Sententia in progress.

Georgiana clapped slowly along with the rest of the spectators. The members of both teams looked at her, each with an equal measure of horror. To the White Violin they reminded her of dolls whose faces had been contorted somehow, most likely by fire or suchlike.

"Now I get Hargreeves's requests," Georgiana said, "Terribly clever. She is the Music Box, quite literally."

There were a few scattered laughs from the other spectators. The White Violin looked glassily at her and Kraken clenched his fists

"You did this to her?" he growled.

"Your father asked for it," she shrugged, "I didn't know that it would produce such amazing results. Fascinating, isn't it? He really was a genius. He's probably bowing in his grave right now."

"It really hurt," said The White Violin, still smiling, "Sometimes it hurt so much that I couldn't even scream."

"He put down that it might," said Georgiana, "He said that there were other, more violent methods, but he preferred to-"

Georgiana was cut off in every sense of the phrase. All it took was a quick twitch of The White Violin's bow for the alien viceroy to go all over the walls. Gorgeous shades of blue and gray cascaded like a monochromatic rainbow all over the theater walls. It looked like a finger painting she had done once. How marvelous. She'd have to try that again. Nodding to herself she said;

"Two down is a pretty good warm-up. I think that I'm ready to begin the recital."

Phoenix cast an almost furtive glance at the remains of his sister. Comet was almost mangled beyond recognition. Very good for her first try, although she preferred the results produced from her second. Small flames started to appear around his hands.

"Phoenix," Reaper said, "Don't-!"

He issued the warning too late. A large tunnel of fire swirled towards The White Violin. With matchless grace she twirled out if its way before striking another chord. Once more a burst of blood followed it. Everything was too easy. She should try something more complicated this time. So instead of stopping she continued playing. Almost like accompanying percussion a low rumbling started from the ground.

"I've never been this good before," she said as she played, "Let's see if I can bring the house down."

.

.

.

Kraken looked at The White Violin.

"Vanya," he said slowly.

"This is my first recital you've been to you know," she said as she continued playing, "This is the first recital any of you have been to actually. Touching. I've only been waiting for twenty years."

Some of the ceiling started to fall down around her. Even if they ran now there was no way they'd be able to get out before the building collapsed.

"It looks like we're all going to be crushed in here," she said thoughtfully, "Won't that be great? Doesn't really matter though. We're all going to die anyway."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Sentinels whispering to each other. They weren't his concern right now though. In fact all of his siblings were concerned only with Vanya. He saw .05 taking something out of his pocket. Was that Hargreeves's monocle? It didn't matter. Only one thing mattered to him. Slowly he started walking towards her.

"Put down the violin," he said carefully.

"Why?" she asked as he saw a pillar fall forward, "It's the only thing I'm good at. Everyone here knows that."

"That's not true," Kraken replied as he took another cautious step, "Put down the violin."

"It's no good trying to reason with her," sighed .05 as he looked around with the monocle over his eye, "The formula did something to her mind. She literally is not herself right now. She'll kill us all without even thinking about it."

"Well then. Vanya," said Space as he leveled his laser gun, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

Kraken shot him a glare so full of venom and hatred that they'd never even seen him give Hargreeves. Space took a step back, surprised.

"Simple," answered The White Violin, "Because I know Diego won't let you. Because he loves me."

"Vanya-" Kraken tried.

"Because I love you," she continued, oblivious to all else, "That's what I told you when I thought I was going to die. Now we won't have any of those in-between times. Won't it be better this way? Won't it be better then just going home and pretending to be a big happy family?"

With an earth shattering blam The White Violin crumpled to the floor, gray blood seeping out of her skull.

"Now that was a good shot," said .05 to himself.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" screamed Kraken as he closed the space between himself and Vanya's still form.

"What you would've done if you'd had the brass," .05 said coolly, "Don't worry. I'm too good for that bullet to have actually killed her."

It seemed that Kraken didn't want to hear explanations. Almost frantically he gathered her up and tried to stem the blood flow.

"I'm…really scared," she murmured, struggling to keep her eyes open, "I don't think….I don't want…to go…I'm sorry…"

"I'm not fucking losing you again!" snarled Kraken to the universe in general as he ripped his shirt and started to bandage her head.

"Either way it's over," said .05, obviously irritated that no one had congratulated him on his excellent shot.

"Think again," said Reaper from one of the balconies.

.

.

.

Reaper looked upwards at the open ceiling at the stars.

"I can see their life lines you know," he said calmly, "I can see the lifelines of any material. I can cut them from here. I wonder what would happen if I picked that one?"

As he spoke he pointed towards one of the stars. Alchemist nodded excitedly next to him.

"Don't be stupid," Space said, "That would kill you too."

"No," he said, still squinting and pointing, "We have Ghost to save us. She's covering us right now so shooting us would be rather counter-productive. Buckle in."

"You're being ridiculous," said .05.

Despite his nonchalant mood he actually was rather nervous. Was this how the world supposed to end? Getting crushed by a star? Oh shit.

"I doubt that she's that strong," he lied, hoping that perhaps it was all just a bluff.

"Either way my siblings' deaths will be avenged," he shrugged with a glint of anger in his eyes, "I think it's quite fair that you should lose the rest of your family seeing as most of mine is gone."

Space jumped forward but Reaper made a slashing motion in the air with his scythe. Rumbling started in the air.

"There's the first seven done," he said as he raised it again.

"Neil! Stop it!"

Everyone looked to the side to see Cat on an opposing balcony where Comet had put her at the beginning of the fight. Unlike before it seemed she was in her own body.

"Stop it all," she said, tears trickling down her face, "Haven't we lost enough?"

"Cat," he said firmly, "Get over here now."

"No!" she yelled, clenching her fists.

All of the Umbrella Academy looked uncertainly between the Cains, trying to figure out what they should do. Pointless drama in .05's opinion.

"You can't do this to the world!" yelled Cat before pointing at the members of the Umbrella Academy, "They got a terrible deal from the world too but they haven't tried to destroy it! Just let it go! Forfeit this stupid game and let it go!"

The rumbling was getting louder and Reaper had to practically scream his reply.

"Cat, you're not in your right mind right now. Get over here! That's an order!"
"No!" Cat yelled again.

"Athena, go get her!"

"Stay there!" shouted Cat, "Or I'll-"

Cat took out a revolver from a pocket in her dress and pointed it to her head.

"If you have only two players then you can't win," she said, her hand shaking.

"Calm down," said Reaper with an edge of panic, "You'll see this isn't right-"

"This isn't right," she said, still crying, "I love you but I won't help you with this. Not this time. I can't and I won't. Now will you or won't you stop?"

"Cat," he said frantically, "Don't do anything crazy, okay?"

Cat smiled sadly with a note of finality in her eyes.

"Don't be silly;" she said shakily, "We're all mad here."

Before Reaper could even utter a syllable Cat had pulled the trigger. A shower of blood erupted and Cat sank blissfully to her knees.

"CAT!" Reaper screamed.

Alchemist started forward in confusion before she clapped her hand over her eyes as she sobbed. All of the Hargreeves stared at the new turn of events. One of the spectators sighed and made a little mark on his clipboard.

"Guess it's over now," he sighed.

He was immediately liquidized by Spaceboy's gun. .05 raised his eyebrows.

"Sick bastards," Space hissed at the direction of the spectators, "This is entertaining to you? You liked this? What's the matter with you?"

"I could say the same about you," said another spectator, "Perjurer's been dying on the service walkway for ten minutes and no one's done anything. Terrible form."

With inhuman speed Spaceboy disappeared into the upper recesses of the theater. The rumbling had continued all through prior events and was now reaching a fever pitch.

"What's that sound?" .05 yelled.

"Humans have three lifelines," muttered Reaper, sounding like he had all of the emotion drained out of him and had been left only with apathy, "They all go to the heart. But I only need to cut two of them. Stars have ten. They can't stay up with only three."

"Meaning?" asked .05 as his blood turned to ice.

Reaper looked at him with the look of a man who didn't care anymore.

"Meaning that it'll fall anyway."

"WHAT?!" screamed .05

He looked up to see the star falling towards the theater.

"I hate this game," he sighed.

Everything exploded in plaster and wood dust. A cloud of white obscured .05's vision and he waited for the impact to kill him with bone shattering pain. Strangely enough it didn't. He hazarded to open his eye a crack. He was actually pleasantly surprised with what he saw.

Séance was standing with his hand outstretched in front of him with a rather stunned expression on his face. Only inches in front of his hand was the cratered hunk of star, held their by Séance's telekinetic abilities.

"Fascinating," smiled .05 crazily, "We're still alive."