Chapter 6:The Vision and the Message
Eight's sudden collapse on the garage floor, his body shaking with a different kind of tremor, was a new kind of shock for Five. He had lived with the constant, grinding weight of the future, but to see it reflected in Eight's terrified eyes—that was a different kind of horror. Vanya knelt beside Eight, her hand on his back. She couldn't understand the temporal vision, but she could feel the raw fear and sorrow humming through him.
"Eight, breathe," she said gently, her voice a calm anchor. "It's okay. You're here now."
As Eight's shaking subsided, Five's mind raced. He had a million questions. What did Eight see? Was it the same apocalypse as his? What details did he pick up on? But he knew this wasn't the time for an interrogation. This was a moment for a pact.
He looked at Eight, then at Vanya. "No one else can know about this. Not Luther. Not Allison. Especially not Klaus." Five said, his tone was more of a command than a request. "What you saw, it's our burden now. All of ours."
A New Kind of Training
The next day, Five changed their training regimen completely. Instead of focusing on physical phasing, he began to work on mental exercises. He would hold up a complicated diagram of a theoretical machine or a dense equation, and Eight would close his eyes, running in place at a low speed. His mind would then accelerate, processing the information in a fraction of a second.
This new ability, speed thinking, was a game-changer. Eight could now grasp concepts that were once beyond his comprehension. He could solve complex equations faster than Five could write them. He wasn't just a force of nature anymore; he was a tactical genius in the making.
But the most surprising turn came when Five, in an effort to push Eight's new ability, held up a photo. It was a picture of a younger Klaus, sitting alone in a room, his eyes distant and haunted.
"Tell me what he's thinking," Five said.
Eight began to run, the sound of his feet a low hum. He looked at the photo, and in a flash of speed-thought, he saw it. Not just the physical image, but the emotional and mental landscape behind it. He saw the loneliness, the fear of the spirits, the crushing weight of a power Klaus never asked for. It was more than just a memory from the future; it was a profound understanding of his brother's pain.
He came to a stop, his face etched with a mix of sadness and determination. "He's... so alone," Eight whispered, his voice trembling. "He's terrified of the dead, but he's more terrified of being with the living."
The Unlikely Alliance
The newfound empathy shook Eight to his core. He hadn't just seen Klaus's thoughts; he'd felt them. He realized that for all his invincibility and speed, his brother was in a prison of his own mind. That night, Eight and Vanya found Klaus in the library, trying to read a book while subtly fighting the spirits.
Eight approached him slowly, without the usual chaotic blur. "Hey, Klaus," he said softly.
Klaus looked up, his expression a mixture of surprise and slight annoyance. "What's up, little brother? You here to break something, or just stand there and look menacing?"
"I... I can see what you're going through," Eight said, choosing his words carefully. "I've been working on my power, and I can... understand things now. I know what it's like to be overwhelmed by your own brain."
Vanya stepped forward, a gentle hand on Klaus's shoulder. "We're a team, remember? And no one fights alone."
Klaus stared at them, his usual sarcastic bravado replaced by a look of profound shock. No one had ever spoken to him like this. Not genuinely.
Eight, guided by his new speed-thought empathy, knew exactly what to say. "We can help you. We can show you how to control it. Not get rid of it, but... turn down the volume. Like a radio."
He and Vanya sat with Klaus for the rest of the night. Five watched from a distance, a ghost in the hallway. He saw Vanya, the family's supposed "zero," and Eight, the chaotic blur, working in tandem to help a brother they all had given up on. In that moment, Five realized that the apocalypse wasn't just about a bomb or a meteor. It was about the fractures in his family. And in Vanya and Eight, he had found the two people who could help him put the pieces back together