Luther

It had been a few days since he had made the deal with the Handler, how many days? It was hard to tell within these four white walls, not mentioning time in the Commission worked differently, but it hadn't taken long for her to start sending him on different missions in other timelines, nothing too hard thankfully, at least nothing he couldn't manage with a shot of epinephrine that the Handler supplied every time. Since then, he had acquired a few new bruises, it was hard to be fast and efficient in his current state, but at least he had managed to avoid any important wounds in spite of his body getting scrawnier with each passing day.

But today was different.

"I won't kill one of Luther's friends, we didn't agree to this," said Five trying to sustain the Handler's gaze with swollen, dark eyes.

"Oh, au contraire, we agreed that we would keep your family safe in this timeline, but it turns out that your siblings are very bad at keeping a low profile and not messing with everything around them.

Lila, who was sitting nearby with one leg up on a chair chuckled, "You could say that again!"

"See? You can thank Lila for keeping your wanna-be-hero brother from making stupid decisions," the Handler mocked.

Lila looked slightly conflicted, "Well, to be fair, he isn't that bad."

"Oh, please darling, don't tell me you're actually growing fond of him?"

Lila stole a glance at Five and pulling a face replied, "Of course not, but he's way more fun than this half-corpse here."

Five would have retorted back, but he was more interested in seeing this conversation play out, maybe the apple had fallen slightly far from the tree.

The Handler noticed his fairly intrigued expression and ended the conversation, "So, as I was saying, the space monkey convinced this guy to quit his job and become a social writer. You know the rules, if your siblings are going to stay safely in this timeline, we can't allow them to make major changes," explained the woman rolling her eyes. "We need to do some damage control before things get out of hand."

The assassin left his ponderings for later and fretted in silence for a moment, he could hardly argue with that, at least she was complying with her promise.

"Fine, but why do I have to deal with this?"

"Who better to clean up your family's mess that one of your own, right?"

"Yes but—"

"Ah ah ah, you don't get a say in this, I'm afraid." She waved the collar control in her hand, "besides, I'm doing you a favor here, another agent could end up having an encounter with your brother, at least you won't end up killing him accidentally, won't you?" She gave him a roguish smile tapping his nose lightly.

Five only glared at her and then sighed deeply, at first, he had felt broken thinking he'd never see his family again, but now that he was risking bumping into Luther during this mission, there was nothing he wished more than to never see him again. Luther would never understand, he'd probably never forgive him.

"Still… you are asking me to kill this guy coming from a public place, you know my jumps are very limited right now," he muttered.

The Handler took this as a hint that he was ready, so she took a syringe from a nearby desk and emptied it into the injection port of his IV.

"Well Five, I won't lie, it's not ideal, but you need to kill him in that precise moment or he'll come to his home and tell his wife about it and then she'll make it a whole thing if he goes missing."

Great, he has a family too…

Now he was starting to regret trying to turn a new leaf, not like he hadn't killed a bunch of husbands and parents before, so why should this bother him so much? Why should this be any different if he was still trying to protect his family? "So basically, there's no place for failure, that's pretty reassuring…"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I added an extra spice to your shot today," she cooed.

"What!?" yelled Five turning paler. "Who asked you to pump me with more crap? I need a clear mind for this, not to be a brainless psycho!"

Whatever she had injected, he was starting to feel jittery and high-strung, all senses exploding at the same time, his thoughts almost running at a normal speed despite the lack of proper food or rest in his system.

"Just giving you a hand so you don't mess this up and end up ruining your brother's chance at a peaceful life."

"Shit," he muttered uneasy, what if this thing made him lose the little humanity he had left?

As the Handler walked to the other side of the room to retrieve the papers with all the information he would need, Five could have sworn he heard Lila whisper to her, "was that really necessary?"

It was around 6 PM when Five found himself guarding the exit door of a very shabby looking place from a nearby roof. According to the Handler, in about one and a half minutes his target would come out of that same door and walk through an alley, perfect place to get him, no witnesses and no unnecessary commotion.

The door creaked open and a young man around his twenties came out unsuspectedly, Five shook his head feeling ruthlessly guilty, if Luther had convinced him to voice his political opinions, that could only mean this guy had some significance to him, probably a friend of sorts, which now that he thought about it, Luther hadn't been so different from him in that sense, he had never left the Academy and then had spent 4 years on the moon, the guy had probably never made a single friend outside his family and now, well, he was about to get rid of this poor sod.

He sighted and fidgeted with a scarf the Handler had provided to hide the collar, Okay Five… there's no coming back from this, he thought suddenly missing Dolores. He wondered what she would say before grimacing at the memory of that faint whisper he was sure he had heard back then.

He shook those thoughts away and focused back on his prey.

"Okay, heading to the alley in one… two… three," he blinked and with a perfected move from years of experience he slit the man's throat in a matter of seconds, the fresh blood feeling like a familiar balm in his hand and face, he couldn't contain a chuckle and a twisted smile from erupting, he knew it wasn't him, it was the drugs, or so he tried to tell himself.

He could hear heavy steps approaching, "Bob, you forgot your chan…!"

He turned his gaze to the voice, standing there with a few coins in one hand, was a stunned Luther.

"…no!" Luther's horrified eyes traveled to his now fallen friend, then to Five's left hand still holding a switchblade and then fixed on his brother's bloodstained face, "…Five?"

Five let the offending weapon fall to his side, damn, he missed his damned giant of a brother, for a brief moment of lucidity he wondered if it wasn't too late for him yet, maybe if he asked Luther for help…, then he looked back at his bloodstained hand and a sick smile crept to his lips.

Don't kid yourself, caro mio, an awfully familiar voice provided mercilessly.

"So even you agree with me on this one, Dolores…" he whispered with a hint of bitterness in his voice, trying to at least wipe the smile off his face to no avail, he was in too much of a high. So he tried the only thing left he could do, he looked directly into Luther's eyes for a minute trying to convey "I'm sorry I disappointed you" but he doubted anything on his twisted smile would express something nearly similar.

"Five," Luther repeated flabbergasted, still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. "Why would you—"

But the Boy couldn't take it anymore, he sprinted into the night, arms and legs already starting to feel tired and numb. Whatever the Handler gave him, it usually started to fade after half an hour, so his time was running low. He could hear Luther's heavy steps getting closer, so he pulled at his power, air around his hands starting to distort, but that was it, no glow, no tendrils of space and time on view, he was out of energy.

Really, with just one blink? He glowered.

Five STOP!" Luther's angry voice resonated in the alley while a heavy arm pushed him with uncanny force against a wall, breaking at least one rib with the impact.

"…Nice to see you too, Luther," Five gasped as the air left his lungs and a piercing pain on his chest exploded.

The usually caring Luther was so angry and confused, that he didn't let go despite Five's obvious pain, "What are you doing here Five, he was my friend, he was a good man and he had a family!" There was that tone, absolute horror and disbelief, Five didn't need to look at Luther's eyes to know he was devastated, and honestly, he was glad he was pinned against a wall because a laugh, of all things, was fighting its way out of his mouth. "Are you… laughing? What's wrong with you!?" said his brother finally letting him drop to the floor.

Five took a deep breath holding at his side, wondering if the broken rib had managed to pierce one of his lungs. At this sudden show of fragility Luther's earnest personality caved in, suddenly Five looked so small and, was he trembling? He cautiously extended a hand to touch the Boys back.

"Are you—" In a matter of seconds Five stopped his hand grabbing at his wrist with full force, his hand was cold as ice.

"Don't," there was an edge on his voice, drugged or not, Luther's horrified words had been a reality check, he didn't want his brother's compassion, he didn't deserve it. Luther deserved to build a new life here, without all of his baggage, "I don't need your help." He said getting up laboriously, stepping back to the shadows to hide his pale face and bloodshot eyes.

"Are you back at the Commission? This is what you've been doing!?" demanded Luther indignantly.

"That's none of your business."

"It is when you kill one of my friends and clients!"

"I believe I told you to grow up," the words left a bad taste on his mouth, but if that would keep Luther away from the Commission, so be it. "How long have you been here?"

"A year thanks to you."

A rush of guilt washed over him, "I'm sorry Luther, I know that couldn't have been easy," he muttered subtly reaching for the wall to keep steady.

"I thought everybody was dead," his brother said with a defeated and angry sigh, "I gotta go back."

Then his previous words registered in Five's sluggish brain, "Wait, you work in this shithole?"

"Yeah. Well, my boss owns the place. I'm his body man."

"What's that? Like a masseuse or something?"

"Okay, you can make fun all you want, but I take good care of Mr. Ruby."

"Wait, Ruby. The Jack Ruby, the gangster who shot Oswald?"

"Yeah, the one and only."

"Well, it finally happened. That gorilla DNA has taken over your mind."

"Hey, watch it, all right? Jack's a good friend."

Five scoffed looking at the floor, count on Luther to pick one of the most conspicuous personalities in the sixties to work for.

"Look, I've been stranded here alone for a year. What did you expect?" said the tall man awkwardly, "you could have come looking for me, but you chose your work at the Commission, didn't you? And to think I actually believed you when you said you didn't enjoy killing."

"Luther wait…" his thoughts were starting to get fuzzy again, but if this was going to be the last time he talked to Luther, he needed to say some things.

"No, I don't give a shit what you have to say anymore, we already saved the world from the apocalypse by coming here, didn't we? Leave me alone Five." that hurt more than he'd like to admit.

"We avoided the apocalypse, yes, but you cannot go around making a big heroic impact on people if you want to live a happy quiet life in this timeline, okay?", he tried to yell to Luther's back as he was leaving, then he remembered the Handler probably had people watching over them. "Look for the others, all right? …take care of them on my…" he trailed off finishing with nothing more than a raspy whisper.

Luther didn't look back, he just stopped briefly catching Five's last words, then shook his head and left.

Five just waited for Luther's frame to disappear behind the corner to drop to one knee breathing with difficulty, his body already feeling heavy and like a thousand needles were stabbing him.

"Damn it."

Notes: Sooo... that didn't go too well for Five, hey, at least everything is alright with the timeline again... isn't it? XD

Do you think Luther will look for the others or will he be too angry to even register Five's last words to him?

As always, thank you so much for reading :)