A/N:

Sorry this is out later than most of my past chapters! It is REALLY easy to lose track of time in quarantine!

Also, if you ever wonder why I try to avoid writing dialogue in my chapters, this one will definitely tell you why. Sorry in advance for how dialogue heavy it got lol

Chapter 9

Five had been one of the Commission assassins not too long ago, and had sent Hazel and Cha-Cha new marching orders even more recently, so he led the way to the motel he was sure they had been staying at. Even if they weren't still there, it was a starting point. (It would be faster to grab one of their victims for questioning, but Klaus wasn't in a rush.)

Fortune Smiles Motel was as much of a shithole as the hotel they'd brought Klaus to, so he wasn't particularly surprised this was where they'd wound up. The Commission clearly didn't value their worker bees (Hazel had spent more than enough time whining about it...Well, he wouldn't have anything to complain about for much longer).

Five skipped the front desk and without hesitation walked straight to one of the rooms. He stopped at the door, and then motioned for Klaus to go ahead. It was interesting Five didn't just jump inside and open the door himself, but he supposed Five was looking for another display of Klaus' power. Fine.

Klaus reached for the door, intending to just undo the lock with his telekinesis. Instead, the whole door flew off its hinges and into the room. Hmm. He really needed to get a handle on this. Oh, well. A dramatic entrance was always enjoyable in its own right. Five gave him a raised eyebrow, but Klaus just smirked at him, as though he'd done exactly as he'd intended.

A female voice began swearing immediately, but there was a distinct lack of gunshots.

They moved into the room, and Klaus burst out laughing. Hazel was nowhere to be seen, but Cha-Cha was handcuffed to the radiator, pulling uselessly at the chain.

"Trouble in paradise?" he questioned.

"Where's your partner?" Five asked.

After swearing a few more times, Cha-Cha finally stopped struggling and turned to face them. "He's gone. And once I take care of you two, I'm going to find him and kill him too."

"You take care of us? Don't make me laugh," Klaus almost couldn't believe how delusional she was. Almost. "So he's the one who got the jump on you? Why didn't he just kill you?"

This time, instead of answering, she just glared at them. Right, well, there was an easy fix for that.

"If we just kill her now, she won't be able to ignore my questions. It'll be easier and quicker than torture," he glanced at Five. (He'd never really enjoyed torture anyways...it just felt kind of pointless. He might not have very strong morals, but there were easier ways to get information even if a little quid pro quo wouldn't be out of place in this instance.)

"What do you mean?"

"The dead can't refuse a question from me. I told you that before."

Five made a thoughtful sound, then nodded. "Fine."

"You little shit. You might have gotten your contract cleared once, but they're going to open it up again. It'll be open season on you! If I don't kill you, someone else will. They always get you in the end… Not even you can stop them," Cha-Cha spat the words out, pulling at the chain again.

"You haven't heard? I've already taken care of the Commission. They're gone, and now you are too." Klaus raised a hand at her. Snapping her neck like he had most of the people at Commission headquarters would be the easiest and most convenient way for her to die, but when he engaged his powers, her spine came flying out of her throat with a disgusting snap and squelch. He wasn't entirely certain whether that was an unconscious desire that won out or another instance of his powers reacting more strongly than he'd anticipated, but he also didn't really care. Five stared at him with a completely dumbfounded expression, and Klaus found himself shrugging defensively. "They tortured me for almost twenty-four hours."

He let the gore-covered object fall to the ground next to its corpse, and they both watched Cha-Cha collapse and eventually drown in her own blood. The ghost which arrived very shortly after was almost funny to look at, hunched over at the waist, with her upper half entirely limp but still spewing venom. She looked ridiculous. Like most deformed dead however, she was still very much able to speak, and it didn't take long to get the answers they wanted.

"They did get your little notes, but ultimately decided not to kill each other. Except then Hazel decided he was in love with that doughnut lady and wanted to quit the Commission. Cha-Cha here didn't take the news too well, but he was too much of a wimp to follow through with offing her," Klaus explained.

"He's done with the Commission? Really?"

"According to her," he waved a hand at the corpse. "She was going to hunt them down after she got out of here. He hasn't been gone for very long. We should be able to catch up pretty easily."

"If he's left the Commission and the apocalypse is already over, then what's the point?" Five asked, turning to leave the room.

"The point, mon frère, is revenge," Klaus ripped Cha-Cha's spirit apart, tired of listening to her insults no matter how creative she got. She definitely didn't deserve a place in the afterlife, and destroying her soul entirely was a more long-term solution than just pushing her away from him. If she got the chance, she would definitely try to become a malignant spirit, and he'd had enough of those for a lifetime. "He'll be on his way to Griddy's now. We can probably get there before his little girlfriend does. Don't you think it'll be better for her to think she's been stood up than to find his body?"

Five's face went unreadable for several moments, but he dutifully followed as Klaus led the way. "The person the Commission killed… they were really important to you, then?"

"He's the person who taught me what love was. The only person who has really, truly seen me and still loved me anyways," Klaus responded, not stopping.

"Is he here with you now?"

"No." Klaus didn't bother explaining more. What would be the point? He hadn't tried to contact Dave himself, but Dave also hadn't come looking for him. He'd either passed fully on or he didn't want to see Klaus. (And… well. He didn't particularly want to see Dave as a ghost, either. It would make his death more… real. He didn't want or need that.)

"This person…" Five trailed off, obviously searching for a name.

"Dave."

"Dave," Five repeated. "What did you like about him?"

His first instinct was to say something shallow and glib, but he couldn't follow through with that. Not for Dave. Klaus closed his eyes, remembering. "He was kind, and strong, and vulnerable, and… beautiful. Beautiful." He put everything he couldn't verbalize into that word. There was just too much to Dave to put into a simple adjective.

"And all this… Destroying the Commission, hunting down Hazel and Cha-Cha… you think he would want that? Would want to watch you do that in his memory?"

Klaus whirled on his brother. "I already told you. He knew me better than anyone. And he didn't love me in spite of it, he just loved me. If he hadn't - if they hadn't murdered him, I would have stayed in 1968 for him. Did you know that? I destroyed the briefcase which took me there. It was going to be me and him, for the rest of our lives. No more of this bullshit. And then they sent someone to kill him to get me back here. It was their briefcase I used to get back, not Hazel and Cha-Cha's." Hm. That briefcase had probably been destroyed when the mansion came down, along with Five's. That was… disappointing. "You don't know anything, so unless the next words out of your mouth are an idea on how we could save him, then stop talking."

He hoped, wished, that Five would have an easy answer. That he would say that saving Dave would be simple. But he also knew better. They didn't talk again before they reached the doughnut shop.

Hazel's beat up blue car was the only one in the parking lot. He was waiting patiently, but inattentively. He didn't even see them coming. He died a lot more cleanly than Cha-Cha had, but his spirit went the same way as hers.

By the time Klaus and Five reached a hotel which could be deemed worthy and was at least somewhat in Vanya's neighborhood, Five was panting. Klaus wouldn't have expected his brother to have such terrible stamina, but then, it'd been quite a few years. He was an old man, even if he didn't look like it. His black credit card got them quick service, and Five didn't even bother raising his eyebrows this time. He remained silent until they reached their two bed suite, but almost the moment the door closed behind them, he collapsed onto the floor.

"Jesus, Five. What the fuck?"

His only answer was a groan.

Five was clutching at his side, so Klaus pushed his shirt up, and found torn stitches and a bullet wound.

"When were you shot?" he demanded, immediately putting pressure on the wound. He reached with his telekinesis, knowing the layout of hotel rooms well enough to find a towel without trouble. Luckily, this time his power responded the way he wanted it to and he didn't tear something else apart.

"The Handler got a lucky shot in. We patched it up after getting to Vanya's," Five gasped out.

Klaus snorted. "You are running around with a bullet wound, yet they thought you should be looking after me?" He put Five's hand over the towel, and then searched the drawers of the room until he found the sewing kit. It wasn't optimal for patching wounds, but Klaus had used similar kits on himself before, so it wasn't too much of a concern. Five was just lucky they were staying at a hotel classy enough to provide a free sewing kit in each room.

"They were preoccupied enough with Allison I'm sure they forgot," Five groaned as Klaus stitched him back up.

"Not a professional job, but it does what it's supposed to. You should go clean all the blood off before you sleep. Careful of the stitching. We'll get you a new shirt from the gift shop before we meet back up with the others," Klaus tied a knot in the thread, then packed everything away again.

"Of all our siblings, you're the least like what I expected," Five said the non sequitur from his place on the floor, no longer sounding nearly as pained or out of breath.

"Yeah, well. All your information came from Vanya's book. And while she might have gotten the others right, she didn't know nearly enough to actually see me," he turned his back on his brother and moved into the bathroom to clean the blood off his hands. (The visible blood, anyways.)

"Clearly," Five's voice came from much too close. He was leaning on the door frame, and he'd clearly teleported rather than walking the distance. "How did none of them notice? You remained at the Academy for years after I left… How did you keep your powers that much of a secret? Why?"

"It was easier if they all thought I was worthless. Not even Dad cared enough to look closer, why would any of them? We weren't ever truly siblings, Five. Vanya did get that part right. Just strangers in the same house. They all liked each other better than me anyways. I didn't need the ghosts to tell me that, not that it stopped them."

Five's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "The dead know more than the living, and they tell me things. Even when I don't want to listen. Before I learned to push them away, to silence them myself, they'd scream, and cry, and wail. They'd say terrible, awful things. The dead are spiteful, Five. They hate the living. They go insane over time, lose track of their humanity the longer that they're on this plane of existence. They knew I was the only one who could hear them, so they swarmed to me, like moths to the only light in existence. I tried ignoring them for a while, but Reggie never allowed that. When I finally did start listening, I learned more than he could ever have taught me. I had a mentor among the dead, and he's who got me to really see the Academy for what it was. To see the world for what it was. He thought I was stupid for caring about you guys, so he told me the kinds of things you'd all say behind my back. Helped free me of that weakness."

Five looked thoughtful. "If you knew their purpose was spite, that they wanted you to hate us, how could you ever trust anything they said?"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Even if I couldn't force the truth from them, things were pretty clear after the stairs incident." He stepped away from the sink now that his hands were clean, brushing past Five to go back into the main room. He threw himself back on the bed, enjoying the relief for a moment (he was still extremely sore from his recent death), before pushing himself up onto his elbows so he could see Five again.

Five was still leaning against the doorway, but had turned so he was facing Klaus. "The stairs incident?" He was quiet for a moment. "You mean when you fell down the stairs?"

"When I was pushed, Fivey," Klaus clarified. "Not that anyone owned up to it. I wouldn't have known if Frank hadn't told me, although he never specified which of you it was."

"Klaus, none of us could have done it," Five sounded serious.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Yes, because you're all such upstanding citizens."

"No, because none of us were even home at the time. It was a long time ago, even longer for me, but I remember… Father was on a business trip, and Pogo was busy, so we decided to sneak out to Griddy's. We were planning on inviting you, but no one knew where you were, and you had seemed to be pulling away from us for a while at that point, so we decided to just go without you. When we got home, you'd already fallen. We all felt so guilty that you had gotten hurt while the rest of us were out laughing and eating donuts, that we didn't ever go back to Griddy's before I time traveled. None of us were in the house when you fell, Klaus. I don't know who Frank is, but he lied to you."

Klaus had already considered that Frank might have lied about several things to make him listen, and had even considered this instance in particular after Diego had brought it up, but hearing Five explain… "It doesn't matter," he said definitively. "You already were excluding me at that point, as you yourself just pointed out. One thing that didn't happen doesn't make up for a lifetime of interactions."

"I think… I think that at tomorrow's family meeting, we should all air out our lingering grievances, the hurts that have gone unsaid, and maybe finally move past all this and start being a family again."

"Being a family again? Who are you and where is Five the pragmatist? What, you thought you were going to come back and stop the apocalypse, and then we'd all sing kumbaya and magically become a family again?" Five didn't respond, merely looking at the floor. "Oh my God, you did! You're hilarious, bro. There's no 'becoming a family again,' because we were never a family to begin with! I said that already. Go do whatever you want with the others, but once I'm sure the apocalypse is well and truly over with, I'm going back to my life, and as far away from those pricks as I can."

With that, Klaus turned away from his brother, yanked off his shoes, and pulled himself under the covers. His closed eyes should make it clear the conversation was over, and he heard the bathroom door close very shortly after. It took more time for the shower to finally start, but Klaus ignored that in favor of sleep. A family again. What a ridiculous idea.

They made it back to Vanya's apartment later than expected because Five slept in and Klaus had insisted on visiting the continental breakfast once he was finally up. They got Five a nice "I heart NY" shirt from the gift shop before they ate, not wanting to draw more attention than necessary. While Five was occupied with food, Klaus went to the front desk and had them extend his room booking for a full week. He wasn't sure how much longer he'd actually remain in the city, but he wasn't hurting for money and there's no way he was going to stay with any of the others while he was still here. Vanya's apartment was cramped and tiny, and the last he heard, Diego was living out of a boiler room. Luther had never had anything other than the Academy, and they all knew Allison had done her best to ignore the fact that she'd ever lived in this city.

They took a taxi to Vanya's as opposed to walking again, now that he knew Five was hiding a bullet wound. It wouldn't do to have him open it again and cause a scene when they arrived.

Well, more of a scene. The door had hardly opened at the sound of their knock when Luther started freaking out.

"Where have you been?"

"As we said last night, we got a hotel room instead of sleeping on the floor," Klaus rolled his eyes at the display. He moved further into the room, and sat down in the only open chair, making sure to keep an eye on his particularly unkempt brother. Luther wasn't looking so hot… It seemed he hadn't slept at all, and he'd had plenty to think about overnight.

"You should have stayed with the rest of us."

"In Vanya's tiny apartment? There's hardly room for her, let alone the rest of us. Allison probably has closets bigger than this," he unconsciously mirrored the very thing Vanya had said mere days ago.

Said sister was sharing the couch with Diego and Ben, all three of which looking extremely fed up with Luther. Allison was sitting in the only other chair, looking almost as pale as the time she was almost eaten by Dr. Terminal. She was nearly mummified in what must be Vanya's entire supply of gauze and ace bandages. She had a notepad and marker in her hand, their purpose clear from the note on the top page ("SHUT UP LUTHER") and it made him wonder what had happened to her voice, but he also didn't particularly care. (If anything, he was relieved her ability to rumor was at least temporarily taken away.) Five also pushed his way past Luther and sat on the arm of the couch closest to Vanya.

"Where's the other one, Diego's girlfriend?" Klaus asked. He was pretty sure she should still be here and solid, the way he'd left her.

Diego scowled at that. "The police found my prints on her body, so they thought I'd killed her. They wanted to arrest me for her murder. She went to the station to tell them what really happened."

Klaus let out an incredulous huff at that. "What? She just casually strolled down to the police station, gushing blood from her chest, and did the whole 'rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,' thing? That ought to go over well." What the actual fuck. Not only had Klaus not had to use his power to restore her sanity, but she had the willpower to leave her purpose for lingering in order to make sure Diego came out of things okay? Patch must be one hell of a woman.

"We haven't heard from her since she left. I'm not sure how it went down," Diego explained.

"She wouldn't let him go with her," Vanya added. "He was very put out by it."

Klaus snorted. He was more surprised by Patch than he was by Diego's response. He could tell that she was still corporeal, although not what she was doing. He wondered if the police would even accept her testimony about how she died. How could they possibly respond to the ghost of one of their officers? Why did she think that would go over well? Oh, to be a fly on that wall. He'd have to get the details from someone later. He was sure there were plenty of dead lingering around a police station, if he couldn't get the details straight from Patch.

"Well, they'll find Hazel and Cha-Cha's bodies at some point today, and their weapons should make it even more clear it wasn't you. Don't worry about it," Klaus shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Luther burst into things again, unable to not be involved. He was lurking awkwardly nearby, as there was definitely nowhere for him to sit. No one except him seemed bothered by that. But then, Luther always liked to look like he was in charge, he should be glad to be the only one standing!

"Exactly what I said. The temporal assassins are dead."

"How can you be sure?"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten I can see the dead? Their ghosts made it pretty evident."

"Well who killed them?"

"What does it matter? The Commission's last operatives are gone, we can all rest easy. You can rest easy, little bro," he turned to Diego. "Patch's killers are dead."

"We're the same age, bro," Diego snorted, although he did seem pleased to hear that.

"Time travel," Klaus waved a hand. "I'm ten months older than you all now. Well, except for Five, our favorite grandpa."

"When did you time travel?" Luther looked confused, and Allison seemed to agree, pointing at Luther as though it would add extra emphasis to the question.

"When Hazel and Cha-Cha broke into the house, they kidnapped and tortured me for a day. When I escaped, I stole their time machine and accidentally activated it."

"You were kidnapped?" Vanya sounded aghast.

"Why did it take you ten months to come back?" Diego already knew about the kidnapping and torture so he looked less surprised than the others.

"Because I found something that was better than what I had here, obviously," Klaus shrugged. "I stayed until I lost it."

"That woman you lost?"

"Man," Klaus corrected. "His name was Dave. He was murdered by the Commission to get me back here. So here I am."

There were more questions, and Klaus wanted to groan. "Looks like you're getting your family heart-to-heart after all, Five. Why don't we talk about Luther instead, and why he should learn to use his words instead of his fists."

"I already apologized for that," Luther looked uncomfortable.

Klaus shot him a look of complete disbelief. "No, actually, you didn't. At least not to me! You know, the person you actually killed!"

"You never said you were sorry, you just kept giving out excuses," Diego confirmed.

"Alright, fine. Klaus, I'm sorry that I accidentally killed you, but -"

"There shouldn't be any 'buts' in an apology, big guy," Klaus sneered. "It just demonstrates you don't actually mean it."

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I felt like you had put the whole family at risk, and then everything happened so fast… I didn't mean for you to die. I will be more careful in the future," every word came out like Luther was being tortured into saying it.

"Aw, baby's first apology," Klaus cooed.

Every hint of regret immediately vanished from Luther's posture as he jumped right back to righteous anger.

"This is exactly why-"

"Luther!" Five's sharp voice cut through Luther's rage, and impressively, he immediately backed off again, shaking his head in disgust.

"Exactly why you killed me, I know," Klaus couldn't help but add.

"You shut up, too," Five turned his way. "You're not helping anything. It's clear this family is extremely dysfunctional. We can't fix anything while we're like this. As Klaus suggested, I want us to actually have a real conversation. Clear the air, without resorting to violence or immature commentary," he looked pointedly between Luther and Klaus. Klaus stuck his tongue out in response. "We apparently managed to cause the apocalypse in the original timeline by being horrible siblings. Let's help prevent it by fixing that."

Klaus wanted to let out a groan as the rest of his siblings nodded along in agreement - even Ben looked enthused by the idea.

"You guys can have fun with that, but I'm not doing it. I already told you Five, I don't see us as a family. The rest of you can do what you like, but I'm out."

"You're not going anywhere," Luther ordered. "It's a good idea, and you're staying."

"You're not in charge of me, Number One. I left for a reason, and that reason hasn't changed."

"Which is exactly why you should do this," Ben tossed out, the traitor. Klaus hissed at him. Ben had been trying to get him to talk to the others for years.

"Please, Klaus," Vanya spoke up. "I want you here for this. If my powers get out of control again… Well, after what happened at the mansion, you might be the only one capable of helping if I lose control again."

Klaus bared his teeth at all of them, but remained seated. "Fine," he snapped out. Staying didn't mean he needed to participate. "Go ahead, Vanya, air your grievances. Tell everyone how you really feel."

With all the sharing and crying which would follow, Klaus would soon find himself wishing that the apocalypse wasn't just still on, but that it would happen a day early.

A/N:

We're almost at the end, now! For those of you who've been hoping for something like this, well... *jazz hands*