Note: Ugh... I have no idea why italics are not working in my story... when I see the preview they are there, but if I follow the story link I see no italics! I'm so sorry... I hope it's not too confusing to figure out when it's a thought, I'll try to figure out what's happening.

A New Contract

The next time Five woke up, he felt like a ragdoll that only stayed put by the ties on his arms and legs. His entire body felt numb and shaky and the room felt so damn cold, he had to muster all his will to keep his teeth from clattering.

As he gingerly opened his red rimmed eyes, Lila's face appeared in front of him with an ear-to-ear smile startling him. "Hey, I thought you'd never wake up!"

"Buzz-off," he muttered feeling her every word drilling on his brain.

"Too bad I missed the show, mom said it looked like pretty fireworks," she snickered.

"Well, I'm glad someone enjoyed it."

A door opened at the second floor and Five could hear a familiar clack of high heels approaching.

"Good, you're finally up," the Handler's terse voice approached. "Are you ready to cooperate now or do you need more persuasion?"

"I told you, I won't change my mind, I'm done with this."

The Handler exchanged a meaningful glance with her daughter and hummed. "Well then, seems like it's time to change our strategy."

Five's heart skipped a beat, she couldn't possibly mean…

"Listen to me well, Five. We know exactly where each one of your brainless family members are and I have a couple of trustworthy agents watching at every move they make. In fact, Lila here is personally keeping track of one of them".

"Oh yes, that has been quite amusing, your brother Diego has been especially fun to stalk," Lila interrupted cheerfully.

"W-What?" Five's mouth felt dry.

"Oh yes, the poor naive thing thinks I'm his pal and everything," Lila smirked at him.

"Of course the idiot would fall for that," sighed Five exasperated.

Lila snorted.

But without a warning, Five's eyes became intense and dangerous sending chills down her spine. "But if you even think about hurting him—"

"Oh, spare us the assassin bravado, Five, I don't think you're in any position to threaten us right now," the Handler pushed Lila aside and lowered her head to Five's eye level, "besides, it's not the one obsessed with knives you should be worrying about. Remember your timid little sister, what was her name, Vanya? You know, it wasn't easy to find her, you'd think with her power it would be a breeze to track her down right, but hear this, she hasn't used her powers since she arrived to the sixties, apparently, she hit her head almost as soon as she arrived and she completely forgot who she is. She's blissfully unaware of everything she did, just living in a farm with an ordinary family. Wouldn't it be such a shame if say, Lila paid her a visit?"

This sent a shot of adrenaline through Five's body, hardly allowing him to hide the panic growing on his face. Vanya, no…

"In her current state, Lila could kill her in a matter of seconds you know, but what would be the fun in that? She could also bring her here and give me at least a few days to have fun torturing her in front of you."

"No! Leave my family out of this, they've been through enough… Vanya has been through enough," a knot on his throat made his voice come out pitiful and vulnerable, definitely not what he needed right now.

"Well, that's kinda sweet," Lila said with an oddly honest tone.

"Oh Five, I can't believe all the useful things I'm discovering about you in such a short time, I never really bought the caring brother act until now, but you should see your face…, seems like you're more predictable than I thought."

Five emitted a low noise that sounded a lot like a growl, "This is too low, even for you," he pierced her with his eyes.

"You know this could have been easier, but if the only way to make you help me is by comprising your shitty family, so be it, your sister's life for the Board of Directors."

Five closed his eyes lowering his head in defeat.

"Fine… I'll do it." For Vanya.

"See, that wasn't so hard, wasn't it? Once you do this for me, you're free to go back to your dysfunctional family."

How much of the Five they knew will be left to go back to them tho? He wondered. Since he had returned to his family, he had really tried to push down the killer in him. He knew he had mentioned killing a lot of people to them, but his brothers and sisters probably couldn't even grasp the hard reality of that, they had been raised as heroes, they couldn't have the slightest idea of the horrors, the carnage, the thrill of the chase, a wave of self-disgust plagued him, would Luther still think he was a good person if he knew about this?

"What about the board of directors, hmm? I mean, nobody knows who they are."

"Correct. But once every fiscal quarter, they get together for a board meeting."

"Where?"

"The question is when. They meet somewhere in the timeline but never in the same place twice. The exact location and date of these board meetings is the most closely-guarded secret in the Commission."

"But you know where it's gonna be, don't you?"

"Would I be any good at what I do if I didn't?" she smiled self-importantly.

Lonely Lodger Inn. Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 1982

Five found himself walking to a pretty innocent looking inn, his demeanor reflecting some nervousness. He knew he could do this job easily enough, the Board of Directors would probably be a group or ordinary bureaucrats, but still, he needed to do the job fast, the Handler had made sure he had no energy to spare, only allowing him to eat a meager bite of oatmeal.

A few people were giving him side glances, the Handler had allowed him to wash his face and fix his hair, but he still appeared pretty worn-out and the metal collar around his neck stood out from his academy uniform.

I probably have around five jumps at most. He sighed adjusting his suit before entering the facilities.

"Excuse me," he said awkwardly approaching a woman attendant.

"Uff da. You snuck up on me there. If you're looking for the cookies, we don't put 'em out till 3:00."

"I can hardly wait."

The woman looked him up and down, pausing at his neck and frowned. Damn, stupid collar.

"Are you okay young man? You're looking a tad pale there."

"Yes, I'm fine…. uh, do you happen to know where the Midwest Soybean Society is meeting?"

"Sure do. Muskellunge Banquet Room. You looking for your mom? Should I call her or someone else for you? You're really not looking too well."

Then he noticed a vending machine, if he could just get some extra calories in…

"Hey, could I get some change?"

"Oh, sure, I'll just look in my purse."

Five exhaled softly fidgeting with his clothes.

"Only a nickel and a couple of dimes. Oh! You... are... in... luck, mister."

He chuckled softly at this and with a distant expression commented, "You know, some say the best luck is to die at the right time."

The woman just stared at him puzzled as he walked away.

Fudge Nutter… as ironic as it may be, it's still by far the best choice. He put the coins in the machine and waited for the Chocolate bar to drop, only it didn't, it got stuck.

A burst of rage started bubbling inside him, he tried to click the buttons again, looked at the receptacle, nudged the machine, nothing.

"Come on!" he growled in frustration shoving the machine with more force. "Stupid Frickin' Fudge Nutter!" He grunted feeling his eyes prickling with emotion.

He really didn't want to do this, he loathed the Handler, always had, and he was so tired and so worried about Vanya, he just wanted a fricking Fudge bar, was that too much to ask for? Then he kicked the machine, his strength so low, the glass just rattled with the impact while he fell to the floor ungraciously.

He got up and looked around spotting a cake right in front of the meeting room. With an outbreath he ran a finger along its edge and brought it to his mouth savoring the sugar. Then he looked around again finding a fire axe conveniently nearby, it would be messy, but it would do the job pretty well.

The room had a large wooden table with the twelve members sitting around, AJ at the head of the table.

"Let's move on to article 17, please," AJ was saying before he saw Five standing in front of them with an axe. "You!"

A woman whispered alarmed, "What's he doing-?"

"Call security!" shouted AJ.

The woman closest to him pushed herself away from the table trying to reach out for the phone right before Five cut her arm off, leaving the dial tone beeping.

At this, AJ decided it would be safer to hide under the table.

Five wrested the axe free of the desk and then searched for his next targets, a familiar surge of adrenaline filled his body as he allowed a crooked smile to spread across his face.

One jump and he had three more board members covered in blood on the floor, he arranged his tie and straightened up his jacked before going for the next jump with a devious expression.

Seven to go, he thought hitting a man on the chest.

"What are you doing!" Another man yelled as he reached for a glass of water and took a big gulp.

With a smirk that kept growing wilder, he made his next jump, three slit necks and one guy stuck on the roof for flair.

He looked at the last two apart from the fish, he could feel his body wearing off, so with an effort he made another jump taking one with such force that he fell off the chair and getting the other one right on the top of the head.

By now he was panting and covered in blood, he took a deep breath and disappeared, AJ lifting his head gingerly just for Five to appear on the table, right in front of him.

"She sent you, didn't she?"

"Does it really matter now?" spoke the Boy using the axe as a cane to steady himself with both hands.

"Whatever she offered you, I will double it, triple it," said AJ desperate.

"I'm not doing this for money," assured Five getting ready to dive the axe on the fish bowl right before the attendant that had given him change tackled him away from the fish shrieking.

"Get off me!" Five grunted trying to free himself with the little energy he had left.

"Didn't your mum teach you not to kick other people's property, little mister!?"

"To be fair, my "mom" wasn't aware of many social conventions." Five said elbowing her, finally managing to free himself. "I don't wanna hurt you, all right?"

"Hurt me?" The woman landed a direct punch on his face, he was getting unfocused, he fell backwards seeing stars and the woman took the chance to take a pen nearby and stuck it into his right shoulder, "Oh, I ain't afraid of you, you little pus ball."

Crap! He screamed in his mind frantically while the pain on his shoulder numbed his entire arm, at least it had been the right one. He grabbed the pen and, swallowing a yelp, pulled it out and buried it in the woman's hand as she braced herself for the next attack; as she held her hand shrieking, he took the chance to punch her in the face with all the strength he could gather.

"You should have stayed down, I didn't want to hurt you," he muttered breathless looking for AJ, he was gone.

"Shit!" he exclaimed in frustration and grabbing a cricket bat, he forced himself to blink one more time, blocking AJ's escape.

"Surely we can come to some form of agreement that benefits both parties. Quid pro quo? What do you say?"

"Why not?" Five's crooked smile looked more deranged painted in blood. "Here's your quid," he hit AJ's left knee, "here's your pro," he hit the other knee forcing AJ to kneel down.

Five exhaled, eyes tinted with a bit of madness.

"No! No! Please don't!" AJ whimpered.

"Here's your quo," the assassin finished trying his best to aim at the fish tank even though his vision was already blurring.

"No...!"

Five watched as AJ struggled in the ground and breathed a shaky sigh of relief, he was so glad it was over.

Five was standing on a back alley trying to scrap some dried blood from his fingernails when approaching footsteps announced the arrival of the Handler. He scoffed softly refusing to look at her, self-loath increasing by the minute.

"Well?"

He extended his hand to her with enraged revulsion, AJ stuffed into a plastic bag with water.

"AJ!" She gasped delighted and cackled admiring the defenseless fish.

"You know, even worn-out you're a master at your craft!" She giggled. "Why so quiet? Thought you'd be buzzing after this morning's slaughter."

"All this killing... I'm done with it," said Five facing her after a long moment of silence.

"What? Am I supposed to take that seriously?" She mocked taking out a handkerchief and wetting it with saliva, wiped Five's bloodied face.

"What I did today, I did for my family, I did it to protect this timeline," he glared feeling his skin crawl at her touch. He hated every time she found an excuse to touch him.

"Please. Spare me your little assassin with the heart of gold routine, will you?" Five looked befuddled for a moment, he was exasperated, but she had made a point too, they had had a few conversations like this before and he always ended up killing again, was he even capable of stopping?

I can, I'm not just a killer.

"I gave you what you want, now let me go with my family and you'll never see me again."

For some reason the Handler gave him a self-satisfied smile, but before he could realize what was happening, he heard a very familiar crackling of energy behind him and then felt something connect with his back, an electrical shock making him tumble nearly unconscious.

"You could have used the collar, you know?"

"This was more fun," Lila said shaking a taser in her hand.

What the…? How did she? He wondered starting to get swallowed by darkness.

"Sorry Five, it's just too much fun to have you under my absolute control as the dog you are," cooed the Handler bending with her hands on her knees.

I must be getting careless, was his last thought before he fainted.

Notes: Thank you so much for reading, the beginning of this chapter and the next chapter took me ages! I had an idea of where I wanted to go, but it had to make some sense, so lots of mind racking there - hopefully it does makes sense? lol

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, stay tuned for the next one this Saturday!