∽☂ ∽

"𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘?"

∽☂ ∽

"𝐖𝐇𝐎𝐀, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄?" Y/n looked around herself, noticing that the tunnel walls were all made from glass. They had changed roles by now and Five was the one that was in the lead, taking her by her hand.

A mysterious sound seemed to be resonating around them, they couldn't even see the end, the tunnel seemed to look endless.

"I don't know," He sighed, looking around as well. "But it doesn't look too good to me."

Eventually, they caught up with everyone at the end of the tunnel and safely made it to the other side. Lila kicked the door to open it and everyone rushed to a seemingly almost identical room as before.

"Let's never do that again." Viktor heavily panted, putting his hands on his legs.

"What, narrowly escape the apocalypse?" Five rhetorically asked him before turning to Y/n. "You okay? Nothing hurt?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She told him, walking away from his side and looking around the room. "There's something wrong about this."

"Same suite, just ass-backward." Lila explained to her.

"No hyperbole there." Five walked over to the girl and everyone else who were staring up at the wall.

"This is some hardcore Alice in Wonderland shit." Ben sighed.

"Yeah, but only worse." Y/n's eyes went wide.

Finally, Dad came running through the tunnel, panting like being chased after someone, and closed the door on his way in. "At last," He said out of breath, leaning against the wall. "The other side."

"Wait," Viktor was quick to notice something. "Where's Klaus?"

"Children, I'm sorry, but your brother..." Reginald still couldn't speak normally. "...I did all I could, but he didn't make it through in time. The Kugelblitz has claimed its last victim."

"No, he was right behind us when we entered the tunnel." Five looked over at Y/n, seeing that she was in shock and disbelief too.

"We need to go back." Sloane suggested.

"There's nothing to go back to." Reginald said to her. "Children, there will be time for tears later." He stood up and walked across the room. "Right now, we have to keep moving."

As the kids watched him walk out, Viktor shook his head. "Wait, Luther and Klaus?"

But as much as they were convinced that Dad might have been behind this, there wasn't any time to start discussing it. So, the kids all followed Reginald to the elevator.

"Guess you were right." Y/n quietly whispered to Five, walking across the hallway. "There is something going on."

Five looked between her and Dad. "I think Luther and Klaus's deaths have something to do with him."

"What?" Y/n accidentally raised her whisper voice. "Sorry. But why? You said that Dad was working with someone and now they're both mysteriously dead."

"Yes, but none of us would be actually capable of killing their family, right?" Five made a valid point. "It must be him."

The family made their way down to the first floor of the hotel and walked out of the elevator with Dad in the lead.

"It's magnificent." Dad looked around himself as they all walked down the stairs.

"You guys should've stayed here." Ben spoke up. "This place is way nicer."

"Lila and I barely got out alive last time." Diego told him. "Remember?"

"Yeah, but I'm here this time, and the numbers are in our favor." Ben bragged to him.

"Well, whatever it was, it was strong, fast, and super pissed." Lila added as everyone spread out.

The kids all went in separate directions, looking around and inspecting the place. It wasn't very different from their regular hotel, this one had different colors, giving it a bizarre look.

"Alright, so, whatever you do, do not ring this bell." Diego pointed at the bell at the front desk. "Unless you wanna lose a finger or a tentacle." He looked up at Ben, getting an eye roll from him.

Sloane, along with everyone else, approached them. "I'll take my chances-" She was about to go for the bell before Lila stopped her by standing right in front of her. "Get out of my way."

"To take out this thing, we need to be in the right state of mind." Lila pointed out.

"State of mind?" Sloane raised her voice. "Do you mean, am I angry? Yes, I am angry. I wanna kill whatever it is that hurt Luther."

"Luther isn't the only one that's gone." Viktor said. "We lost Klaus too."

As the tension began to rise, Y/n moved her attention elsewhere - to Five, who was walking up to the entrance of the hotel. He walked away so smoothly, that no one even noticed that he was gone.

"Don't even try it, Five." Diego stopped him. "Doors won't let you out."

"So, what, we're stuck here?" Allison asked.

"This place is a test and a trap and a means of salvation, all at once." Reginald explained as Five walked back to them.

"Does anyone know what that sign says?" Y/n pointed at a small card next to the bell. The text on it was written in unfamiliar symbols, no one could decipher it.

"Yeah, it says "Do not ring the bell." Diego strictly told her. "That's what that means."

"We get it, Diego." Five spoke up, walking over to Y/n's side. "Bell bad. What do we do? Does anybody know?"

A silence set in.

"Reggie?" Allison asked Dad, who was standing in the middle of the entrance lobby and looking at something in his book. "Reggie."

They heard the pages of his book flip and judging by his ignorance, he was too busy to answer their questions or help them.

∽☂ ∽

"𝐈 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐓!" Lila whisper-shouted, getting Y/n's attention as she walked past them.

"But it would give the family something to fight for." Diego reasoned. "Come on, I'm still surprised you didn't tell Y/n about it."

"Tell me what?" Y/n seemed to have come out of nowhere for them. She looked at the couple, back and forth between them, waiting for an answer. It was obvious that they were hiding something from her.

"Uh, I..." Lila unsurely looked at Diego and quickly jumped off her seat. "...come with me."

Lila took Y/n by her arm and dragged her around the corner, somewhere more distant and secretive. When they were out of sight, Lila let go of her hand and locked eyes with her sister, getting that look. "I'm pregnant."

She held her breath, waiting for something to come out of Y/n's mouth. "I knew it." Y/n smiled and crossed her hands on her chest. "Of course, I doubted that a bit, because you ate sushi and you can't eat raw fish when you're pregnant, but I had my suspicions."

"You can't?" Lila's eyes went wide. "Shit, I already messed up."

"Hey," Y/n came in closer to her, seeing that Lila was about to start spiraling. "It's fine, I can't believe you never told me earlier, that's great news."

"There wasn't the right time for that." Lila heavily sighed. "God, I can already see this is going to be bad."

"Okay, listen to me." Y/n took Lila's hands in hers and lowered her voice. "Right now, you're stressing out for nothing. Trust the process, okay? Everything will be fine, take advice from me."

"Why?" Lila furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you pregnant?"

"No!" Y/n answered that way too fast. "I mean, no, but I have been through enough to know that, uh, everything works out in the end."

The two looked deep into each other's eyes, giving some smiles and sympathetic looks before Y/n parted her way and walked over to Five and Viktor, who were sitting on the stairs and inspecting Dad's every move.

"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times ain't gonna happen 'cause I'm not a gibbering idiot." Five whispered to him.

"Debatable." Y/n walked past him and sat down in between the two brothers. "What are you two talking about?"

"Do you think that Dad killed Luther or Klaus?" Viktor asked her.

Y/n looked back at Five and back at him. "I-We can't be sure about that entirely. I mean, it definitely wasn't one of us, so there is a possibility-"

"You serious?" Five looked at her. "This is his modus operandi. We've seen this before. Have you forgotten how we all came together in the first place?"

"Dad's funeral." Viktor answered as Y/n looked down at the ground.

"Exactly. He pulled this on you rubes before, and he's doing it again now." Five pointed at Dad.

"Come on, Five." Viktor shook his head.

"No, Five's right." Y/n spoke up. "He lost the vote to come through the tunnel, but we're here anyways. This was all part of his plan."

Viktor looked at the two kids in confusion. "Are you really sure that he could kill Luther?"

"I think he could kill Luther, Klaus, and the rest of us without breaking a moral sweat." Five told him. "And what's worse, I think Allison is involved."

"No, no." Viktor scoffed and shook his head. "She was with Sloane in the tunnel."

"I'm not talking about Klaus." Five said.

"Luther? No, she would never do that."

"She's been unraveling since we got to this timeline." Five looked over at her, who was sitting on the stairs with Sloane, helping her clean Luther's blood off her hands.

"Well, she lost her daughter." Y/n tried to reason.

"And she killed Harlan." Five shot back, making Viktor and Y/n go silent.

"Even if you're right," Viktor began. "I can't imagine they're just gonna come clean if we confront them."

"That's correct." Y/n said. "We just have to watch and wait."

The silence in the lobby was barely filled with Sloane's distant sobs, Reginald's constant steps around the hotel, and the clock ticking, reminding them that time was running out. For an hour, no one did or said anything, they just helplessly watched Reginald wander around. Until he got something.

"Gather around, children." He commanded, walking down the stairs and to the main entrance lobby. "Now that we've had a chance to catch our breath, the real work can begin."

Viktor, Five, and Y/n all stood up from their seats and began walking to him. "Ah, the myth of the seven bells, eh?" Five asked as the rest came over.

"Exactly." Reginald happily said. "Somebody's been paying attention."

"Okay, so we find the bells, then what?" Diego asked him, still holding his crossbow in his hand.

"No, no, no. The bells are just a metaphor for this." Dad flipped some pages in his book and showed a page with unknown symbols.

"The sigil." Five answered.

"Correct, Number Five. The sigil is the key to the seven bells. Once we find this symbol, we're one step closer to resetting the universe." Reginald continued to explain.

"What do we do when we find it?" Sloane asked him.

Reginald looked up from his book and sighed. "I don't know."

"Excuse me?" Viktor spoke up. "We're here because you said you have a plan."

"I do, up to a point." Reginald tried defending himself.

"Great." Lila snickered from the back. "So we'll just stay in the hotel forever, staring at the walls and eating bad sushi."

"Finding the sigil is our only way out of here and the best chance we have of resetting the universe." Allison explained to everyone.

"Funny how you and Dad are on the same page again." Five smiled at her, getting a suspicious glare back.

"Okay, where do we start?" Y/n noticed their looks and tried moving on.

"We'll split into groups." Reginald began. "I will go with Allison, Sloane and Y/n, Ben and Five with Viktor."

"No, we want Allison." Viktor was quick to say.

"Ben for Allison." Five suggested. "We've trained together, so it makes more sense if we take Allison."

But Allison scoffed and shook her head. "Yeah. No, thanks."

"Why not?" Viktor asked.

After some thought of consideration, Reginald decided. "Splendid idea. Allison, you go with the Umbrellas. Y/n as well. Let the Sparrows stick together."

Five could feel the relief wash over him after hearing the final decision. He looked over at Y/n and Viktor before they all silently agreed to go on with Allison right in the lead. They reached another floor, endlessly walking around hallway after hallway with nothing to see.

"Stay calm." Y/n could see the utter rage in Five's eyes. "Don't bring any suspicion for Allison yet."

"I think I already did." He whispered to her.

The two followed Allison from behind, carefully monitoring her every move. It was obvious that she wasn't feeling settled or calm because of her clueless wandering which brought on even more skepticism.

Allison opened another hotel room door with the rest walking behind her. "Someone went through a lot of trouble to hide this thing."

Viktor inspected the room. "How big is it supposed to be?"

"You know," Allison sighed, looking at a cabinet in the room. "Dear old Reg didn't say."

"Really?" Five spoke up. "Hm, that's surprising. I figured you'd know more about his plan."

Five stood next to Y/n with a proud look on their face as Allison turned around to look at them. "Sorry, what's that supposed to mean?"

"I saw you and him in the White Buffalo suite during the wedding." Five didn't dare to break eye contact with her as a way of dominance and confidence.

Viktor and Y/n exchanged some concerned glances with each other. "I don't know if now's the right time-"

"You know," Allison cut Viktor off. "I heard that you blacked out last night."

"I did, and it took me a while to remember what I saw, but I do remember, Allison." Five walked away from Y/n and towards Allison. "You and Dad made some kind of deal. What did you agree to?" And stopped right in front of her.

"A deal?" Allison chuckled. "With Dad? Please tell me you're joking."

"He's not." Y/n said to her, getting pathetic scoff back. Allison turned to Y/n and Viktor in disbelief, but Five saw that she avoiding him.

"Answer the question."

"You're out of your mind."

"You and Dad make a deal, now Luther is dead."

"Okay." Allison scoffed once again and shook her head. "Luther was killed by whatever the hell that thing is."

"And Klaus?" Five kept berating her with questions.

"He didn't make it into the tunnel."

"You know, your deal is costing people their lives now."

"Do you really think that I made a deal with Dad to kill Luther and Klaus?" Allison looked back and forth between the three of them. It was clear that they weren't going to believe her. "I'm done. I'll meet you in the lobby."

With anger raging within her, Allison stormed out of the room, not looking behind her at all. Viktor tried to stop her, but when she didn't, he ran after her, leaving the couple alone.

"Great." Y/n sighed, looking at the door. "Now we lost both of them. What now?"

Five glanced at her before he began walking towards the door too. "Let's just stick together."

Y/n followed him from behind, but when Five walked through the threshold first, he stopped her from following his steps. "Stop." He held his hand out as she stopped in her steps.

"What?"

"Try and walk through the door, then tell me if something feels unusual." He instructed her.

The girl was a bit skeptical but followed his orders. She slowly took a step through the threshold and looked back. "I don't know. It may have felt a bit..."

Then the two turned to their right only to see a wall with a plant instead of a long hallway. They exchanged some confused looks before Five walked over to it. "Viktor? Allison?"

Meanwhile, Y/n turned to her left and at the end of the hallway, another wall with paintings was situated. "Well, that's not weird at all."

Five saw that she was on the other end and quickly walked over to her. "Hey, let's stay together, don't wander somewhere off, something's very wrong here." The boy took her hand in his and made a promise. "The three of us will make it out of this hellhole. Sooner or later, we will."

"Yeah." Y/n whispered to him. "That's what I keep telling myself to stay calm."

Five smiled at her for reassurance and took her hand a lot more. "Come on, let's go."

∽☂ ∽