"If you're looking for the cookies, we don't put 'em out till 3:00."
"You know, some say the best luck is to die at the right time."
"Stupid mother Fudge Nutter!"
"You!"
"Yeah? I don't wanna hurt you, all right?"
"Hurt me? Oh, I ain't afraid of you, you little pus ball."
"This is about her isn't it?"
"Quid pro quo?"
"Here's your quid."
"Here's your pro."
"No! No! Please don't!"
"Here's your quo."
"Well?" the Handler said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Five said nothing, simply lifting the thick plastic bag.
The woman gasped. "AJ!" she squealed, clapping her hands, grabbing the bag from his hands, cooing joyfully at him.
"Ha…" she sighed, her eyes drifting back on him, looking him up and down. "You know, you're really starting to fill out those tight little shorts of yours." she giggled. "Why so quiet? Thought you'd be buzzing after this morning's slaughter."
"All this killing..." Five started, looking up into her cold eyes. "I'm done with it."
"What? Am I supposed to take that seriously?" the Handler snorted, pulling out a handkerchief from her coat, licking it before attempting to dap at the blood. Five chocked the urge to move out of the way; the blood on his face remaining.
"What I did today, I did for my family. I did it to save the world." Five replied.
"Please." The Handler said, lightly swiping the handkerchief over face, before booping his nose. "Spare me your little assassin with the heart of gold routine, will you? It was always more your girlfriend's style. Why witle AJ woved her hmm." she cooed at the bag. Five glaring at her; if looks could kill, she'd be dead 10 times over.
"Here." she said holding out the briefcase. "Per our agreement, this will get you and your sibling back to 2019. You have 90 minutes." she said, turning around and walking down the alley.
"You said nothing about a time limit." Five said following her.
"Actually, you have 89 minutes and 30 seconds. Better hurry." The Handler said, checking her watch cheekily.
"This is impossible, okay? My siblings are scattered across the city." Five snapped.
"Nothing's impossible." The Handler retorted. "You proved that this morning when you killed the board." she said giving him another plonk on the nose.
"I need more time." Five said hopelessly.
"Any more time, and people will start asking questions." The Handler said simply. "The sooner you get home and out of this time period, the better off we'll both be, so, ticktock, ticktock."
Death was the one constant in the world. Even so, death always aimed to surprise. So, when Ris had walked through the door, half slamming it after her argument with Five to see Diego and Luther looking at her with blood coated fingers, her first instinct, the first feeling had been 'no'.
It was assassins, the Swedes. She knew it, but she could barely look at Elliott's body for more than a few seconds, before walking into the bedroom and closing the door behind her.
It was her fault. It was obviously her fault. She dragged him into her crazy, and she was mad to think that he someone normal, kind and truly good, didn't bear the brunt of her actions. Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling seemed like the best way to go for now. Just to breathe.
Diego and Luther were whispering something. She caught a few words like "feds" and "Ooga."
Five was doing whatever the hell he wanted to apparently. Asshole.
Ris sighed, eventually pulling herself up, grabbing some clothes. A shower might do her good.
"That must be her." Diego scoffed, as Ris walked into the kitchen. "Call the bitch." he spat. "Excuse me?" Ris said, adjusting the collar of her shirt. Luther nodded, both of them not seeming to have taken full notice of her yet. "On it." he said, dialling Elliott rotary phone.
"Who are you calling?" she asked, making herself a cup of tea. She would never forgive 1963 for not having a half-decent hot chocolate.
"The person who killed Elliott." Diego replied. "Oh, okay." Ris said, taking a spoon out of the cupboard. "Wait, what?" Ris said looking up; not noticing Five on the stairs in the lounge.
"Okay...It's ringing." Luther said softly. "Give me the phone." Ris said sternly, making a grab for it. Diego and Luther shushing her. "No."
"Diego, give me the-"
"Uh, hello, Olga?" Luther said, placing his hand over the receiver. "It's her. She sounds old. What should I say?"
"Cut the call." Ris hissed.
"No, she killed Elliott." Diego snapped back.
"Cut. The. Call. Right now."
"I'm not cutting shit."
"You really wanna piss me off today, knife boy?"
"Let's go, short stack."
Luther cleared his throat. "Excuse me, ma'am. Um, I was just wondering... What? My name? Is, uh, Luther Hargreeves, and..."
"You are not threatening an old woman!" Ris whisper-yelled. "He's not. I am." Diego snapped, snatching the phone from Luther.
"No, Dieg-"
"You killed one of ours, Olga," Diego growled into the phone. Ris groaning on the side. "Idiot."
"Now we're coming after you. You will be dead by nightfall." Diego hissed.
"Hey." Five said suddenly, pulling off his heavy soaking jacket. "It's Öga För Öga, idiots. Swedish for "an eye for an eye." It means the Swedes killed Elliott."
Diego paused, licking his lips. "Wrong number. Have a lovely day." he said politely, slamming the phone back on the receiver.
Ris stared up and Five, as he began peeling off his bloodied clothes. Her brain running a mile a minute at why he was soaked in blood. By, soaked she meant it looked like he had danced in blood rain with no umbrella and jacket. The dried blood ran from his all the way from his hair to his shoes, it looked out of place in his usual immaculate clothes, then again…Five could be a messy killer.
"We would've gotten there." Luther muttered.
Ris glaring at Five from across the table.
"Eventually."
"Yeah."
If looks could kill, he would have dead ten times over and buried twice.
"Uh, you have some blood on you." Luther started. "A lot of blood, actually." Diego continued. Five bypassing them to the bathroom. Ris following after him, slamming the door behind her, making the glass and knob rattle.
"She's pissed." Luther mumbled.
Diego nodding.
"Have fun with your massacre?" Ris snapped, folding her arms, leaning against the door. Five standing in front of the mirror, untying his tie. "That's not fair."
"It's true." Ris shot back. Five staring at the mirror shaking his head slightly. "What?" Ris drawled. "Nothing to say? What, was it fun? Little jolt of the good old days?"
"I didn't have a choice, Clarissa." Five hissed, meeting her eyes for the first time that day. "I had to do it, to save us."
"There is always a choice, and the fact that you haven't learnt that yet, it just..." Ris paused, running her fingers though her hair. "I don't understand you. Honestly I don't."
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic."
"Melodram-sorry, am I the one who decided to slay the Board of Directors? What did you do, take a pat and play Wack-a-Mole with them? Hmm?" Ris said, waving her arms like a showman. "10 points for small ones, 30 for AJ! High Score!"
"Relax," Five said, unbuttoning the collar of his shirt. "Your boyfriend's fine." he spat, yanking off a button harder than need.
"You're such an asshole." Ris said, grabbing the door knob, nearly toppling Luther and Diego over.
"Could you get me another shirt please?"
"Oh, you can go f-" Ris started, grabbing one off Elliott's clean washing basket. "Screw yourself!" she said, deciding against the word when she Luther's scandalised face, throwing the shirt at him.
"Thank you, Mellilla." Five said from the bathroom.
"Oh, shut up."
"Everything will be back to normal." Five said, putting on his tie. Ris coming out of the bedroom, pulling her jacket on. "He says now." she grumbled under her breath. "Just you wait, four days from now we'll be…dog food."
"All right? Now, no more questions. We gotta go." Five said quickly, turning to his brothers. "We have to find the others, right?" he said, adjusting his collar.
"Yeah."
"Luther, you get Allison." Five instructed. Luther nodded. "Okay."
"Diego, Klaus. Ris and I will get Vanya. We can finish our conversation." he added, glancing at her, his eyes were soft. She wanted to slap him, playing kicked puppy, wasn't fair.
"Fight." Ris reminded him, but if she was totally honest it was a good reminder for her too.
Five pursed his lips, nodding turning back to his brothers. "Now, we meet back in the arrival alley in 77 minutes. Here." Five said, holding out three watches. "I've synchronized these watches."
Luther nodded, tucking the watch in his pocket. "Okay, let's do this."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. You show up drenched in blood and expect us to believe everything's gonna go back to normal if we go home now?" Diego said twirling the watch in his hands, glancing at Ris and Five.
"Elliott just got killed because of us." Five said. Ris looked down, not wanting to think about that.
"What about Dad? What about JFK? Hmm?" Diego asked, walking up to them. His usual stubborn face on. Ris inwardly groaned; the pouting stubborn face was almost as bad as puppy dog face. Both made her want to punch their respective owner in the face, but still.
"Diego, we have a chance to go home and make things right. We are taking it." Five said simply. Diego nodded his head lightly. "I have to say goodbye to Lila."
"Lila doesn't give a shit about you, Diego!" Five shouted. "Five!" Ris scolded, glancing at Diego's fallen face. Five sighed, catching her train of thought. "She never did." he said gently. "She's one of them. She's a member of the Commission."
Diego shook his head. "No way. Not possible."
"She was just using you to get to me." Five said, keeping his low tone. "You're the Oswald of this story, my friend. The goddamned patsy." he growled, walking off.
"You don't know what you're talk..."
"He does," Ris said, stepping in front of them, putting a hand on Five's shoulder, turning to Diego. Five shook his head, walking back towards the stairs.
"Lila…Lila was a liar, she was planted by the Handler. It's my fault." Ris said gently. "I should have known better, the Commission is cruel and…toying with people's emotions is their game…She was just playing, and you, you just didn't know that. But make no mistake, Diego she is not a friend or anything that you think she was, and she, she never w-"
"You're full of shit, you don't know-"
"If you don't do this," Five growled under his breath, suddenly spatial-jumping in front of Ris, inches away from Diego's face. "I'll kill you myself. Got it?" he hissed, stepping back holding his hand out to Ris.
The girl didn't take it.
Five sighed. "I'll wait by the alleyway." he mumbled, spatial-jumping away. Ris waited about two seconds, before disappearing too.
"Huh, someone's in trouble." Luther joked nudging Diego with his elbow. "You know," he said gesturing to the disappeared youngers, elders.
Luther sighed, placing a hand on Diego's shoulder. "Women." he said after a few seconds of silence. "Am I right?"
"Are we just going to sit in silence?" Five asked after a good ten minutes of silence. "I don't have anything to say and considering past arguments, you don't like listening me." Ris said shortly.
Five tightened his grip on the steering wheel, her calm was a comforting as snow down his back. "If it's any consolation, I am sorry, Rissa. I really am." Five mumbled.
Ris sighed. "I know, but, doesn't make feel any better about this." she mumbled. "I just…I just want you to know. One day, we might not be lucky. I mean-Vanya?"
"Yeah, I know, about Vanya."
"No, I mean, is that Vanya?" Ris said pointing at the car that was about to pass them. The car passed, Five looking out the window just as Vanya did the same.
"Oh, geez!" Ris cried, gripping onto the seat, Five practically slamming the brakes down. The car stopped with a screech, making tire marks on the road.
Ris sighed, blowing some hair out of her eyes. "You know, I'd appreciate you try not to kill us, before you save us."
"What are you doing here?" Vanya asked, parking her car; Ris and Five closing the doors, walking to her. "Looking for you. We're going back to 2019." Five said hurriedly.
"What are you talking about?" Vanya asked glancing at Ris. "Short story. We're being chucked back to our timeline and we have to leave now. We're sorta like being deported almost. Or we'll all die. Not that that's not going to happen anyway." Ris replied, tucking some hair behind her ear.
"Can you be serious about this for one goddamn minute?" Five hissed at her. "He's a little stressed." Ris said 'quietly'.
Five shook his head, deciding to ignore her for now. "Look, I don't really have time to explain right now, but I found a way home." he said, pretending he didn't hear 'focus on the 'I' he did this all by himself' from behind him. "All right? We have 30 minutes to leave."
"What about my friends? I can't just leave them here." Vanya cried. Ris frowned, at her strange reaction. She seeming more distressed than usual. "Vans you okay?" she asked.
"Vanya, you don't have a choice in this, all right?" Five snapped, not picking up on Vanya's odd body language. "Doomsday will happen if you don't come with us."
Vanya nodded. "Okay, then I'm bringing them with me."
"We're not a taxi service, Vanya. Nor do we have a magic flying time traveling bus." Ris said. "I'm sorry, but they need to stay. They belong in this timeline."
"Says who?" Vanya said angrily, clearly expecting a different answer from her. "Sissy deserves a life where she doesn't have to pretend to be someone she's not. And Harlan? There's a name for what he has. We can get him the help he needs." she said desperately.
Ris opened her mouth to argue, but her resolve had already being wearing down by Vanya's distressed and her mentions of Sissy and Harlan.
"Vanya." Five said calmly, easily taking over.
"Look, a mom and her eight-year-old son are not gonna screw up the timeline, Five!" Vanya shouted. They're insignificant."
"No one is insignificant." Five said gently. "I'm sorry, all right? But we can't take that risk. They have to stay. Come on." Five said gesturing to the car.
"Why do you get to decide? You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place." Vanya spat, making Five pause. Ris muttering a curse under her breath. She poked the stressed out occasionally homicidal bear.
"If I did nothing, we would all be dead right now, thanks to you." Five snapped, turning around facing his sister. "Guys," Ris said, walking in front of Five. "We don't have time for this."
"They're coming with me." Vanya insisted. Five scoffed, shaking his head slightly, marching over to her. "Vanya, do not test me right now." he hissed.
"That's funny." Vanya said with a tight smile, stepping forward. "Cause I was just about to say the same thing." her firsts glowing white, the sound of high-pitched whistling ringing out.
Five's hand lit up too, the blue glow, whooshing sound in sync with her.
"You guys wanna fight? Fine." Ris said, one hand placed lightly on Vanya's shirt, the other on pressed on Five's blazer. "But we can't fight and go home at the same time."
The two glared at each other, their hands releasing their glow and returning to normal. Ris slowly put down her hands.
"Fine." Vanya spat.
"Fine, what?" Five asked.
"I'll be there, but I need to say goodbye first." Vanya said
"Oh, Vanya, we don't have the time." Five whined. "Well, it's either that or I'm not coming." Vanya said in a tone of finality.
"Okay, you have less than 30 minutes, so you better hurry." Ris agreed. Five scoffing behind her. "The alley. Don't be late." he added, muttering a few curses under his breath as he stalked back to the car.
"See you soon." Ris said giving her a small wave goodbye, following Five back to the car. Five slammed the door sulking.
Ris gently closing hers. "You know," she said, glancing at him. "Being old and grumpy doesn't give you any rights to being an asshole."
Five groaned dramatically making Ris smirk, as he started the car.
Vanya's car starting behind them, as they turned around and drove in the opposite direction.
"Where the hell are they?" Five grumbled, pacing up and down the alley, briefcase in hand. "Relax, they'll be here." Ris said calmly, leaning against the wall, watching him pace up and down. "Your faith in my family is incredibly concerning." Five replied, running his fingers though his hair.
"Hey." Luther cried, running up to them. "Where is everyone?"
"You're the first." Five said with a panicked grin, holding out his watch. "Unfortunately you don't get a prize." Ris said wirily, standing next to Five, looking up and down the alley.
"What?"
"Yeah." Five said glancing at Ris. "Still have faith?"
"Oh, shut up." Ris mumbled. "Hey! Hey!" Klaus shouted, running like a newly born baby deer. "We made it!" he chuckled, snorting slightly.
"Yes, yes I do. Klaus!" Ris said gleefully. "What do you mean, "we"?" Five asked. Klaus suddenly trying to pull Ben out of his body.
"Oh my god!" Ris cried, stumbling back, staring at them. Five and Luther looking at the two like they were mad.
"Get out!" Klaus grunted distortedly, his body gurgling and moving in all the wrong ways. "Out!" Klaus cried, throwing up, spitting Ben out of his body in the process, collapsing to the floor.
"Oh, that is disgusting." Ris breathed out, covering her mouth. "I-I can't, no." she mumbled, looking away, unable to look at the puke.
"I can't believe-" Luther started. "I mean, you're here." he cried, gesturing at Klaus. "Don't be cruel, Luther." Ris mumbled, shutting her eyes cursing the fact that she was a sympathetic vomit-er.
"I just had the strangest dream." Klaus whimpered. "Please don't tell us about it." Ris moaned. "We've got eight minutes left." Five said worriedly. "Where are the others?" he cried, glancing between Luther and Ris.
7 minutes later…
"We've got a minute left!" Luther yelled slamming his hand against the garbage bin. "What's going on, guys? Are we going somewhere?" Klaus said hoarsely. "Yeah, buddy." Ris said, patting his stomach awkwardly, trying to stop herself from throwing up at the smell.
"It was a simple task. It was a simple task! All we had to do was be here." Five ranted, pacing up and down in his spot. "Didn't have to fight a giant sea monster, no. An army of mutants? Nein."
"I can't believe this."
"It was handed to us on a silver platter."
"Could you just moan a little softer? My head is killing me." Klaus mumbled.
"Listen to me, you useless puke bag, we just blew our chance to save the world!" Five shouted.
The briefcase beginning to charge.
"Five?" Ris questioned, swallowing hard, glancing at the briefcase.
"God damn it." Five sighed, grabbing the briefcase. "Shit." Luther cursed under his breath.
Five throwing the briefcase into the air, the case vanishing in a glow of blue light.
"We were that close…That close." he sighed.
Ris nodded, swallowing hard again. "Five?" Ris tried again. "I don't wanna-"
"Oh for godsake, just throw up already!" Five snapped. Ris giving him a thumbs up, instantly doubling over, puking her guts out.
Five sighed walking over, holding her hair, rubbing her back gently. "We were that close, Rissa." he whispered, Ris making another puke noise. "That close."
Thoughts, my wonderful readers?
May chappy's be releasing as we have reached *The Final Stretch*
You all are incredible! You have no idea how much it means that you all read, review and fav stuff!
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Till next time...
