing else. The primate hadn't even offered to try. No, he was still playing out the role their father dictated, just as he always had. (There were notes on Pogo, too. Just another of the Hargreeves Experiments. He even had a number as well, although his was from the number of tries it took to give a chimpanzee advanced intelligence. The answer? Quite a few.)

The combination of speaking with his father and the ensuing family drama left him feeling dirty, so he left the family meeting without imparting on his siblings the actual cause of their father's death, and made his way to the bathroom. He could do with a nice bath.

Frank left while he was getting it ready, and didn't come back until he'd already been submerged for awhile. When he finally did return, he seemed as annoyed as Klaus was by the fact that Ben was still nattering on about telling the others what he knew. He suggested Klaus play one of his cassette tapes to escape from the noise, and Klaus agreed, glad he had thought to bring it into the bathroom with him. It was a simple matter to put his headphones on and turn the volume up loud enough that he wouldn't be able to hear Ben, even if his brother was yelling right in his ear.

He took his time in the bath, waiting until the water was nearly frigid before he finally exited.

He didn't hear the gunshots.

He didn't hear the fighting.

He didn't see Frank, one hand over Ben's mouth, the other restraining him from moving.

He didn't see the assassin come up behind him and inject him with a sedative.

With the combination of the drug and his fatigue from overusing his powers earlier, he was unconscious within moments.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was bound in a trunk, powers still inactive, and staring at two assassins in ridiculous children's masks. Behind his gag, he screamed in anger and frustration.

A/N:
This chapter is slightly shorter (sorry), but I promise the 4th one will definitely make up for it.
I hope the scene with Reginald meets expectations. The secret of him being an alien is again, taken straight from the comics. Not sure if they'll actually use it in the show, although they did have that ambiguous scene with all the rockets, so... I don't know. I'm using it though.
Hope you enjoyed! The next chapter will be up in a few days.