Twelve hours and twenty seven minutes before Sententia.

"Sounds like a shitty plan to me," said Kraken as he rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any better ideas?" asked Space, raising his eyebrows, "Besides, we've been talking this over for hours."

Sometimes Kraken considered killing Space. He could do it suddenly and spontaneously without his brother having a clue of what was coming. Even so he didn't think that their forces should be depleted so close before the battle.

"It leaves too many eventualities uncovered," he said, "and I didn't think that you'd be willing to take that big of a risk."

"It's my risk to take," Rumor said irritably, "and I already said that I'd do it. So just go along with it."

"Well what about Vanya?" said Kraken, angrily changing the subject, "You said that they said to bring her with us. She can't fight and she's got head trauma."

"She's probably over it by now," observed .05, "And we could probably tuck her away in some convenient corner. As much as you hate taking orders would it be too much to ask for you try to cooperate just this once?"

Glaring at him Kraken wondered if he should add .05 to his list of people he wanted to kill. Much as he was loath to admit it the little midget had a point though.

"Fine," he muttered.

"Good," said Space, "We should all try to cast a little bit of rest. We're useless otherwise."

Shaking his head Kraken stalked up the steps for the umpteenth time in only a few hours. As far as he was concerned Vanya was the sanest person in this house at the moment. Who did Space think he was? He certainly wasn't their leader anymore. What was Kraken doing obeying him? He wasn't his team member anymore. Snorting to himself he opened the door. God he wished he wasn't near his siblings.

Kraken was about to go in when he remembered that Vanya might be up by this time. She did tend to like it if he knocked first. Women. Sighing he pounded the door a few times.

"Vanya?"

Nothing happened. Kraken frowned. Usually she answered. Tentatively he opened the door and peered inside. She wasn't in the room. The sheets were rumpled and the covers pulled back but she wasn't in the room. Even stranger still the window was open. Frowning once more he crossed the room and closed the window.

Then he heard a small groan. Whipping around he saw Vanya sunk to the bathroom floor, involuntary shivers racking her body. Quickly he picked her up.

"Vanya?" he said with a touch of panic, "Come one Vanya. Come on."

He let out a quick sigh of relief as her eyes fluttered open.

"Why's it so cold?" she asked groggily, shivering again.

"You left the window open," he said, "Did you trip or something?"

As he was speaking he shifted the arm holding her upper torso slightly. His arm touched up against her neck when he did so. Vanya let out a small cry of pain.

"What's wrong?" he asked sharply.

"I'm…I'm not sure," stammered Vanya, "My neck, it just really…really hurts…Where's all that noise…coming from? Was…there a car wreck?... Make it stop… please make it stop…"

Quickly Kraken pulled back her shirt where he had brushed up against. His eyes widened as he saw a big red puncture wound. As alarming as that seemed it was also surrounded by a white patch of skin. Even as he watched it was spreading.

.

.

.

"I can't really explain this," frowned .05.

"Try," growled Kraken.

Hours later the entire Hargreeves family was crowded together in the sick room. Vanya had been laid out on the bed still shivering and had broken out into a cold sweat. By now the white patch had spread so much so that even her hair was turning lighter. Vanya had had her eyes clenched shut for hours. When Rumor had last seen her open them the veins had turned an alarming red.

Rumor looked around the room. Attitudes ranged from apathetic, .05 and Séance, concerned, herself, Space, and Pogo, to downright furious, Kraken. There was something panicky about the way that he kept close to Vanya. Out of the corner of her eye she risked a look at Space. As selfish as it was to think of herself at a time like this she wished that Space would act with that kind of devotion around her.

"For some unknown reason electrons in her brain are exciting the cold receptors and the visual censors causing her to hallucinate," Pogo said gently, "hence the car wreck and classical music she keeps complaining about. But there's something else…"

"What?" Kraken snapped.

"What the good doctor is trying to tell you," said .05, "is that all of her bodily organs have begun shutting down."

For a second there was silence.

"Why?" hissed Kraken.

"As I said before," .05 sighed, "It's something that we can't explain. The puncture wound is obviously what caused it. But what caused that? It looks like a needle. But who would do that?"

"That's not the issue," snapped Kraken, "The issue is how you intend to fix it."

"We don't know the cause," said .05, "Hence we can't cure it. Don't you watch House?"

Once more there was silence.

"So you're saying that there's nothing we can do," said Kraken quietly.

"We're working on it," explained Pogo, "but we're just saying at the rate it's going then it seems like we won't be able to figure it out in time."

Once more Rumor saw the desperation in Kraken's eyes.

"Bach," Vanya whispered agitatedly, "Make it stop…"

Kraken grasped her hand and sat down beside her. There was something wild in his eyes.

"Diego…?" Rumor said gently.

"Get the fuck away," he snapped.

"Kraken-" started Space.

"No," said Rumor, "Let it go. Luther-"

Putting a hand on their shoulders she started to lead both of her brothers out of the room. The door behind them closed. Séance shrugged and started swaying from side to side down the hall. Rumor looked ahead at the wall in front of her. So Vanya was going to die. That seemed...odd. She hadn't seen her in over ten years and when she had she'd found out that Vanya was going to die.

No. She couldn't believe that that was happening. It wasn't because she was close to Vanya or anything. It was because she didn't believe that someone had just snuck in and injected Vanya of all people to kill. That was far too elaborate. No. The whole thing didn't make any sense.

"Rumor?" Space asked.

Snapping out of it she turned around and looked at him.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she replied, "Just thinking."

"Want to share?"

"No."

"All right," he said.

Rumor paused for a second and looked him up and down.

".05 says the world's going to end with this game."

"No it isn't," said Space firmly.

"What if it was?" persisted Rumor, "And these were your last few hours, what would you do?"

"Rumor," he said, "I'm not quite sure where you're going with this-"

"Yes you do," she said, "Think about the roof. I just want to know."

"It doesn't matter," Space said as he started to walk off, "There are more important things to think about right now-"

"I heard a rumor that too much televator use can make your joints freeze up," said Rumor sharply.

Space gritted his teeth in pain and stopped walking. Rumor walked up in front of him and smacked him hard.

"You listen to me," she said, "For five minutes. Just listen. Do you know how to do that anymore? This is real life, all of it and I want to talk to you about it. So don't you dare say a word."

It was all Space could do to gape, let alone speak.

"Do you know that I liked what happened on the roof?" she said angrily, "I liked it and I wish that I'd listened to you before marrying Patrick. Even then I should've seen the warning signs. I should've followed my instincts. I should've just gone after you like I wanted too when I was fifteen."

"I shouldn't have married him. Hell, I shouldn't even have dated him. It shoudn't have been him. It should've been you! Claire should've been yours!"

At this his eyes widened but Rumor continued talking rapidly.

"But no, I wanted to do something normal. That was wrong though. See there's a very high probability that we're all going to die very soon. So I say screw normal," as she said this she adjusted her mask so that it showed more prominently on her face, "This is who we are and it's too late to run from it. If you want me then I'll want you. Now I heard a rumor that televator stiffness stops after five minutes."

Turning away Rumor walked down the hallway angrily.