[Name] woke up, a little breathless as she shook off the hazy feeling of sleep. She just had a nightmare of getting stuck in the apocalypse, seeing everybody's corpse surrounding her, their ghosts taunting her for being the only one left alive. That she can't save them nor can she go back to her family ever again.

She again shook her head, slapping herself a little as she looked out the window, seeing that it's still dark out. The girl then stood up, looking at her phone that she had charged and saw that it was 5 am – and knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Once she was done, decided to go to the kitchen to get herself food.

**

"Good morning dear," was Grace's greeting, clearly programmed to wake up early.

"Good morning, mom," [Name] greeted back, already showered and seemingly ready to leave.

"Are you going somewhere, sweetie?"

"Ah yes, I'm planning on checking something out today, just let the others know I'll be okay."

"Have you already eaten breakfast?"

"Yes mom, I cooked myself some bacon, didn't really want to wake you up."

"Oh you shouldn't have, sweetie, but alas, do be careful," she answered as she started cooking a meal for the rest of the siblings.

[Name] bade Grace farewell, opening the door and soundlessly closing it behind her to make sure nobody would wake up. She checked her phone again, seeing that it's already 8 am as she looked left and right before crossing the street.

She was feeling curious and wanted to know how far behind this universe is when it comes to possible research about time travel and parallel dimensions. She had thought of looking it up on her phone, but unfortunately, google is still not a thing in this world and thus she needed to check about it from the library. Of course, she has no idea if they're advanced enough that the theory about time travel already is a thing in this universe, but given that it does exist thanks to the Commission, she would like to hope there is something.

The girl didn't know how she navigated through the streets, only that she knew, as she walked through lane after lane trying to find the library Five had gone to the first time.

She then thought that maybe good ol' daddy Reggie had a possible research about this, given that he apparently knew of the apocalypse occuring, so decided that she'd ask Pogo about it after she's done with this mini mission.

**

After checking out the library and finding nothing that's helpful enough, she decided to finally go back home and check on the guys that may be worried about where she'd gone. She did forget to tell Grace where she was going.

She looked up ahead as she crossed the street, when she met the gaze of an old man who was frozen still, mouth open in shock. The girl furrowed her brows in curiosity but still kept a small smile in place as she reached him, about to pass the man when he stopped her in her tracks.

"Are you.. are you Athena's daughter?" Which left her absolutely flabbergasted. That was her mother's name alright.

"Athena.." and proceeded to disclose her mother's maiden last name which made her shock that much more apparent.

"Oh you are! Where is she? I've missed that girl! Haven't seen her in decades. I thought something bad had happened to her.."

But she was skeptical of him given how impossible it was for him to know her mother. She lives in the other universe, for Pete's sake! "I think you might be mistaken, mister." Perhaps the man was talking about a parallel counterpart of her in this universe.

"No-no! You look exactly like her. She called you [Name], wasn't it?" Pausing to look at her shocked reaction before continuing. "She was--Athena came to me with a baby explaining her situation and then left when.." he trailed off, expression crestfallen. "She said they had a plan, that they were going to try and cross towards another parallel universe."

**

Five went downstairs as soon as he was done showering, donning a new set of uniform as he mulled over if he should get himself a new outfit, subconsciously looking for the girl when he recalled that he didn't see her in her room earlier.

"Good morning dear," greeted Grace as she set down plates for them, Five seeing that Allison and Diego are already eating.

"Is [Name] not here?" He asked as he sat down, letting his eyes roam to catch a glimpse of the girl.

"I'm afraid she left earlier today," Grace pleasantly answered.

"Why? Missing her already?" Allison teased with a smirk.

"Wow, never thought I'd see the day Five gets comfortable enough with a person, much less a girl," Diego added with a snicker.

He scoffed at this, "Of course not, I just didn't see her in her room."

"Sure," they drawled, unconvinced.

"Hey," a groggy Klaus greeted, grabbing their attention as they saw him already holding a bottle of liquor.

"Hey no, it's too early for that," Allison scolded, grabbing the bottle away from Klaus. "You haven't even eaten anything yet."

"But they're so loud, they won't stop whining," Klaus, ironically, whined.

"Uh-huh, you need to get used to it if you want to finally use your abilities as part of your blessing and not just a curse," Allison said wisely.

"But it is a curse," he muttered as he sat down, mumbling a "thanks" when Grace laid a plate of food in front of him.

"Which can be a gift if you use it wisely," Ben commented.

"Shush, I don't need your words of wisdom this early in the morning."

"It's 10 am," Diego interjected.

"Plus, you're the only one who can see and talk to Ben," Allison added.

"Is that supposed to be a blessing? I feel like it's supposed to be a blessing," Klaus retorted, causing Ben to smack him right in the head.

"Ow!" Klaus groused, glaring daggers at Ben as the rest stood shocked at what had just taken place.

Ben looked down at his hands, startled, as he tried to smack Klaus again, but this time with no success.

"Hah! You can't hit me again.." Klaus boasted but soon trailed off as he finally realized what had just happened.

"Did Ben just hit you?!" Diego exclaimed in astonishment.

"Ben, do it again," Five instructed, waiting for some form of reaction from Klaus.

Ben tried it again with plenty of hope but slumped in defeat as nothing occurred, rationing that it might be a one-off thing.

"That hurt, you know," Klaus huffed, rubbing his head.

"But if Ben can affect you, that means your power is getting stronger, which means we can possibly see him again!" Allison declared in excitement, shaking Klaus.

"Please, it's too early for this," Klaus complained as he tried to stop his sister from shaking his whole well-being sober.

But Ben was now also getting excited, because as much as he cares for his brother, he does get tired with just talking to Klaus - especially when he doesn't even listen, unlike the rest of his siblings.

"What's the ruckus?" Luther inquired, entering the kitchen.

"Ben just smacked Klaus!" Allison pronounced excitedly.

"Ben..?"

"Yes! The Ben! We might be able to see and interact with Ben in no time if Klaus just makes sure to stop with his addiction.." Allison trailed off.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Diego responded with a shake of his head.

"Oh ye of little faith," Klaus vocalized, offended, but slumping as he realized how hard his task is. ".. Actually, maybe you're right."

They were surprised when they saw [Name] sitting next to Five, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, and absolutely out of it.

"What happened to you? Where did you go?" Five immediately inquired as he drank the black coffee that the girl placed in front of him.

"He was looking for you earlier," Diego quipped with a smirk, Five glaring at him.

"I was.. I went to the library and then I.. found out something," she said almost breathlessly, clearly still processing information told to her.

"And that is?"

"I'm.. I'm apparently originally from this universe."

"Excuse me?" Allison sputtered.

"Yeah.. I was--I was skeptical when I heard it from him, too, this stranger that looked like he'd seen a ghost and just came up to me. But he told me something that most really wouldn't know unless they know me personally. Heck, you guys don't even know my mother's name!" She rationed, "Then he said I could come to his house so he could show me proof that he was apparently best friends with my mom back in the day."

"And you went to this stranger's house?" Five asked, almost angrily.

"Of course I didn't! I was taught to never trust strangers, thank you very much," the girl replied, offended. "I just said I'd think about it and he gave me his address. Apparently I'm almost an exact copy of my mom."

"And do you believe him?" Allison raised her brow, skeptical.

"I.. I honestly don't know. There was too much information for him to just be some random stranger, but then I'm afraid that what if he's part of the Commission and they just somehow found all those things out from God-knows-where?"

"And do you want to go and check if he's saying the truth?" Vanya this time butted in.

"I.. do," she whispered, avoiding everyone's gaze.

"Then I'm coming with," Five said determinedly.

"Well, I mean, we still have the apocalypse to worry about, no? We can probably do this when we're done with it all." She reasoned, scratching the back of her neck.

"But you really want to know, don't you?" Allison asked softly.

"Yeah, of course I do," the girl answered honestly.

"Well, we don't really have anything else to do besides getting Vanya's powers ready, no?" Klaus asked.

"And yours, too," Allison reminded with raised brows, Klaus averting his eyes innocently.

"So you can go check it out for now, [Name]. Then just come back and tell us if anything occurs from it. Five would be with you in case anything bad happens, anyways." Vanya added with a smile.

She sighed in resignation, finally acquiescing with a nod and a small fond smile. She's really quite glad that she met them.

(╥﹏╥)

AN: I was supposed to upload this yesterday but unfortunately, upon editing it, I realized I made a huge mistake in the plot department. So now, here I am, re-writing the whole goshdarn thing. And the most unfortunate thing of all, I have already written until CHAPTER 15! So that was 10k words down the drain