Dallas, 1960

It had been a few days since Klaus had landed in Texas. He had been walking around the city, hoping to find at least one of his siblings, but every time he checked back in that alleyway, his hopes were repeatedly crushed. "They have to be here somewhere! I can't just give up on them!" Klaus sighed, burying his head into his knees. "I hate to say this, but I think we're on our own," Ben said softly, not to be too harsh on him.

The junkie's thoughts became clouded when he heard his stomach rumble in hunger. "I need to eat. You wait out here," Klaus said, walking across the street towards a restaurant called Stadler's. Unlike back in 2019, the owners were not very welcoming towards people who were not white, and the manager started to become irritated very quickly.

The foul odor of Klaus' clothes and appearance became quite a discomfort for some of the patrons. And the manager instantly took notice. For the entire time, he kept a close eye on him as the odor only got worse. "You need to get out of here. You smell and you're frightening my clientele!" he whispered aggressively. "How dare you! I am a member of the royal family!"

Klaus was yanked out of his seat and drug towards the front entrance. "Don't come back here until you can tidy yourself and pay your damn bill!" The manager growled, faceplanting Klaus onto the concrete. Klaus looked up to see someone standing in front of him, wearing white high heels. "Chanel?" Klaus asked softly. The elderly woman felt sorry for him, offering to help him up. "I'll take care of you," she grabbed his arm, and they walked away, with Ben rolling his eyes at his brother.

The woman had brought him to her home, where he acted like he could float in the air. But little did the people watching him know that Ben was actually the one holding him up over his head. They all began applauding, wondering if he was some god, the kind of God who could make strange things happen. And soon after, that caught the attention of others who wanted to be like Klaus and devoted themselves to him as if he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

Over the years, Klaus had been traveling all over the world with his cult, visiting Mexico, India, and San Francisco. All the attention got him away from his addictions. But over time, the feeling of clinginess from the group was getting old, and he needed his escape. When all the members of his cult, Destiny's Children were distracted, he made his break for freedom.

*******

Present Day...

Klaus woke up in a large jail cell, a few people surrounding him. The events from the previous night had been a blur, but all he could remember was after taking that pickup truck, he was pulled over for speeding and taken into custody. Since then, he had passed out in the cop car from all the exhaustion. Great, I'm stuck in here. He sat up, getting in a criss-cross position, and dozed off once more, having nothing better to do with his time.

The jail cell door opened, and a cop threw a bald man into it, shutting the door behind him. He looked around and saw Klaus in the cot, gasping as he rushed towards him, getting on his knees. "Oh my god, it's you!" He exclaimed, waking up the cult leader. His vision quickly cleared, and he saw the man in front of him. "Have we met before?" Klaus questioned. "Yes! I mean, I saw you speak in Berkeley in 61. You changed my life!"

The man rambled on and on, talking about how he gave up everything to spread Klaus's message of love. Klaus couldn't help but bite back a sigh and roll his eyes, hoping to get out of the cell and this uncomfortable situation soon. "I have so many questions," The man finally finished. "Well, now is not really the time, is it?" Klaus quirked a brow. "Why?" Keechie asked. "Because we're in jail," Klaus explained as he laughed and put his hands on Klaus's knees.

"Okay then, any nuggets of wisdom you can give me?" Keechie inquired. Klaus leaned forward, inches away from Keechie's face as he said, "Don't go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and the lakes you're used to," "That's so deep," "I know, right? Wanna sit in my seat and meditate on it? I think you should," Klaus said, grabbing Keechie's shoulder and forcing him onto his seat as Klaus pressed his back against the barred wall, separating his cell from another cell containing only black men and women.

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown," he muttered, unaware that someone had heard him. "The line is actually, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," A black man said, getting his attention. "Oh great, your dad made you read Shakespeare, too?" Klaus sighed. "I taught it. Spelman College," The two began making small talk, and Klaus admitted that he had a lot of people who had high expectations for him, and he was beginning to become fed up with it. 

"Remember your Twelfth Night. "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them," The man advised. "Shakespeare had no idea what it was like to be me," Klaus sighed. "Perhaps. But it's in the struggle that folks find their true calling," Klaus slightly cracked a smile at the words, and after a brief amount of silence, they introduced themselves, the man now identified himself as Ray. "You're free to go, pretty boy. Chief got a call from the governor," A cop said, opening the door on Klaus's side of the cell.

"The governor? You got some damn powerful friends, Klaus," Ray commented as Klaus stood up and tried to explain that he didn't know him. "I'll tell you what. If you ever meet him, make sure he knows that me and my brothers are being held without charge," Ray's words surprised Klaus. "Is that true?" He asked, looking towards the cop who grabbed one of his arms. "Feel free to file a complaint,"

*******

A few miles from the station, Dusk walked down the street, heading back into Jonathan's bar to visit Jack, hoping to catch up with him on some of the things they forgot to talk about the night before. "Pops died a few years ago, and my brother got all his money, leaving me without anything. Been working here ever since," Jack explained as they talked about his upbringing some more. "That's screwed up. My father was a giant asshole too. He barely paid any attention to my siblings and me," Dusk sighed.

"What about your Mama?" Jack inquired. "Oh, she was the one who mostly took care of us. She was a kind woman. But she's gone now..." Dusk explained, leaving out the robotic detail. A pair of heels clacked against the wooden flooring, and someone pulled out a seat, sitting next to the raven.  "Jackie boy, get me a shot of that Jack Daniels," Dusk looked over to see that the person sitting next to her was another woman, wearing a black and white steampunk dress, and she had red ginger hair.

"Sure thing, Vic," Jack replied before ducking behind the counter to grab the bottle. The ginger looked over to see Dusk staring at her and asked her what she was staring at. "Oh, nothing," Dusk answered. The ginger's eyes widened when she recognized the girl's voice. "You're that girl from the last night! You have a lovely voice, by the way," She commented, breaking the silence. 

"Oh, thank you," Dusk smiled, feeling awkward at this conversation. "I'm Victoria," the girl smiled, extending out her hand. Dusk gave it a slight shake and smiled before taking a sip of her drink. "So, are you going to tell me your name?" the redhead asked, leaning slightly forward. "Right! Sorry, it's Dusk," the raven responded. Jack came up from the ground with the bottle of Jack Daniel's in his left hand, dumping it into one of the two shot glasses. "So, where are you from?" Victoria questioned after taking one of the glasses.

"Oh, I'm just stopping by for a little while. I have some things I have to take care of," Dusk responded. From the ginger's accent, Victoria didn't sound like she was from Dallas. "Same here," she nodded. The three talked for a half an hour, taking a few shots as they enjoyed the conversations before the manager started yelling, telling Victoria to get back to work.

"Well, that's my cue. Nice meeting you, Dusk. Hopefully, we'll see each other sometime soon," she waved before walking off towards one of the crowded tables.

A/n: All credit for the character of Victoria Wilson goes to my friend UnfortunateUmbrella go check out her stories and follow her! She's awesome!