Diego POV

'No, Lila, it's not reasonable!'

I yelled out at her, rubbing my temples. I grabbed onto the back of a chair in her office as she sat behind the desk, popping a piece of candy into her mouth.

'You agreed to help me, Diego, no matter what it took.', she said, leaning herself back in the chair and spinning the thing around like a child.

'I didn't think it meant killing the kids, Lila.', I said, shaking my head, my voice getting gruffer as the seconds passed. 'This ain't the only way. There's gotta' be a way out of that.'

'And what might you suggest? The darned kids are going to be indestructible. Need to pick them off while they're young. Snip the bud, it never grows into a venus fly trap.', she said, closing her eyes and rolling the candy around in her mouth as she spun.

I sighed real hard. I didn't know what to say to this.

She got up from her chair, moving slowly up closer to me, and got into my face. Planting a kiss on my lips, she looked back up and smiled.

'They'll destroy us if we don't get them Diego.', she said, kissing me again. 'Rip us apart. Kill me.' Another kiss. 'Kill you.'

'My own family would never kill me.', I said in a low whisper, barely a grumble down in my throat.

'Oh, but I'm a different story, huh?', she asked, pulling away.

'They don't really know you, kid.', I answered her. She hated it when I called her kid. Rolling her eyes, she kicked at the air with her boots. Silent for a moment, she twiddled with a bracelet on her arm, and looked back up at me with sad, mysterious eyes.

'Are you going to leave me now?', she asked, a fake quiver of the lip forming.

I grabbed her hand, groaning. This was just another one of her manipulation schemes, but gosh, she knew how to get to me.

She pulled her hand away, and I quickly grabbed it back, yanking her back in.

I looked her in the eyes, warm brown pools of black coffee, deep and dark and wide.

'I'm not going anywhere right now.', I whispered.

'Right now?', she asked.

'Did you think we'd just stay together forever, Lila? Like some twisted Hallmark movie?', I asked her, gazing into the pools of coffee. Her face twisted, and she looked down at the ground.

'You can't leave me, Diego.', she said, sitting down in a chair in front of her desk. She propped her head up with her fist under her chin, which I found endearing.

'I've lost enough, don't leave me.'

I sat down in the chair in front of her, grabbing both of her hands, and placing them on my knees.

'And what do you see for us, Lila? What future? Can you find that on the infinite switchboard too?', I asked, looking her in the face.

She looked down, and then back up.

'No.', she sighed. 'No, I can't see anything for us.' Her voice broke. 'I'm trying to make something show up, though. Anything.'

This was almost heartbreaking.

'I mean do you really plan on working with me, being with me, and then rendering it all to nothing?', she asked, on the verge of tears. 'Hit and run?'

'What do you want me to do, Lila? Get down on one knee? Would that give you assurance? Because I can't.', I said, looking through her.

'I'm not asking for that, Diego. I'm just asking you not to leave. Don't run off. Stay with me. Until this is all passed and we're safe again.'

I bit my lip.

'Until the kids are dead.', I said under my breath, but loud enough for her to hear.

'It's the only way to keep us safe.'

The way she said it so non-chalant and innocent almost sent me over the edge. I grabbed the table, gripping it and standing up.

'I can't do this, Lila. I can't stay with you if you're going to force me into this.', I said. I turned around, then back, and got into her face. 'I mean, Lila! Lila, this is my family! I won't do it.'

'Diego, I'm afraid!', she said, standing up and grabbing my torso, desperate to pull me back in. 'Do you not love me enough to do this for me? Is that it?'

'This is not about love, Lila.'

'Oh? Then what else?'

'It's about the ethics, Lila. I don't slaughter innocents.'

She turned 180, then back around. 'Are they truly innocent if they're destined to kill me?', she said, getting closer and closer, close enough that I could feel her hot breath on my neck. 'Innocent, if they kill the one you love?'

'I never said I loved you.', I answered her. Seeing the look on her face, I immediately regretted the words out of my mouth.

'Oh? Oh.'

She started to walk off to the door, and I stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

'Diego, don't touch me.', she said, shaking the hand off. 'Just go, go back to your family, let the kids live, and let them grow up to end me.'

'You know I won't let them kill you.'

'Go.'

'Lila, we can find another way, if you jus-'

'I said go, Diego. Now. Get out of here. Go back.', she said, eyes stinging red with tears. 'If you don't want me, then I don't want you either.'

'Lila, honey.', I said, putting a hand to her face. She brushed it off, and then slapped me across my face, sending my several steps backward.

'You can call me that again when you love me.'

She looked down at the ground, wiping a tear away, pointing her hand out to the door.

'Go. They'll get you back home. I don't need you anymore.', she said, her voice cracking with her tears.

'If I go back, I have to warn them, you know that?', I questioned, stress in my voice.

'Yep. Go jolly darn right ahead and kiss up with the little devils. I never mattered anyway.', she answered me.

I walked out of the door, brushing her hand as I went out, starting down the hall.

Once I was halfway down the hall, I turned and started walking backwards.

'Oh, and Lila?', I shouted back to her.

'What, Diego?'

'You matter. You've always mattered.'

Five POV

01/24

I sat in the courtyard with Dolores, holding her hand as we sat on a bench. It was a cold day, but sunny and beautiful. She read a book, and I watched a squirrel run through the oak tree.

And in a flash of light, just like a month past ago, our long lost brother showed up right in front of us. There he stood, Diego, donned in black and hair scruffy.

'There you are, lost one.', I said, looking away from the squirrel. 'How's the commission doing these days?', I said, smirking sarcastically.

'Shut up. I've got a lot to explain. Round everyone up.'