Chapter 1: Can you walk on the water if I, you and I?

"Klaus is not here."

It was he who noticed but there was no more. The sentence hung in the air, suspended between Luther and him as a simple observation of the facts.

"Dad died"

"Our missing brother traveled in time, he came back and now he is 13 ... again"

"The world ends in eight days."

"Two guys with masks tried to kill us"

"Klaus is not here"

It was one more fact that added to a long list of events to which they had to adapt. Maybe that's what caused neither of them to react immediately. There were too many new facts lately. Maybe it was that, or maybe it was the fact that Klaus had not been around for too long. Not really. Since they were teenagers, Klaus had been characterized by his repeated absences and disappearances. He always ended up returning on his own. In a deplorable state and with little awareness of the events he had experienced, but he always returned …

Luther deposited Five on the bed. He was unconscious after being wounded by one of the bullets and his appearance was almost innocent. In one corner was the half of the manikin that he seemed to cling to since he had returned from the future. He wore the remains of a polka-dot shirt.

Diego remembered that Klaus had once appeared in a polka-dotted dress. He had been practicing like walking with high heels and he had done it. His steps were somewhat insecure but he was acquiring the technique. A stupid smile of pride on his face when he showed his dubious achievement.

Always doing idiocies ..

Diego shivers. A sudden anger rose in his chest at the memory.

"Let's go, we should talk to the others .."

It turned out that the others also had no idea where Klaus was. The issue was discussed in the midst of other important issues. The apocalypse and how to avoid it. The possibility that the end had something to do with the Moon (courtesy of Luther), among other issues ...

The meeting culminated, like all their meetings. With most of the participants offended for one reason or another, without solving anything in particular.

Diego dropped into one of the sofas. He was exhausted from dealing with his brothers. There was no point in trying to find a way to avoid the apocalypse. Without the help from Five, it was an impossible task. As a reflex, he pulled out one of his knives and began to sharpen it.

That polka dot dress was from Mom. It was one of her favorites. It was he liked to think (he did not know if a machine could really have favorites). That day, Klaus had put on mom's dress. The garment fit his body and fell elegantly. The look was strange in itself. But the strangest thing of all had not been that but the expression on his face. His wobbly smile at seeing himself in the mirror was so different from his lascivious, manic smiles, that made him look like a different person. The door to his room was ajar, he was just passing by ...

"Take it off!" He practically barked at him.

Klaus jump in the place emitting a small little masculine shriek.

"Diego! What the hell? You not know how to knock?"

"Take off that dress now!" He repeated because with Klaus he always had to repeat things to get him to do something. Clear and simple orders, just like Dad. Only that worked with him or his big mouth ended up entangled him in its absurd logic.

"You don´t like it? It's a little flat here but it can be solved. I think the shoes give the touch .. "

Diego lost patience. He held him by one arm and shook him. He did not know why he was so angry but suddenly did not feel like dealing with the stupidities of his sissy brother.

"Take it off!"

With the movement, Klaus lost the precarious balance he had achieved with the shoes. He staggered and fell. Diego didn´t see him. Rather he saw him, but he did not remember exactly how he had fallen. What he clearly remembered was the sound. A muffled sound. Something like a branch breaking.

Klaus' jaw fracturing.

He did not know. No, at that time. Hardly a trickle of blood came out of his mouth but he knew it was bad. Klaus cried and held his face. It was a silent cry, choked with pain. Every sob must have been agony. Klaus never cried.

Diego closed his eyes, put the knife away and stood up.

Diego entered the kitchen with a rush that contrasted with his recent passivity. Five was already conscious and had a coffee served by Allison. They both focused their attention on him when they saw him break into the kitchen with such impetus.

"We must find Klaus."

That was the plan. His plan. Simple, logical. His brother had disappeared. Judging by the recent events, probably kidnapped by the two assassins who stormed the mansion. It was necessary to rescue him. It's what any family would do. The problem was..

"No." Five's response had his hallmark. Direct and cutting. "The priority at this moment is to stop the end of the world. We can not lose a second. "

"He's our brother for God's sake!" Indignation gushing through every fiber of his body. Diego knew that Five could become cold but refusing to help one of his brothers was already on another level.

Five put the cup on the table with more force than necessary. For a second, Diego could see in his eyes not his little brother but the man who had had to spend years and years in a devastated world.

"It is. But he was also stupid enough to let himself be captured. Now he will have to fend for himself. "

Diego still could not believe it. He was used to the fact that his plans never materialized, to be heard but never taken into account. But he never thought about being alone in such a situation ...

"Allison?"

His sister had never been his accomplice in anything. Always too interested in accompanying Luther's decisions. However, this time an expression of deep embarrassment was visible on her face.

"We can´t leave Klaus alone. If we don´t rescue him ... "

Diego let out a sigh of relief, silently grateful to her. The outbreak of Five startled them.

"Are you all insane ?!"You have not heard that the world ends in three days?! If we let that happen there will be nothing to rescue! Will you let that happen to your daughter, Allison? "

Allison's face contracted at the mention of her daughter. Five was extremely skilled with words when he wanted to achieve a goal. He had smelled his sister's weakness and had gone after her. Diego knew he had lost the battle.

"What's wrong? Why are you screaming?"

Diego rolled his eyes. As always, Luther had appeared just at the wrong time. He did not have time to keep losing in that discussion. His decision was made.

"I'll look for Klaus. Whoever wants to come with me is free to do so. "

Diego waited a few seconds in the car. None of his brothers left the house.

The memory of Klaus sobbing on the floor returned to his mind. The dress crumpling between his legs. His hands holding his face. The little thread of blood that spilled from his mouth staining the carpet ..

The car made a scandalous screech as it accelerated.

When he arrived at the police station, Patch practically fell on him. She knew something, a clue about a motel on the outskirts of the city, two subjects with masks had been seen entering, the reinforcements would reach them, they had to be cautious and move quickly ..

From there, everything was confusing. Diego was sure that Eudora had spoken to him throughout the journey, that the word "caution" had been pronounced on numerous occasions, that on arrival he had been given a bulletproof vest but could not specify much more.

His mind seemed to be elsewhere. In the sound like a branch breaking and a small drop of blood on the carpet.

Dad would kill them.

POLICE!

The officers entered the small room of the motel making a great noise. They had almost thrown the door down and now entered the room with the force of a tide. They burst into the bathroom with the same impetus but found nothing. Soon the weapons came down.

"CLEAR" He heard one of them say, while others reviewed the room, under the bed, in the corners, in the closet ..

"HERE!"

Between two officers, they removed a half-naked man from the closet, still tied to a chair and talking to them in a soft but incessant tone.

"KLAUS!"

It was as if it happened in slow motion. Klaus turned to see him and there was something that was so strange and at the same time so genuine in his look that Diego's interior wobbled. The smile on his brother's exhausted face belonged to a class he had not seen in years. No, since ..

"You're here! I knew you would come! I knew it! I knew you would!"

In a quick movement, Diego dodged the police who tried to hold him and in less than a second was at his side. He heard that Klaus kept talking to him but he could not focus on what he was saying.

Over the years he had learned to listen to Klaus as if he were a radio with interference. He always had to separate the important from the static. With one of his knives he cut the ropes while taking one of the covers to cover him. The injuries did not seem to be serious, but he had no way of knowing if there was any damage to his internal organs. They should go to the hospital quickly.

He did not know the number of red lights that he missed but surely there were many to judge from the number of honking he had received. He had not wanted to wait for the ambulance, they were too slow.

Evidently Patch had warned them, since Klaus was admitted to the hospital as soon as they arrived. Diego got tired of explaining that everything would be fine, that they should examine him but nothing seemed to have any effect. Klaus did not want to separate from him and there was a whole mess before they could reassure him.

"Please, don´t go." He told him before the medication-induced sleep dragged him away.

"I'll be here," he answered and that was exactly what he did during the hours that followed. He sat on one of the benches and entertained himself by imagining the number of possible tortures for the idiots who had left his brother in that state.

Finally, he had not been able to continue sitting and had finished opting to walk the corridor from one end to the other. His steps took him from the emergency room to the entrance door and vice versa. He was turning around when he saw her enter. The diminutive figure of Vanya entered the hospital with a deep expression of anguish on her face.

"How did you know we were here?" He asked by way of greeting as soon as the girl was at his side.

"The news." She answered and for a second it seemed like that was all that was going to come out of her mouth. The insecurity was palpable in the way her fingers clung to the strap of her backpack. Finally, she took courage.

"How is he?"

Diego sighed. He had no desire to give any explanation.

"He was tortured by the pair of crazy people who tried to kill us. Nobody wanted to look for him, I went with the police to that motel and I found him ...! "

Diego stopped suddenly alarmed to face an anguish he did not know was there. It was not time to be vulnerable, much less in front of Vanya. So he did the best he could do when he was insecure: Attack.

"You should not be here! You have no right! None of you cared a damn what happened to him!"

He knew that he was being unfair, that Vanya had not even been there when he had asked for help, that they had all taken care of putting her aside for so many years that the girl had had enough of them. Diego waited for his sister to shout at him, to challenge him again as she had done at his father's funeral. In those moments all he needed was a good fight. But Vanya said nothing.

The lights of the hospital were extinguished a second to return to light intermittently.

"Do you want me to go?" She asked with a strange neutrality devoid of emotion. Diego did not respond.

"All right."

Vanya sat on one of the benches, opened her backpack and took out a bag. Then, she made a gesture with her head so that he would sit next to her.

"We'll wait together," she said as she offered him a sandwich from the bag.

Eudora arrived before the medical part. Judging by her expression of boredom, she had had to deal with the authorities to justify Diego's actions at the crime scene as well as all the bureaucratic paperwork.

"Well, that was a nightmare," Eudora said after greeting his sister and introducing herself. "But I have good news. I have spoken with the doctors and they say that Klaus will be fine. The wounds do not endanger his life and he will recover from them in a few weeks. The confusional episode, on the other hand, may have a psychological origin. Until he wake up .. "

"Excuse me. What confusing episode?

Diego had been lost. The relief of knowing that his brother would be fine made him not listen to the last part of Patch's story. It was Vanya who noticed before him.

"Well, Klaus may sound somewhat delirious at times, but it's normal for him ..." Diego tried to justify, while passing one of his hands over his head.

Eudora looked at him with an intense expression. With the same expression that had looked at him the day she had decided to leave him. An expression that screamed: Is it that you have not noticed?

"Diego". She said, using the tone with which she would talk to a small child.

"All this time, Klaus has called you Dave."

To be continue..