It was already dark by the time they reached the Academy, walking to the dining room to see almost all of them there. The girl immediately noticing that both Vanya and Five were nowhere to be found.

"So are you gonna tell me anything?" Diego started as the two entered, shooting a glare at the girl. She only looked back at him in confusion, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Apparently, there was a girl and a boy in uniform yesterday at Griddy's Donuts where a shooting happened. Tell me what happened," he said with gritted teeth.

"Oh, that, ehm," she said and scratched her nape. "We should probably wait for Five to tell you all what happened."

"So you were in the shooting?" Allison asked in surprise, stopping from taking a bite on the steak their mom made for them.

"Yes.." she drawled, "But I didn't wanna be there! Remember when Five just grabbed me without even asking if I wanna go with him? He brought me there!" She defended. "But then, how did you know, Diego?"

"The only witness, the waitress, talked about there being a truck driver with two kids with him. Even said that you were the one with her while the shooting happened, left first once the gunfire stopped and when she checked the main diner, you were already gone."

Grace put a plate with steak in front of both [Name] and Klaus, receiving a synchronized "thanks!" From both of them as they happily gobbled up their food.

They heard the door open and perked up, realizing it was Five and everybody leaving their plates to check up on him.

What did surprise the rest was to see how bloodied he looked, holding a huge bag behind his back.

"Oh my God, Five! What happened to you?" Allison asked in worry.

"Come, come, Mom could fix you up," said [Name], pulling him by the sleeve of his coat knowing that he dislikes physical contact.

He only clicked his tongue but didn't say anything as he let her lead him to Mom, who was in the kitchen, only then realizing she called Grace "mom". Mom immediately stopped what she was doing when she saw Five and led the two, followed by the rest of the siblings, towards the infirmary.

"Since when did you call mom 'mom'," he asked with a narrowed gaze at her, who had finally let go of his sleeve, as he tried to fix his coat.

"Since yesterday, she asked me to and I thought it was more polite rather than just calling her by her name," she simply answered.

"And you knew I had a wound because you saw it in this 'show'?"

"Obviously!" She said with a roll of her eye, causing him to shake his head at her and enter the room.

Five removed his coat and vest, then followed by his bloodied shirt, seeing the huge wound of what seems to be a bullet on his right shoulder.

"Why does this feel new even if I already saw it?" He heard her murmur but ignored it as Mom started cleaning him up.

"So now that you're here, mind telling us what that shooting at Griddy's was about?" Diego asked with crossed arms.

Five huffed as he shot the girl a pointed glare who simply looked away, acting innocent.

"I was followed by agents from the Commission," he simply explained, wincing as Mom dug the bullet out from his shoulder.

"What is this 'Commission'? I remembered it was mentioned yesterday," Luther asked.

"It was the organization I worked for. Tasked with the preservation of the time continuum through manipulation and removals."

"I don't understand.." Luther murmured.

"Sometimes, people.. make choices that alter time." He trailed off. "There's no such thing as free will. As soon as that happens, we send one of our targets to.. eliminate the threat."

"I wasn't the only one. There are others like me. Beings plucked out of time, fractured, extracted from the lives that they knew."

"So you're.. a hit man?"

There was a moment before he answered. "Yes." Gasps of shock and disbelief came from his siblings as [Name] gave a lopsided grin of understanding.

"You had a code, right? You didn't just kill anybody?"

"No code. We took out anyone who messed with the timeline."

"What about innocent people?"

"It was the only way I could get back here."

"But that's murder!"

"Jesus, Luther, grow up. We're not kids anymore. There's no such thing as good guys or bad guys. There's just people, going about their lives."

"But when the world ends, all those people die. Time.. changes everything." He sighed. The rest were silent as he avoided their gazes, then looking up as the girl spoke.

"Is Vanya not coming today?"

"Are you finally telling us what is about Vanya?" Five commented with a raised eyebrow.

"What is he talking about?" Luther queried, looking at [Name] with a curious frown.

"What?" She inquired, pretending to be naive but failing miserably. "I don't know what you're talking about," she added with an innocent smile.

"You're the worst liar I've ever seen, [Name]," Klaus flatly stated.

They held a staring contest for a few seconds before the girl gave up with a huff. "Okay fine! I am hiding something, but it's not my secret to share," she defended. "Besides, if it is gonna be told, Vanya should be in here alongside Pogo."

"What does Vanya even have to do with the apocalypse?" Diego scoffed.

"A lot. Trust me," she uttered with a sad smile. "All of you have something to do with the apocalypse. Well except Ben, I guess," she added in thought.

"What? How bad could we even do something that it'll possibly cause the apocalypse?" Luther asked in confusion.

"Oh trust me, big guy," she said with a dry laugh. "It's really bad. All of you are basically at fault, really."

"You're telling us that we caused the apocalypse and yet you won't tell us how to stop it?" Asked Five in irritation, gritting his teeth as Grace started sewing his wound shut.

"I would, but again, some things still need to happen so I wouldn't mess up the timeline too much. And Pogo needs to be the one to start fixing it by telling you all," she said with a shrug.

"It's already three days, [Name]! What else do you need? That we wait until there's a day left before we go and solve this whole thing?!" It was quite clear that he was trying to keep a hold of his anger, with his clenched fists and gritted teeth, eyes blazing that were directed at her.

The girl bit her lip as she averted his glare, knowing he was right. She then sighed in exasperation, coming to a decision.

"Okay, tomorrow," followed by a groan from Five. "We still need to get Vanya, alright? I'm pretty sure she's getting ready for bed now or something. Call her and I guess kindly ask Pogo to finally tell you what it's about." She said with a sigh.

"But that still doesn't answer what this eye has to do with any of it," Five said once Grace was finally done, grabbing the cloth-covered eyeball from his coat.

"It's because that person is a, uhm, fuse, as you had called it then. They're gonna lose an eye because they're getting desperate and wants to.. well, tomorrow." She cut herself off with a smile as Five then stomped towards her, pinning her to a corner as he gave her a menacing glare.

"If you think this is a game and still don't tell us everything we need to know tomorrow, I'll make sure you see the apocalypse earlier than expected," Five snarled, stepping back from her face but still close enough, seemingly waiting for a response. [Name] gulped as she slowly nodded in understanding, Five giving her one last glare before leaving the room.

"Whoo, the tension is.. bravo!" Said Klaus, clapping as he broke the silence. The girl blinked as she tried to process what had just happened, feeling both embarrassed and terrified by what he had just done.

"I, uh, gotta go to bed now," [Name] reasoned as she walked hurriedly towards the door, feeling her face grow warmer as unwanted thoughts came unbidden.

**

[Name] woke up, feeling a little refreshed given that she slept quite early yesterday. Of course, that doesn't mean most of her time wasn't spent trying to wash away what had just happened.

She stood up and checked the wardrobe, seeing that her old clothes were already washed as she used her jeans and paired it with a knitted sweater. She saw that it was sunny outside so she didn't really need to wear anything thick.

Once she was done showering, she started walking down, but then stopped as she remembered her phone. She could probably use it today for something. And maybe check if there are electric plugs here.

She realized that she was getting more familiar with the house, easily navigating her way through the dining room. Though the girl also knew that she probably have only seen like ⅕ of the house given how huge it is.

"Morning," she greeted, smiling at a distressed looking Klaus holding his temple as he closed his eyes. Withdrawal symptoms are probably taking effect now, and the ghosts, she guessed.

[Name] patted Klaus in the back sympathetically as she sat next to him. "It's going to be okay, Klaus. Your family's here to remind you you're not just surrounded by the dead." Klaus seemed to have heard this as he looked up and gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"Do I really have to be sober for this?" Klaus asked and she was about to answer when he snapped and glared at his right. "Yes you do, Klaus. It's for the better," was what Ben said.

"Better my ass," Klaus retorted, then groaning due to the excessive shake of his head when he whipped his head towards Ben's direction.

"Don't worry, maybe we can get your powers working, too. D'you know you can't only see and hear ghosts, but that you can also materialize them and make them seen by others! You could literally make an army out of them!" [Name] said excitedly, remembering her prideful joy when she saw the scene of that second apocalypse in the 60s with Klaus finally able to use his powers besides it being a curse to his whole well-being.

"What? Really?" Klaus asked, lighting up in excitement.

"Yeah! You could get them to do anything! You even get to summon Ben and have him do his monster thing again!" But it seems that Klaus was planning something else with it as he had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I could make a cult and scare people to do my bidding!" He told [Name] his plan, and she couldn't help but think that all he needed was an evil smile as he tapped his fingers together in front of him like those evil villains coming up with a plan.

"Well I mean.." she trailed off, knowing he definitely did that, too, but with *alive humans following his "words of wisdom".

"You wanted me here?" Came a new voice, both of them jolting up as they heard Vanya. "Sorry I was a little late, a, uhm, student friend came and gave me.. flowers," she said almost shyly, the girl bolting up in shock.

"Oh that is so nice, I'm proud of you, Vanya," cooed Klaus, coming up to hug his sister.

"Yeah about that.." [Name] nervously said.

"Vanya's here? Now tell us." Five appeared out of nowhere, surprising [Name] who was still not used by his disappearing acts.

"We need to gather the whole family and have Pogo tell all of you. I'm just here as moral support."

Five sighed in exasperation as he grabbed hold of [Name] and Klaus' hand - Vanya already holding the girl's other hand, and teleporting them to the sitting room, finding that Diego, Luther, and Allison were already there.

"Where's Pogo?" Five said irritatedly as the three tried their best to not puke, Klaus being unsuccessful as he threw the contents of the nearby bowl and inserting his own in it.

There were simultaneous groans of disgust as Klaus wiped his mouth, saying, "You should really warn us if you think of doing that, little Five."

"Where's Pogo?" Repeated Five, ignoring his brother's quip as he gazed at the three.

"I'm here, Master Five," Pogo stated, slowly walking towards them.

"Let's get down to business."