It was dark out when Rachel opened the back door of a plumbing van Five had commandeered. Five turned and looked back at her.

"Oh, good, its only you. I was worried it was Luther again. Or worse, Klaus."

The girl let out a laugh as she closed the doors behind her.

"Get some unwanted visitors earlier today?"

"Unfortunately. Something about Mom killing Dad. Luther wanted me at a family meeting about it but I'm not going to participate in his little murder mystery game."

Rachel didn't respond, she moved over to the front. Seeing Dolores in the front seat, she reached for her.

"How about you sit in my lap, Dolores? That way we can both keep an eye out with him."

Rachel tugged her into her arms before awkwardly getting over the center console to sit. Just as she settled in, the door to Meritech opened. Five sat up straighter in his seat.

"There's our guy," Five commented.

"Well, I have great timing," Rachel noted.

They watched as he stood on the side of the road. Very shortly after, a car pulled up. He walked to the car and put his briefcase into it.

"What the hell is he up to?" Five mused as the man stayed out of the car, instead receiving an envelope for his bag.

"Was that just-"

Rachel hadn't even finished her sentence when Five spacial jumped out of the car. With a groan, she put Dolores in the driver's seat.

"Here, if we need to make a getaway, you drive."

Five came back about an hour later. Opening the driver's side door, he started giving out commands.

"Okay, I need you to go back to the Academy. Dolores is coming with me. I know where that guy lives now so I'm going to surprise him in the morning. You can just…hang out for a bit until I get back with the information."

Rachel stared at him with an unimpressed expression. He made a face at her in return.

"Just do as I ask, please?"

"Ask? Oh, I wasn't aware those were questions."

Five rolled his eyes, but the girl was already heading back toward the Academy. She took a detour to get some food and walk through a park. By the time she got back, it was morning. Going into the entryway, she stopped at the sight of the chandelier being on the floor.

"What the hell happened here?!" she asked, mainly herself as no one was in sight.

Pogo's voice reached her from the sitting room.

"Miss Rachel, is that you?"

Skirting the mess that was the foyer, Rachel followed the butler's voice. She found him waiting for her from another entrance to the room. There were bullet holes and general damage all over the room.

"Pogo, what happened?"

He stared up at her with a serious expression.

"We had some assassins come looking for you and Five last night. Luther and Diego are out looking for you both right now. Luther believed he knew where to find you. It seems that he was half incorrect."

Rachel felt her heart rate spike.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Well…they…managed to…Grace is no longer with us."

"I'm so sorry," she told Pogo," You all must be devastated. Especially Diego."

Pogo sighed.

"Well, any help you might be willing to give to Luther and Diego would be greatly appreciated."

Rachel nodded and turned toward the door.

"I'll go and find them. I'm sure I know where they'll look first."

"Miss Rachel, wait just a moment."

The girl turned and looked at him with surprise.

"Yes?"

Pogo moved slowly closer to her. He then pulled out a few folded pages from his pocket.

"I hoped I would find a time to give you these. They are a few notes from Mr. Hargreeves on your powers. I think it is important that you understand what you are capable of. I hope you find time to read them when you have a spare moment. Please be careful while finding the others."

She thanked him softly before going right back where she came from, tucking the notes in her pocket. Unfortunately, by the time she reached the plumbing van, there were police, firemen, and ambulances all over the place. The Meritech building was destroyed in an explosion that the firefighters were finishing up with. Running to the van, Rachel looked inside.

"Five?! Five, are you here?!"

She looked around for him or any sign of Dolores, but neither were present.

"Dammit," she muttered under her breath.

She tried to sense any familiar emotions, potentially pinpointing Five. She was right, she could feel him, but he was extremely depressed. She followed the feeling as it began to change and warp confusingly. She made a beeline for the location. She knew he was getting drunk. That wasn't going to be good for anyone. He had a sharp tongue naturally. When drunk, it got a sharpened edge. Not that he was violent, just sassier than usual. She followed his emotions to a library. Going up a few flights of stairs, she found him drinking with Dolores in his arms. He was already half a bottle in of two. Formulas were written all over the posts around him. Notebooks and books were around him on the floor.

"Jeez, Five, what are you doing?" Rachel muttered.

Five's eyes fluttered a bit as she sat down by him.

"Hey, Rach," he greeted, chugging the last of the bottle.

She waited a bit, thinking he'd say more. Instead, he just opened the other bottle and started in. After a minute, Rachel tugged it out of his hands. He protested.

"Hey! That's mine. If the world is going to end, I'd rather be drunk for it."

Rachel scooted closer to him.

"What happened? The Meritech building was blown up."

"Yep," he said popping the "p" and reaching for the bottle," You might as well take a drink, too. In six…or is it five now…whatever. In a few days we're dead. Blown up. I couldn't do it. I couldn't save the world or my family. We're dead. All the information I wanted is destroyed."

Rachel felt bad for him. He was feeling a lot of emotions from angry, to sad, to scared, and more.

"So…no other plans?"

"Nope. I can't fix the formula to get us to another time. So, this is it."

The girl stared at him before looking down at the bottle. Well, if was the end of the world, why not? She began drinking from the bottle. She chugged half of it before handing it back to Five. He gave her a big smile.

"There you go. Cheers!"

He drained the bottle. Rachel had always been a lightweight. Half the bottle was enough to make her drowsy. A bottle and a half easily knocked out Five. The girl didn't wake up again until she was rocking back and forth in a pair of arms.

"Well, we can't go back to the house. It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment.

Rachel barely recognized the voice of Luther. The next voice was closer, meaning they were carrying her.

"My place is closer," Diego suggested," No one will look for them there."

Someone belched from behind Rachel, she assumed it was Five. Glancing back, she saw him being carried by Luther. The man curled up his lip.

"If you vomit on me…"

"You know what's funny," Five responded," Aah! I'm going through puberty. Huh. Twice. And I…I drank that whole bottle, didn't I? That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it's gone. What are you guys talkin' about?"

Luther sighed at him.

"Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night."

"They came looking for you," Diego pitched in," And Rachel. So, I need you to focus. What do they want?"

Rachel raised one of her hands like she was answered a question at school.

"Hazel and Cha-Cha," she told them.

"Who?" Diego asked.

"You know, I hate code names," Luther told them.

"Ah, the best of the best," Five informed them," Except for me, of course. And I never go anywhere without Rachel so killing her is on the agenda, too."

"The best of what?" Luther demanded.

Five rubbed the top of Dolores's head.

"You know, Dolores always said she hated when I drink. She said it made me surly-"

Rachel's head lolled to the side.

"I probably said that, but she may have agreed."

"Hey!" Diego shouted, turning around," I need you two to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?"

Five gave him a broad smile while Rachel looked up at him with a deadpan stare. Diego took a breath and lowered his tone.

"We just wanna protect you."

"Protect me," Five scoffed," I don't need your protection, Diego. Neither does Rachel because she's got me. Do you have any idea how many people I've killed? No. I'm the Fourth frickin' Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming."

He then turned over Luther's shoulder and vomited. Five passed out after that. Diego looked down at Rachel as they kept on walking.

"Are you going to translate that spiel for us or what?"

"Are you going to believe what I say if I do? Or will you think we're crazy?"

Diego looked down at her.

"You're so quiet most of the time that I sometimes see you as that same kid who disappeared all these years ago. But you open your mouth now and sometimes…"

Rachel snickered.

"Sometimes you hear Five. Yeah. Forty-five years of being alone with him had an effect. I'm sorry if that is inconvenient for you. What he said is pretty straightforward. The world is ending in just a few days and he has been working non-stop to prevent it. What we saw in that future was terrible. The two at the Academy, they were assassins. So are we…mostly Five. And a good one."

Diego and Luther exchanged a look. Rachel then lost consciousness once again as a wave of sleepiness hit her. She didn't wake up again until she jolted a bit at a loud voice and a feeling of rage entering her consciousness.

"Of course, it would. We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing."

Rachel let out a soft whine from being woken up. Turning to her left, she found Luther and Five looking back at her. She froze. Five was sitting on the bed by her side while Luther was in a chair across from him. Light was filtering in from outside, so she'd been out for quite some time. The room they were in was unfamiliar, but it screamed Diego. Thinking of him, that was who she felt was enraged and he was making his way here fast.

"Sorry to interrupt?" she said groggily," Uh, just so-"

Five turned back to Luther before she could even get another word out.

"For the record, you already tried."

Luther looked taken aback.

"What do you mean?" Luther asked.

Rachel slid to the edge of the bed and sat beside Five, her side leaning against his. She figured now wasn't the time to let them know about Diego. As Five hesitated, the girl placed her hand in his.

"I found all of you," he told Luther, his voice wavering," Your bodies."

"We die?" Luther asked, surprised.

Five looked back at him.

"Horribly. You were together, trying to stop whoever it was that ends the world."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

Rive reaching into his pocket and pulled out the eye that he had been trying to identify.

"This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you."

He tossed the eyeball to his brother who examined it.

"Must've ripped it out of their head right before you went down."

"Whose head?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

Luther turned the eyeball in his fingers.

"Well, there's a serial number on the back. Think maybe you could try-"

"No, that's a dead end. It's just another hunk of glass."

Five took it back from Luther just as Diego slammed the door open as Rachel expected.

"Piece of shit," he muttered," Do you have any idea what you just did?"

He made a beeline straight for Five and Rachel, but Luther stopped him and grabbed him.

"Nope, let me-"

"Get your ape hands off of me!"

Rachel wasn't sure what that meant, but she was terrified. She hadn't quite expected that much rage to be aimed at her. Luckily Luther pulled his brother straight off the ground so he couldn't get any leverage.

"I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down," the larger man told him.

Diego glared at the two teenagers before sighing.

"Fine."

Luther put him down.

"Now, wanna tell us what you're talkin' about?"

Diego glared at them.

"Our brother and his assistant have been pretty busy since they got back. They were in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimbel Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the Academy, looking for them."

Five just casually stared back at his brother.

"None of which is any of your concern."

"It is now. They just killed my friend."

Rachel looked over at Diego with sympathy.

"I'm sorry about your friend, Diego. Really," she told him as Luther turned to them.

"Who are they, Five?" he asked.

The boy hesitated before looking at Rachel and then back at them.

"They work for our former employer. A woman called The Handler. She sent them to stop me. Then, soon as Diego's friend got in their way, well, fair game."

Diego leaned toward the two on the bed.

"And now they're my fair game. And I'm gonna see to it that they pay."

He turned to leave, but Five called out to him.

"That would be a mistake, Diego. They've killed people far more dangerous than you."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," he responded, slamming the door behind him.

Rachel stood up, wanting to go after him. But she realized that it wasn't her place to do so anymore. He'd grown up in seventeen years and wasn't the stuttering little boy she knew. Her place was to stay with Five. Especially since she had a target on her back. She'd get Diego killed faster if she went. She sat back down heavily. Five put a hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze.

"Your former employer?" Luther questioned," What's this really about, Five? And don't give me any of this 'it's none of your business' crap, all right?"

"Well, it's a long story."

Luther sat down in his chair, waiting for him to go on. Five recounted how The Handler met with them out of the blue many, many years after they arrived in the future. How she asked them to work to keep the timeline intact with five years of service before being able to retire wherever or whenever they wanted. As he talked, Rachel went ahead and make some breakfast and coffee for her and Five.

"They turned us into the perfect instruments for rehabilitation of the time continuum. Or 'corrections,' as they called them. We weren't the only ones. There are others like us. Beings out of time, fractured, extracted from the lives that they knew. I don't know how they got there. But I do know that none of them were as good as me. They didn't realize it, but I was biding my time, trying to figure out the right equation so I could get us back. If we could just get back, I knew I could stop the apocalypse. Save the world. So, I broke our contract.

"So, you were a hit man?" Luther asked as Rachel finished making breakfast.

"Yes."

Luther looked over at Rachel.

"And you?"

"When Five allowed," she shrugged," He always preferred to have his hands dirty over mine."

"Uh…I mean, you had a code, right?" Luther insisted, looking between them," You didn't just kill anybody."

"No code. We took out anyone who messed with the timeline."

"What about innocent people?"

"It was the only way I could get us back here."

"But that's murder."

"Jesus, Luther, grow up. We're not kids anymore. There's no such thing as good guys or bad guys. There's just people, goin' about their lives. But when the world ends, all those people die, including our family."

Luther looked at a loss for words. Five sighed.

"Time changes everything."

The room was silent as the two teenagers finished breakfast. As they headed out to go back to the Academy, Luther was obviously thinking about how to proceed with all of the information he had just learned.