Notes: Hey everyone! As always, thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comments! You have no idea how much they help when I feel like I'm writing rubbish, when I get stuck or find a plot hole I need to fix, you are the best!
Diego
According to the Handler, Diego was meant to be somewhere around this building in a grey car, the plan was simple enough, try to talk him out of his plan or force him out of it. Five wasn't thrilled about it, but he didn't see any other way to convince his stubborn brother than a direct confrontation. For the time being though, something else occupied his thoughts, the conversation with the Handler kept playing on his mind.
"So... Lila says your brother has decided to go back to his vigilante days and prevent JF Kennedy's assassination."
"I'm not surprised, to be honest. He was never too bright when it came to the laws of time traveling."
"Oh, don't pretend I am stupid Five, I know Lila has been talking with you, God knows why she finds your chit chat so interesting, but I bet she told you about this and you sent her to me."
The assassin just stared at her coolly, there was no point in denying it.
"So what? You have a better plan to change his mind? Be my guest."
"That's not the point," she hissed tersely, "do you actually think you can put her against me?"
"I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you are the utilitarian here. I know she has powers, that's why you adopted her, didn't you?"
"You've been putting some thought into this, haven't you? I won't lie, that's a very nice plus."
"You won't always be able to control her, what will you do when that time comes?"
"Oh, please, do you expect me to believe you care about Lila now?"
"Compared with you, I bet even the mailman cares more about her."
"I have been nothing but kind to that girl, she adores me."
"And how do you think she'll feel when she finds out the hitmen that almost killed her and my brother work for the Commission?"
"So you figured that one out, huh? That was just an unfortunate accident, I just told her I planned it all to make it look good so your brother wouldn't suspect her."
"An unfortunate accident that could have gotten her or my brother killed. You know the Swedes are no joke."
"They are under my control now and Lila kept your brother safe, didn't she? Besides, there will always be other assets when some outlive their usefulness," she said patting his cheek with a malicious smile.
He wasn't a big fan of Lila, sure, she wasn't really a bad kid and she was decent company, more importantly, he was pretty sure she was starting to care for Diego, but she was also hot-headed and quite dangerous. As long as Diego didn't know about her powers or her connections he posed less of a threat, but that also made him completely vulnerable to an attack if she or the Handler decided to go against his family, yet, he couldn't help feeling slightly bad for her, she made him think about Luther, he wanted to have their father's approval and love so bad that he had been the blindest of them all to his absolute lack of care for them, nobody deserved that.
Not like I can save her from that, she's already risking it by talking with me behind her mother's back, he sighed trying to focus in the present.
He finally spotted Diego's car, hopefully he'd be able to reason with his brother.
Yeah, right.
A familiar zap of energy accompanied by a blue glow at the back of Diego's seat alerted him, he didn't even need to look back to know exactly what that was. "Five, so you finally made your appearance, huh?" he said with a hint of anger in his voice.
"How did you know I'd come?"
"Cause that's the kind of shit you pull. Did you know I was in a psychiatric center for 75 days!? None of you came, a friend from the center was the one that actually helped me out of there."
Five lowered his eyes to the floor, there was no point in saying sorry.
"I'm glad you're out Diego, but can you really trust a "friend" you just made in a mental institution?" Sorry Lila, nothing personal.
"Apparently more than you people," Diego growled still pretty annoyed.
"So, are you going to tell me what are we doing in front of Oswald's workplace?"
"I am going to stop him from killing John F. Kennedy, want in?"
Five was slightly surprised by his brother's immediate change of demeanor from whiny brother to vigilante. I can see why people think he has a hero complex.
"Are you insane? You cannot save the president."
"Watch me."
"I don't mean in that way, you cannot make such a huge change in the timeline, you could be putting the whole future at risk, you could even jeopardize our own existence" cleared Five rolling his eyes with exasperation, voice raspy and tired. Granted, he had left his post at the Commission on the same day he had been asked to make sure Kennedy was killed, but he was just a backup plan in case something happened.
"Are you listening to yourself? We are saving Kennedy here, imagine how much better things would be. And then you swing us back a few decades so I can slit Hitler's throat off with a butter knife."
Five stared at him speechless for a minute.
"This is why you don't have any friends. You know what," he pulled his head out of the car, "officer!"
"Hey! What are you doing!"
"I hear there's a reward out for you and your new friend."
"Don't you dare involve Lila in this!"
Damn it Diego, if you knew how knee-deep she's actually involved, thought Five challenging his brother with a cheeky closed smile.
"Fine, what do you want?"
"Just let this be, we can't keep messing up with time."
"Are you for real? Didn't you just try to stop an apocalypse back in 2019?"
"That was different, that meant the end of the world as we knew it… and if you remember well, we caused it."
"You are just being paranoid," grumbled Diego looking at his watch and stepping out of his car.
Five blinked in front of him and forced him a few steps back pushing himself aggressively forward. "Diego, if you don't back down from this plan, I'll stop you myself."
"Oh, is that how this is going to be?"
"Well, you're giving me little option here," croaked Five arranging his scarf. He really didn't want things to come to this, Diego was no lousy fighter and he hardly had any fight in him right now, but he couldn't afford to let this happen.
"Bring it on you little jerk, I'm still mad at you for what happened to Patch," was the last thing Diego said before throwing a punch directly at Five's face.
Five crouched and spun to the left to tumble him down with his leg.
Diego fell but just as quickly pushed himself up with both hands jumping back to his feet a few steps away. Both siblings adopted a fighting stance and got ready for the next hit.
On cue both ran towards each other, Five spun to the left and half spin he jumped towards Diego, who backed off right in time to avoid a kick, then Five dropped to his knees and continuing the momentum of the spin as his brother retreated, he reached for his leg with his left arm and pushing himself to the ground, forced Diego down; while Diego rolled on his back to get back up, Five stood on hands and legs and threw a kick directly at Diego's face.
Both stood up panting, Five noticeably pale and sweaty, his heart felt like it was exploding and his skin felt clammy, maybe the extra dose of epinephrine had been a bad idea.
"Not bad, brother, you're quite swift with that scrawny teenage body."
"It took me a while to get used to it, but the speed does make up for the lost strength," smiled Five balancing on the same place to disguise the trembling of his legs, he wouldn't be able to keep up with this for long.
Then Diego threw the next offensive, a hook at the face, Five ducked, but he immediately switched for a kick to his chest, which Five barely managed to stop with both hands, then a fist directed at his neck, which he managed to stop with one arm and a follow up with the elbow which Five succeeded to stop again before throwing a hook of his own with the left hand, this time Diego ducked and threw a jab at Five's chest making him back up with a fit of coughs and exploding pain coming from his broken ribs.
"Come on Five, that hit wasn't even that strong," taunted Diego with a satisfied smile. "You're hesitating."
Five bit his lower lip to avoid a whimper of pain, fortunately the Handler had allowed him to bandage his torso in case he had to fight with Diego, but he couldn't risk another hit like that. He took a deep breath, shook his head and prepared himself for the next attack.
"I could say the same thing about you."
He jumped throwing a kick to Diego's chest, which he stopped with one hand and then threw the other leg to his head in time for Diego to stop it too, then he gathered momentum with a spin on the ground to throw another high kick at his brother's head; Diego ducked but Five took the chance to throw a direct jab at his face, then an uppercut to his nose and finally a jump to throw another full force kick at Diego's plexus making him lose balance and fall back.
"That's more like it." The vigilante rubbed off some blood coming from his nose with the thumb and took one knife blade from his pocket smiling.
Five grimaced, he had counted on Diego not using his powers against him, but that might have been wishful thinking, at least he didn't have all his blades. "Now this brings back memories, but back then you had all your blades," whispered Five with a hint of a smile.
"Shut up, this is not a training session, I'm done with all your shit!" Roared Diego aiming and throwing the blade at the Boy's left thigh.
Five blinked behind Diego and elbowed his back at the height of the right kidney and just as he arched his back in response the Boy kicked him in the back of the knee making him fall to one knee.
"Shit," grunted Diego taking the chance to grab another knife blade from his shoe and directing it to his brother's left bicep.
"GRAH!" Bit Five holding the wound, at least it was superficial. As the blade was making it's come back, Five blinked away appearing where the other blade had landed and picked it up.
"Oh, so you're finally getting serious?"
"I don't need a weapon to kick your ass, but I'd rather not deal with two blades flying around," rasped Five pocketing the blade and rubbing off some sweat from his forehead with his jacket's sleeve.
"Tsk. What, I thought you were capable of dealing with my whole stack?"
Without a sweat, but not right now, thought Five with a faint smile.
"Maybe another day," muttered Five fixing his jacked, he didn't have more blinks in him and his strength was fading fast, "I'm sorry Diego… play time is over," he added with an eerie calm voice.
"What?"
Five blinked right in front of him, just as he expected, Diego had predicted as much and threw a jab at his face, the Boy pushed his fist with the left hand to the side, and finished driving it away with his right lower arm while hitting him with the left on the side causing him to bend over in pain, then he clutched his brother's elbow to set his hand right in front of his shoulder and tossed his upper body forward to hit the hand with full force breaking some fingers. As Diego backed away cradling his hand, Five pushed him with both hands forcing him to steady himself with one leg, which then he tried to use to respond back with a kick, but Five was ready for that, he intercepted Diego's knee with his foot pushing it down to the opposite side with full force making him lose balance and then he finished shoving his other heel from the ground with his foot and towered over him.
"W-What the hell was that!?" mumbled Diego still reeling with the pain of the broken bones in his right hand and the injured kneecap.
"Some good ol' silat, sorry about that…" half-smiled Five quickly rubbing off a small trail of blood from his nose.
"Si- what?" Frowned Diego.
At that moment they could hear Oswald leaving the building happily unaware of everything that had happened and Diego tried to push himself up, but Five mercilessly put his shoe over Diego's already injured hand with a warning glance.
"…Just let me do this Five, you know it's the right thing to do," pleaded Diego.
Five looked away, of course it would be great if Kennedy wasn't killed, but it was too late for that, the consequences of such a change in the history of America, perhaps the whole world, would be unimaginable.
"I'm sorry… I can't."
Diego let his head drop to the ground defeated, there was little he could do right now anyhow, his damn brother had made sure of that.
After Oswald disappeared on his car, Five released Diego's hand and without a word started walking away favoring his right side.
"What? Are you just going to leave now!?"
Five stopped and without looking back sighed heavily, "Diego, you have to stop doing these things, I won't always be here to fix your mess…"
"Fix- what needs fixing is you man, do you really enjoyed your old work that much you didn't care to leave us stranded here!?" protested the vigilante.
Five smiled sadly to himself and resumed his departure.
"Wait, what did you mean by that?" Suddenly asked Diego rehearsing Five's words, but Five didn't look back, instead he banished in a blink as abruptly as he had appeared.
Notes:This chapter was such a challenge to write, for one because I honestly had no idea what was actually going to happen XD, and then because I had to read, watch and learn soo many things to write a (hopefully) decent fighting scene, but I ended up having a lot of fun with it, hopefully it ended up as cool and understandable as my mind pictures it haha.
I hope nobody decides to check my search history since I started this story lol, they'd find some really weird stuff from this chapter and chapter 12 lol, but hey, I wanted to write as realistic as possible, right? I mean, how often do you get the chance to write a master assassin?