death is but the next great adventure

[terriblymisguided]

Klaus has a funny relationship with death. Mostly, he's a little surprised that after a childhood spent being a rather worthless superhero, followed by over a decade of addiction and one stupid decision after another, death hasn't come for him yet. It's sort of a miracle that he's even stayed alive this long, given the circumstances .

There have been close calls, of course. Perhaps none closer than that night with Luther where he struck his head against a cement floor and went to wherever that was where he spoke with that bitchy child and his bitchier father.

It had even gotten to the point where Klaus thought that maybe he'd end up cheating death entirely, but it seems that he was wrong about that. Death will come for him. He thinks maybe it's coming for him now.

Death is at the front of his mind, but that isn't surprising. What else is there to think about when you're bleeding out on the sidewalk?



It all happens very fast.

Klaus is walking along the street, sipping iced coffee and gesticulating wildly as he recounts an embellished story about a drag king he'd befriended in Amsterdam, when suddenly there's a wild cacophony of sound. A peaceful afternoon is disrupted when a car runs a red light and crashes into the side of another car, sending it spinning wildly into the front of a bakery just a few yards from where they're standing.

Glass and metal explode outward and litter the ground, which startles Klaus enough that he drops his iced coffee. The plastic breaks as it hits the pavement and the coffee spills, sending the liquid outward to follow the patterns of cracks and grooves in the sidewalk.

"That was a close one, huh?" Klaus says to the person next to him, but his voice sounds strange. His throat tickles and when he tries to clear it, the taste of copper fills his mouth and he coughs a little in surprise, blinking as blood trickles out from the corner of his mouth.

He hears a scream and coughs again, starting to shake as he tips his head down to look at his chest. There's so much blood there suddenly, pumping out of a hole in his chest and staining the thin pink tee that he's wearing. It spreads outwards like the coffee on the ground, growing and taking over whatever dry space it can reach.

Klaus reaches up to touch his trembling fingers to the edge of the jagged wound, coughing again as he slowly turns to look behind him. There's a piece of metal on the ground, rebar shrapnel, and it too is covered in crimson red. “Fuck.”

It's only once he realizes what's happened that it starts to hurt, and he feels like a child that's fallen down but doesn't start to cry until he spots the blood on his knee. It hurts so bad that Klaus can't breathe, or maybe that's because his lungs are filling up with blood.

He gives the person next to him a panicked look and then stumbles backwards, collapsing back onto the pavement and staring up at the sky. There's blood in his throat, pooling in his mouth until he chokes, and a part of him wants to laugh.

All those dangerous missions, all those years ruining himself with drugs. Multiple apocalypses. Frontline combat in Vietnam. All of that and this is how he's going to go-- random happenstance. A horrible accident. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so fucking depressing.

"I'm sorry," he chokes out to the person kneeling at his side, because he loves them and he doesn't want them to have to deal with this. He doesn't want to leave them, but everything is getting dark and cold and he's being called away to somewhere else.

Death is pulling him away, sick of being cheated out of the chance to reap Klaus Hargreeves, and this time, he can't seem to fight it.

This time, he has to go, even though it's the most that he's ever wanted to stay.

Comments

[larger_world]

Obi-Wan is listening to Klaus's story with interest, as he always does, because while life on Coruscant was certainly fascinating and filled with things far beyond anything he's seen in Darrow, he still hasn't managed to see half the things Klaus tells him about. He is, in fact, listening so closely that the accident takes him by surprise, something that will bring him to his knees in grief later when he has a moment alone. But Klaus speaks, make a joke even, and while Obi-Wan is looking toward the accident, prepared to go help, something in Klaus's voice causes him to turn.

There is no death, there is the Force.

He catches Klaus as he collapses. They go down to the pavement and the blood is too warm, hot, pumping too freely and Obi-Wan sets Klaus down and presses both his hands to the hole in Klaus's chest.

"No, no, no," he whispers, because he can't do this again. He held Qui-Gon as he died, he watched Padmé die, he held Satine in his arms as the life bled from her, he watched Anakin burn on the shores of Mustafar. He cannot do this again.

But he must.

There is no death.

His hands press against the wound, trying to staunch the flow. Klaus speaks, apologizes, and Obi-Wan shakes his head, determined to stop the blood, determined that Klaus will not die the same way as so many others he has loved.

There is the Force.

"No," he whispers again, but it's too late.

[terriblymisguided]

Obi-Wan cradles Klaus against his chest and he finds that he isn’t even scared. He’s angry at whatever force has decided that it was Klaus’s time to go because it put that shattered look on Obi-Wan’s face.

He never wanted to be another person that Obi-Wan Kenobi has to mourn.

“Obi,” he gasps out, reaching a shaking hand up towards his face because Klaus wants to comfort him, even in his last moments. He wants to make a joke, make a silly face, call him a ridiculous pet name, if only to take that look out of his eyes. He doesn’t want to cause him any pain, doesn’t want to make him go through this again.

His bloody fingertips touch Obi-Wan’s face and he tries to speak, tries to tell him that he loves him, but he can’t seem to make his mouth work. Instead he just holds Obi-Wan’s gaze for as long as he can, tears welling in his eyes until they finally unfocus and he goes limp in Obi-Wan’s arms, pulse stuttering to a stop as his eyes point unblinkingly at the sky.

And then Klaus is gone, swept away somewhere that Obi-Wan can’t follow.

[larger_world]

Klaus dies.

Like Qui-Gon, like Satine, Klaus dies in his arms, his gaze going first distant, then all life simply disappearing from them. A tear trickles down Klaus's cheek and Obi-Wan wipes it away, heedless of the blood on his hands, then shifts his hand to close Klaus's eyes. He can't bear to look at them, not without the light and the life that made up the wonder of Klaus Hargreeves.

"Sir?" someone asks from nearby and Obi-Wan turns, blinking against his tears. "We called an ambulance. They'll be here right away."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan says, his voice hoarse. He reaches for Klaus's arm, the one outstretched on the pavement where it had fallen after Klaus had touched his arm. Carefully, Obi-Wan crosses it over Klaus's chest, then folds his other hand on top. If he ignores the blood, Klaus looks peaceful, as he looks sometimes when he's sleeping.

[terriblymisguided]

Klaus is unaware of the commotion that surrounds his body after he dies because, well, he's a little distracted. Minutes pass and they probably feel like hours to Obi-Wan, who kneels on the pavement and holds him.

One minute of death turns to five, five to ten, and Klaus's blood spreads further and further outward on the pavement, soaking the knees of Obi-Wan's jeans and the hem of his robe. Sirens blare, people gather, and ten minutes become fifteen.

While it may not look like he's doing much, given that his heart has stopped pumping blood to his brain, but Klaus is busy. His skin loses color as blood drains from him, but he still exists somewhere, doing his best to fight his way back.

On the sixteenth minute after his death, Klaus Hargreeves suddenly slams back into his body and comes alive with a harsh gasp, back arching in Obi-Wan's loose grasp as his eyes snap open. His mouth is still full of blood and he turns his head to cough it up and spit it onto the sidewalk, panting harshly as he turns to stare up at Obi-Wan's stunned face.

He's shaking as if he's laying barefoot in the snow, cold down to his bones, and his teeth chatter as he winces against the pain in his chest.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily," Klaus gets out, smiling even though his face and teeth are red with blood. There's more blood on the ground than in his body, it seems, but he's alive. Somehow, he's alive.

[lazyandincompetent]

"Oi!" Nathan shouts, staring down at Klaus with wide eyes. He doesn't want to admit how shaken he is, seeing Klaus bleeding out on the pavement, his eyes going glassy and then just... blank. Nathan has died plenty of times now, but he's still horrified by the sight of it in front of him, on the face of someone he's definitely going to look just like in a few years. Ten years.

"Klaus?" he asks, even though Klaus is definitely dead. "Hey, Klaus. This isn't funny, mate. You need to get up now. Vanya's gonna be so pissed if you don't get up. C'mon, mate. Get the fuck up!"

He sort of wants to kick Klaus, but people are already staring at him, so instead Nathan drops to his knees, grabs Klaus by the shoulders, and starts to shake him.

[terriblymisguided]

Shaking a dead person doesn't really do much other than make people look at you with a horrified expression, and that's what happens now. Nathan shakes Klaus's dead body like a ragdoll, sending droplets of blood flying in all sorts of directions, landing on Nathan's pale skin like someone flicked a paintbrush at him.

"Kid, kid. He's gone," someone says to Nathan, but that isn't exactly true. Klaus is currently currently dead, yes, but he's working on it, okay? "You gotta let him go."

Nathan doesn't, so he's still clutching Klaus's shoulders when he falls back into his body again, eyes snapping open with a harsh gasp.

[lazyandincompetent]

"Shut up!" Nathan shouts when someone tells him Klaus is gone. "You don't know that! I come back and we're practically twins, so maybe he'll come back, too."

But he isn't really expecting it. Just because they look alike doesn't mean they share the same powers and Nathan feels pretty certain Klaus is dead dead and he sort of wants to cry. He feels actual emotions at the thought, which of course Klaus has to go and ruin by just coming back to life.

"Gah!" Nathan shrieks and pushes Klaus away. "You fuckin' copycat!"

[terriblymisguided]

The first thing that Klaus sees when he opens his eyes is his own face, and for a moment he thinks that he's still stuck in that void, reliving all the times he's apparently fucking died. But then he realizes that it's Nathan, and he looks a little like he's about to burst into tears.

But that goes away as Nathan shoves him over on the pavement, sending him rolling over into a small pool of his own blood, made hot and sticky from the pavement.

"Jesus Christ, man," he says after he spits the blood out of his mouth, groaning as he curls into a fetal position and shakes on the pavement like the worst sort of comedown. "What the fuck did you do?"

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji does not see the accident but he hears it, the unnatural crunch of metal and glass and the shocked screams from a street over. He does not waste time running, throwing his arms out to leap and fly over the heads of the people heading towards the scene, attracted as always to the chaos.

He scans quickly, eyes raking over the stunned drivers already stumbling from their cars to the thickest knot of onlookers. He sees a pair of feet lying on the ground and pushes through, ignoring protests as he goes to his knees, only recognizing the blood soaked form as he draws spiritual power for healing.

"Klaus," he breathes, shocked and still as a pair of panicked, familiar eyes stare up at him. "No."

He draws a startled breath and clamps a hand to the gaping wound, other hand glowing blue as he pushes healing as hard as he can. He paused for an entire second, wasted an entire second.

[terriblymisguided]

The last thing that Klaus sees is Lan Wangji kneeling over him. Perhaps not the person that he expected to be there with him at the end, but at least it's a familiar face. Mostly familiar, anyway. He's never seen it looks quite so vibrant with emotion.

Klaus opens his mouth to try and speak, but there's too much blood. Whatever it was that did this must have blown through his lung, because it's all blood and no breath. He can't take in any air, and in the end he isn't sure what kills him in the end, the trauma or the choking.

He lifts his hand and puts it over Lan Wangji's on his chest, because Klaus knows that he's trying to save him, but it's too late. Klaus looks at him for another moment and then goes limp, hand falling to the pavement as his eyes point towards the sky, empty and unfocused.

[lan_wangji]

"Do not," Lan Wangji barks, face fierce with anger that Klaus would dare comfort him, would dare to let go, would dare die on this filthy street. He grabs the now limp hand that left a smear of blood on his chest and pushes it against the wound, both hands now covering Klaus and glowing bright as he pushes energy with his Core.

The murmurs of the crowd around him grow more agitated the longer this goes on, and the sirens of the car carrying healers is grating and late and useless.

A hand lands on his shoulder and he growls at them to leave, finally drawing Bichen with one hand as men in uniforms try and separate him from Klaus's body. He does not stop healing, will not stop. He refuses to accept any of this.

[terriblymisguided]

"Sir, we need to clear the scene," an EMT says, because Klaus is obviously dead. There's nothing more to be done. He's bled out and his heart is stopped, body still where he's sprawled out in his own blood.

But he isn't gone. He's going through something, figuring things out, and once he does, his eyes snap open and he sucks in a heaving breath, coughing as he turns onto his side and spits blood onto the pavement.

Everyone around him reacts in surprise, jumping backwards, and Klaus lets out a pitiful groan as he reaches up to put his hand over the gaping wound in his chest.

[number1_himbo]

Luther's too slow.

That's always been a problem for him, a place where Diego could edge him out, where Five ran circles around him. Too fucking slow, even before he became a giant ape man. So one minute he's walking next to Klaus, sipping a large frothy iced drink, and the next, he feels the warm spray of arterial blood on his face.

"Klaus," he's pretty sure he says in surprise, dropping his drink, somewhat aware that it rolls away to join what's left of his brother's. The sight of all that red, blooming up like a hothouse rose, finally hits him, and even if Luther's too slow, he runs the bases. "Call 911," he roars, "is there anyone, anyone with medical training, we need help. My brother needs help--"

Klaus on the ground, with more blood pooling around him than should be possible. How does Klaus have so much blood? Pressure on the word, that's right. Luther moves too slow, getting on his knees and slapping his thick dumb slab-hands where he thinks the worst bleeding is. An apology, from Klaus, and Luther tries very hard not to be too slow.

"No no no, you're okay. Hey, buddy, you're okay. I don't know where the, uh, the ambulance is, but we're gonna get going." An arm under Klaus's back, one under his knees. "Where, where the fuck is the nearest hospital," and he knows he's so, so stupid. They're too far away. "Klaus, stay with me, come on, we're gonna go. I've got you. Let's go to the hospital."

Someone draws near but it's not anyone that Luther knows.

"No, he's my brother, I'm taking him, it's okay. It's okay. Klaus? Hey, tell them where we're going."

[terriblymisguided]

This will kill Luther, Klaus thinks. His biggest brother will take this onto his heavy shoulders along with everything else that he blames himself for, but it isn't his fault. Klaus tries to tell him this but he can't seem to make his throat work, and it takes him a moment to realize that it's because he's choking. On his own blood. That's dark.

Luther picks him up like he's a ragdoll, like he weighs nothing at all, and even as he's dying, he thinks of a very funny King Kong joke, but he can't say it. All he can do is try his best to curl in towards Luther and stare up at his face, eyes wide and scared as blood runs from the corner of his mouth.

Klaus lifts a shaking hand to press it against Luther's chest, leaving smeared red fingerprints behind. He tries to open his mouth, to say Luther's name, to say anything, but nothing comes. He tries until he can't anymore, until everything goes black, and then he goes limp in Luther's arms, head tipping back as his hand falls from Luther's chest to hang at his side.

[number1_himbo]

People follow them down the street, including one middle-aged woman very concerned about how they're leaving a bright crimson path of gore. Despite Luther's best attempts to take even, careful steps, he needs to hurry and he can hear blood hit the pavement in dull bursts.

"I've got you," he repeats to Klaus, again and again. No time to call anyone; they're better off lucking out with the crowd and emergency services. Nothing directly around them like a clinic. Shouldn't... would Obi-Wan be able to sense anything? Luther thinks as hard as he can; he thinks Obi-Wan come to the hospital help Klaus he's dying and can't remember if Jedi are telepaths.

They're getting close to a massive bridge that involves exactly the kind of winding staircase Luther's sure Klaus would otherwise die to escape. Too many steps. Up Luther goes, aware that a hand is on his chest, and he refuses to pause.

"Klaus, it's me. We're getting help, I'm going to get you help. Okay, buddy?" He's struck by the sudden impulse to try one of those terms of endearments Klaus uses all the time, and he can't.

He says, "Stay with me, sweetheart," and that's how he knows that he knows that Klaus is dying.

Halfway up the stairs, Klaus dies, and Luther sits down on the steps, the railings biting into his shoulders, and shifts to cradle the body. With the crowd shouting below, he opens his mouth and does as his stupid ape genes tell him: bellows to the sky with animal rage.

[terriblymisguided]

The last thing that Klaus hears before his heart stops is that panicked endearment, and it makes him want to hang on so badly. For so long, he was mostly unconcerned with whether or not he lived or died, to the point where he sort of leaned into it. He drove too fast, walked too close to traffic, drank too much and took too many drugs.

And now that he's in a good place, healthy and happy and with people that he loves, he gets taken out by a freak accident. It doesn't seem at all fair, but there isn't anything that he can do about it.

Or maybe that isn't true. While Luther sits there with Klaus's limp body in his arms, there's a part of him that's still fighting. Minutes pass as Luther holds him, blood dripping onto the steps, and Klaus fights his way back.

Eventually, his eyes snap open and he gasps, coughing up the blood in his through as his body shakes. He feels frozen to the bone and he whimpers as he takes in his surroundings. When his gaze lands on Luther's face, he knows that he's safe enough to go limp again, chest heaving as the hole in it starts to slowly knit itself back together.

"Holy shit," he pants out, eyes wide as he looks up at Luther's face. "I'm here, big guy. I'm here."

[fifthbeatle]

"Oh my God, that did not happen," Viktor teases. Any of Klaus' stories are highly unbelievable, much like their lives in general. Is Klaus prone to melodrama and exaggeration? Of course. But it doesn't matter. These are beautiful parts of a remarkable whole.

Viktor is part of the chaos. The sound comes so loud and that Viktor's power lights him up. He turns just in time to see the car's trajectory. Fists clenched, Viktor shoves the vehicle to the side. It slams into a bakery. Fuck. Not a great day for collateral damage. Five's warning rings in his head: you can't save enough lives to make up for the ones you take.

But Viktor still tries.

He laughs at Klaus, who speaks behind him. Breathless, nerves frayed from the collision, he's staring at the bakery, trying to figure out how to assess the damage and wondering if everyone's alright. "Shit. I'm gonna go see--" Klaus' cough makes him turn. White eyes go wide and zip down to where Klaus' blood cascades from what Viktor thinks with a wave of nausea is a hole in his brother.

"Klaus!" He screams, panic pinching his voice. Viktor zooms over, but Klaus falls faster, his body hitting the pavement with a sick, wet smack. He slips on that torrent of blood gushing onto the sidewalk, crawling the rest of the way to Klaus.

"Nonononono," Vikor panics to himself. He lifts Klaus' head and slips his folded legs underneath him so Klaus can rest on his knees, so he doesn't choke. Fuck. He's already choking. "Klaus, you gotta stay with me, Klaus, please." Viktor's hands (the knees of his jeans, his sneakers and his white shirt) are all soaked with his brother's blood. Tears stream down his face as he... loses him. As he watches his brother fucking die. A crack of thunder booms loud enough to shatter the rest of the bakery window.

Viktor's powers whirl back to life, whipping trees, sending the metal spinning away into a nearby alley. He's brought someone to life before. He can do it again.

When it doesn't work the third time, Viktor crumbles over the body of his brother. The vivid dream that he woke up changed from is long forgotten.

[terriblymisguided]

Viktor's transition had been such a sudden thing, but perhaps not an entirely surprising one. At least not to Klaus. It isn't as if he suspected anything, but when Viktor told him, it made sense. There was just something right about it, and Klaus made the switch in his head with little fanfare at all.

Now, as he bleeds out on the sidewalk, he's glad that he got the chance to know Viktor at all.

"Viktor," he chokes out, shaking as his smallest brother (a spot that Five was recently dethroned of) pulls Klaus into his lap. He hates to see his brother so upset, hates how familiar that look of anguish is. Viktor has suffered so much and Klaus doesn't want him to have to endure this, too.

His eyes are wide and wet as Viktor tries to save him, pushing energy into Klaus's body, but it's too late. The damage is too great, too sudden, and there isn't anything that he can do. But Klaus knows that he tried, that he would do anything, burn the whole world down. He doesn't want any of that. He just wants Viktor to be happy.

Klaus's final act is putting his hand over his brother's, squeezing with everything that he has left, before he goes limp, hands falling to his sides as his eyes go dull, staring lifelessly at the bright blue sky ahead.

He dies knowing with absolute certainty that he's deeply loved, and that alone feels like a gift.

[fifthbeatle]

The sky's brilliant blue is ushered away as Klaus' grip slackens. Viktor wails, a truly awful sound swallowed whole by a violent clap of thunder. It cracks the sky open. Rain is falling in thick sheets, washing away all of the light and warmth that danced through her brother's body. From New York to Amsterdam. From Peru to Vietnam. Viktor is sure all the places his bare feet have touched ground must be ripping open the way his heart is. What is the world without Klaus in it? The time for wanting space from him ended long ago. They were supposed to go shopping tomorrow.

How the hell is he supposed to tell Luther or Five? What will he tell Obi-Wan?

He's clutching his brother close, upside-down, crying into the blood-soaked shirt like it might repair the damage, his body shelter him from the rain. Out of all of the things that have happened, this hurts the most. It's worse than the world ending, worse than when he looked back and heard that Luther didn't make it through to Oblivion. At least Klaus had been there, to give them one more chance.

Viktor chokes when he connects the dots. The rain doesn't stop pouring -- the part of his power Viktor and the others understand the least -- but he does sit up, squinting in the torrential rain. All manner of blood and dirt and rain are a clinging film to his face and clothes. He has never given less of a shit.

"Klaus!" He yelps. Any onlookers must imagine this young boy has moved from acceptance to denial in a record-breaking leap. They don't know what he knows, what Klaus doesn't even know. Unless he somehow came into this power during Viktor's strange dream.

These warring sides rage on: will Klaus revive or not? The rain pours. Viktor sits on his knees, drenched through, his dead brother's head in his lap. He takes Klaus' hands back like Klaus had taken his. If Viktor needed reassurance on the way out, maybe Klaus will need it back in.

The wait is very still. Viktor is not blinking, barely breathing.

[yiling_laozu]

In all his time here, Wei Wuxian has yet to ride in one of the metal monsters, and when he hears the bone chilling shriek of metal upon metal, the horror of it dispelled only by shattering glass and panicked screams, he recalls all too well why.

He rushes forward, certain that he will see the aftermath of terrible violence, but he isn't prepared for the victim of that violence to be Klaus. "No," Wei Wuxian whispers, transfixed for one long, horrible moment by a pain so deep he can't breathe. He's seen so many he loves lying just like this, on the ground, surrounded by their life's blood, cold and already gone. But Klaus isn't gone, is he? There might be time to save him yet, not by means any he's known have ever smiled on, but Wei Wuxian is long past caring.

"Klaus," he says, lifting the man's pale head onto his knee as his fingers work furiously, drawing crimson talisman after talisman into the air. If he could just hang onto life long enough, if Wei Wuxian could bind his soul even to this broken body -

"Klaus," he says again. "Gege. Please hold on."

[terriblymisguided]

When Wei Wuxian is suddenly there, cradling Klaus's head on his legs, he's relieved to see a familiar face. He always was afraid of dying alone, and now he won't.

The new angle eases the choking, and Klaus is able to swallow the blood in his mouth as he stares up at Wei's face, eyes wide and desperate.

"Wei," he gets out, rasping through the damage to his lungs. Shimmering red lights move in the air above him, spilling out of Wei Wuxian's pale hands, stained with Klaus's blood. Wei Wuxian is trying to help him, so Klaus tries to hang on. He tries for as long as he can, throat working before he suddenly goes limp, head tipping to the side where it rests on Wei Wuxian's thigh.

Klaus dies, but he wasn't alone and that's more than he ever thought he would get.

[yiling_laozu]

Even though he'd seen the inevitable - human bodies cannot lose blood like this without a golden core and survive - Wei Wuxian whimpers as he feels Klaus' spirit detach from his body, the last clinging tendrils of it giving up purchase and lifting into the hair. Steeling his jaw, Wei Wuxian switches tack, grabbing at each of them and holding them to this plane.

He can't save Klaus, but he can hold enough of him here for Obi-Wan laoshi to say goodbye, for his poor Lan Zhan to guide him to rest with Wangji. Oh, it will be agony for them, and there's nothing Wei Wuxian can do. Chin trembling, he lets Klaus slump to the pavement, neck twisting for anything he can use. If only he'd brought one of Lan Wangji's Qiankun bags into town today, he could safely host Klaus' spirit inside, but - ah, there on the ground. A little plastic figure rests; a child's toy, surely, but it will do.

Wei Wuxian pulls Chenqing from his belt and begins to play, mournful notes first guiding and then tugging the tendrils of Klaus' spirit into the toy.

[number_five]

It's been a surreal few days and Five is still trying to catch his breath. He'd forgotten how difficult it was, readjusting to society after the Handler had recruited him, and though his time in an empty Darrow had been a drop in the bucket compared to the time he'd spent alone in the apocalypse, the change has been just as jarring. Falling back into survival mode had been easier.

For example, he's still pretending not to flinch every time a car speeds past him as he walks on the sidewalk. It's a work in progress. Because he nearly jumps out of his skin at the collision nearby, when the impact from one car sends a second careening.

And he's so worried about his own stupid reaction that he doesn't notice at first what's happened. That there's a familiar figure lying on the sidewalk, blood pooling around him.

"Klaus?" Five says to himself, in disbelief at first. "Klaus!"

He teleports over to his brother, and before he has time to think, grabs Klaus's hand and tries to remember where the nearest hospital is. He's walked this city alone for years, and has the layout nearly memorized.

"It's okay! We're going to get you help!" he says and with a blink of blue light, they're in front of Darrow General. He just has to hope there's still time.

[terriblymisguided]

Just when Klaus thinks that he's going to die alone, just like he was always afraid he would, there's a familiar flash of blue light and his brother is suddenly there. Klaus lets out a relieved sob and squeezes Five's hand as hard as he can, stomach heaving as he's flung across town in less than a second.

He makes out the sign for an emergency room and he shakes his head a little, swallowing the blood in his mouth as he tries to speak. There isn't anything to be done. He's not sure that he's ever seen Five look so concerned, and as he does his best to focus on Five's face, he realizes that it's a bit different. It's sharper, perhaps a little gaunt, and even now, Klaus wants to ask him what happened.

"This is it, old man," he manages to say, doing his best to smile as he squeezes Five's hand. He doesn't want Five beating himself up for this, or spend any time wondering if he could have done something differently. He's just glad that Five is here, and he isn't alone. "I'm glad you came back."

Klaus weakly reaches up to touch Five's face, fingertips leaving bloody smears against his jaw before he goes limp against the pavement, letting out a last gurgling breath as his eyes go unfocused. Lifeless.

[number_five]

"Klaus?! Klaus, you're not going anywhere," Five says, frantic, then looks toward the emergency room door, a fire in his eyes.

"Somebody help!" he shouts, but there's blood on his brother's face and his breathing is labored, and Five has seen enough people die in his life-- and been the cause of the vast majority of them-- that he knows when someone is done for. He's watched the light fade from the eyes of his marks, some who deserved it, some whose crime was just not being a part of the timeline.

He's seen a dead world, the streets littered with bodies, his own family crushed and broken under rubble in the apocalypse.

He's seen more death than a person should in a lifetime, and still, he feels unprepared for this.

Klaus reaches up and touches Five's face, the coppery smell of blood familiar as it smears against his jaw. His brother breathes once more, and is still.

"...Klaus."