Notes: Hey everyone! You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to posting this chapter, but I do have a few notes I'd like to share!
If you have noticed, i use blink and jump at different times, and I don't really used them as synonyms, after reading different explanations and notes on Five's powers, it looks like in the comics, more than space jumping, he simulates super-speed by making micro jumps forward in time, and in the show, while it's clear he can do space jumps too, when he kills the board of directors, it kinda looks like he's not only space jumping, but also moving faster in time, so, I decided to use "blink" for when he just teleports in space and "jump" for when he seems to not only move in space but also forward in time to move faster than the rest. Naturally, I think jumping would be more taxing than blinking. And there's also the stapler thing in the first episode, is he able to teleport things without touching them as well or is he just using his time-skipping abilities to change it making it look like it got teleported? Whatever the case, we know he's capable of doing such things too. So those are my thoughts on his powers. - And now to figure out why this note was important for this chapter!
Allison
Five just listened intently for every detail as the Handler summarized the situation for him, eyes closed and jaw clenched, after what Lila had told him about Allison, he knew it would be a matter of time before he had to pay her a visit, but he had hoped things wouldn't end up getting this problematic or dangerous.
"…They will gather enough people for a night meeting in the beauty parlor, that they'll end up attracting unwanted attention from a group of military enthusiasts, if you don't stop this attack from escalating, there will be enough corpses from both sides in the morning to cause a big commotion and delay the president's visit."
At least he was thankful that this time he'd be there to protect Allison and her allies instead of killing them, "How many people are we talking about?"
"There will be 14 people armed with guns infiltrating in their lines as soon as they leave the parlor, it will be dark enough that they won't realize until it's too late. It's up to you to stop them as fast as you can before they start killing people or you'll have to add another 9 from your sister's group if they get scared or angry enough to fight back."
Great, so if I'm not fast enough, it'll be worse than my encounter with Luther, he shook his head. "How much time do I have approximately?"
"Around 10 minutes to eliminate all the infiltrates in the best-case scenario," the Handler smiled like she was talking about a contest challenge.
Shit, that's gonna need several jumps, he thought feeling a knot forming in his stomach, if this went wrong, Allison could get killed.
"This is your specialty Five, stealthy one hit kills, just make sure to contain the ruckus as much as possible."
"Shouldn't you send a few more people to help?"
"Five Five Five, you know how messy most of our agents at the Commission can be. Better for you to go solo, that way you can keep better damage control, right?"
"Sure, I can be fast and quiet," said Five with more confidence than he actually had in his current state, "but how do you expect people are going to react the next day when they find 14 white corpses near Allison's beauty parlor?"
"Oh, but that's not my problem, is it?" she smirked, "look, these people have no one waiting for them at home, you just need to get rid of the evidence, be creative."
Five grimaced and signaled with his captive hand so the Handler gave him the map showing the place and time. "I'll need you to send a truck to this alley at the left," he tried to point with his eyes after analyzing the space for a few minutes.
Kill and blink 14 plus people, that was going to be fun…
"Excellent, I knew you'd come up with something. Besides, there's going to be a storm tonight, so you won't have to worry about the blood spill," she licked her lips wickedly like she could taste the blood.
"May it pour tonight then…" he mumbled resignedly.
The Handler took the map from Five's lap and put it back on the folder with the pictures of the assailants and the possible antagonists from Allison's group. Then she walked to the nearby table and started preparing the epinephrine shot.
"You and I know that won't be enough for this… I'll need something stronger," croaked Five looking away.
Lila, that had been listening to the exchange from a corner, could hardly hide a gasp, how much was he willing to lose to protect his family?
"Oh? I didn't think you had enjoyed laughing while you killed your brother's friend," the Handler mocked knowing perfectly well that it would be impossible for him to complete that mission without some extra help. "I though you hated anything that messed with your mind, Five."
Admittedly, he knew it would be a matter of time before he started losing it either way, as much as Lila cut back from time to time the cocktail of depressants the Handler was giving him, he could feel his mind fraying at the edges a little more each day, sometimes it was hard to tell which would give in first, his body or his mind, so he just needed to keep going for a little longer, just long enough to ensure the safety of his brothers and sisters.
"I do," he sighted loudly in defeat, "just give me the smallest dose," and let's hope it's just enough to keep me going without experiencing too many side effects, he prayed vehemently.
Five's heart was beating abnormally fast, he couldn't tell if it was anxiety or the venom pumping inside his system. Allison's group was coming into view and he could already pinpoint some of his targets. He had considered his options and had decided he'd disperse the mob by shooting a gun close enough, the rest of the city would think it was thunder and the mob would be restless enough to go into a panic and run. Then he'd start moving amongst the crowd taking and teleporting his targets one by one.
He took a deep breath and prepared to shoot the gun.
A big lightning covered the indigo blue sky signaling the storm to come, be it water or blood, and a few seconds later the thunder was swallowed by the sound of gunshot coming from somewhere nearby, everybody crouched and then most of the new faces started scattering away screaming.
Five apprehensively fixed his jacket one last time and grabbing the combat knife he had requested from the Handler, he zeroed in on the farthest target from Allison and blinked.
The first man had no time to react, Five appeared behind him and stabbing the back of his neck at the base of the skull, he firmly yanked the knife towards the spine severing the spinal cord, before the man could even fall he blinked away letting the body drop near the truck.
Immediately afterwards, he pictured his next victims and calculated the right place to blink to, it was two men wearing nothing but tank tops, bad idea, he blinked in front of one of them and shoved the knife directly into his lungs so he couldn't yell or scream to alert the others and as the other man turned back after hearing the soft thud of his comrade dropping to his knees, Five thrust the knife upwards into his armpit severing the axillary artery, he reached his hands to both men and blinked them away, finishing them off in the back alley.
The raindrops started to fall gaining strength with each passing minute. He staggered only avoiding the fall by holding up to the wall, he was already seeing dots, but time kept running and Allison was in danger.
The rest of the targets were too close to the mob, even in the darkness of night and the confusion of the increasing rain, he'd have to start jumping if he wanted to go unnoticed and finish before the initial confusion was over and the infiltrators started their attack. He moved to the next group of four, a slit carotid, a perforated liver, a pierced heart and a direct cut at both popliteal arteries behind the knees of the last one, rapidly finishing him off by snapping his neck. The nearby people only had time to hear a few subdued cries, but as he inevitably got closer to Allison, her ears, trained since childhood, easily caught the familiar electrostatic noise of his powers as he moved around the crowd.
Allison snapped her head towards a distant noise at her left, almost sure she had managed to see a glimpse of blue light in the darkness.
"Wh- what what's going on?" She exclaimed looking around while trying to tune out the screams and the storm.
Five took another one at her other side, a jump on the man's shoulders and a direct thrust at his temporal lobe was all he needed. Allison followed the noise again missing him for a microsecond.
The boy dropped the 8th body in the alley, he was running out of time but his power was taking the toll already, he could feel a string of blood from his nose washing off with the rain and his grip on the knife coming loose, hands slightly trembling.
He saw a man about to attack a smaller woman, so he jumped and pushed his knife through the back of his neck; the man fell revealing a blood-covered 13-year-old boy to the trembling woman for a matter of seconds before he crouched to touch the man's back and disappeared like it had only been an illusion.
Allison turned her gaze to her friend's cry of fear, she was laying on the ground looking at an empty space in front of her.
It has to be Five! Allison thought looking for a sign of her brother, she hadn't found Vanya yet, but since the day she had spoken with Luther, she had kept wondering about their oldest/youngest brother. Something didn't seem to add up, had he just snapped and gone full psycho?
Another electrostatic noise at her southwest, she turned her head in time to see a blood soaked Five looming over the corpse of, was that an armed white man?
"F-Five?" she stammered taking a step towards him before freezing in her tracks; the Boy looked at her for a moment before disappearing along with the man, his bloodshot eyes shining in the darkness almost like a wild animal's, a disquieting expression accompanying them.
Allison felt a hand grab her arm and she jumped in surprise turning her head towards the source.
"Allison, let's go!" Shouted Ray over the pouring storm.
The infiltrates had had enough time to look around and realize most of their companions were missing now, so they began to get nervous and decided to make their move, Allison could hear another jump nearby and she tried to look around, but she collided against Ray's back, something had made him come to a halt.
Five swayed over his last two victims, a puddle of blood already forming around them coming from a punctured chest and a severed carotid. He was almost done, just two more to go and it would be over, he scanned the area, vision getting blurry.
The two missing men were currently pointing their guns at a group of scared middle-aged women, two men nearby already searching for anything they could use to fight back, he recognized their faces from the pictures. If they attacked back, it would be over for Allison's group.
ALLISON!
He eyed the two bodies at his feet, he'd need to take them with him later, but right now he needed to find Allison, he looked around frantically, he had turned his eyes on her for a moment and now she was missing. He stood still, feeling each drop of rain hitting his body like scalding water, screaming at him, some people already noticing the 13-year-old soaked in blood standing over two dead bodies illuminated by the moon, then he spotted her, she was behind the two attackers watching a man approaching with a tube he must have picked in the street, damn it, his face had been on the Handler's notes as well; he knew that look, it was easy to see that he didn't want to resort to that, but his big eyes reflected panic and justified rage for his defenseless friends.
Damn it, I'll have to kill him before he gets a chance to hit one of them, the other will shoot everyone in a frenzy!
But just as Five tightened the grip on his weapon preparing for a jump, Allison put her hand on the tube and forced the man to lower it down with a significant look.
"We said we would never resort to violence, Ray" she reminded him.
Ray… Raymond, that's, that's Allison's husband! He screamed internally, frickin' Handler could have mentioned that in her notes, but of course she wouldn't think that was relevant, thank God Lila had mentioned his name and that Allison had intervened before he could kill him.
Five looked at Allison, surrounded by an aura of raindrops shinning under the moon, he felt a knot of pride surge on his throat, despite this horrible situation, she looked tall and proud, as courageous as she had always been when they were kids and they were afraid of nothing, but suddenly, something caught his attention, one of the crooks raised his gun aiming at Allison's stomach.
"Allison, NO!" he howled jumping in front of her. As soon as he reappeared, he felt an outburst of pain in his chest, his right lung immediately sending alarm signals, but for a moment, he only felt relief washing over him, he had made it in time.
"Five, what-!?" Allison cried after a moment of processing what had just happened, but before she could even move, he threw the knife to one of the man's eyes making him fall in pain, pressed his hand against the wound and jumped once, appearing with his left foot pressing the knife with full force against the man's skull, twice, slitting the neck of the last crook midair, knife appearing to have been teleported back to his hand, and then, he fell to the ground, blood trailing down his nose and mouth, pressing his hand as hard as possible on the open wound, fortunately, his lung hadn't collapsed yet, but he could feel an unrelenting stream of blood trickling through his hand.
"FIVE!" Allison called out to him again, big bewildered eyes returning his frazzled gaze, he was sure he looked like the killing beast he was, crouching in the darkness with two bloody corpses beneath him, drenched in blood and dilated pupils, the side he was increasingly becoming ashamed to show to his family in full view, but surprisingly, despite the initial shock, her eyes mostly reflected something else… something that broke Five inside, care.
He felt the gazes around him increase by the second and his knees starting to buckle under him as his vision became hazier, there was no time left, he tried to give Allison a reassuring smile and managed to mouth "Xolisa, ngicela uzinakekele" before reaching for both men and jumping away.
"FIVE WAIT!" he could hear Allison's shriek echoing in the middle of the night as he collapsed on his side still pressing the wound with the little strength he had left, a bloody cough rattling his body.
Allison looked around desperately while everyone around her just stared in shock at the empty spot her brother had left behind.
What had just happened? Who were these guys that had attacked them, were they part of the Commission? Had this been Five's fault again? She shook her head, if she had seen Five a year and a half ago, she would have blamed him for so many things, but her mind was clearer now and she was absolutely sure Luther had been wrong assuming Five had decided to simply ditch them to go back to the Commission, there was something else, this wasn't that, these people were going to attack them and he had stopped them on his own, but what's more important, he had taken a bullet in her behalf, how could she have doubted him for even a minute? Five had always been like that, hadn't he? The distant, aloof and arrogant idiot that would pretend he didn't like her favorite candy just so she could have his share, that would always train the hardest to make sure he was ready for any mission, that would pretend he was okay after a hard training session to later hide somewhere to cry on his own, that would hide a shrapnel wound so he wouldn't hold them back, the one that lashed and called them idiots, but took almost silently all of their accusations and complaints after having spent 45 years of hell just trying to go back to save them.
Allison started walking aimlessly trying to find Five hidden on a nearby alley, he couldn't be far with that wound. She felt a strong hand grip her wrist, "Allison, what's wrong!?"
It was Ray and he looked beyond shocked.
"The boy, did you see a boy wearing a vest and short pants?" She asked still wrapping her head around it all.
"Of course I did, what the hell was that?" inquired Ray looking rather shocked while he checked if she was all right.
"I'm okay Ray," she sniffled still looking around, "he… he took the bullet in my place," her eyes filled with tears and Ray pulled her into a strong hug.
"I'm just so glad you're okay, I'm so sorry about all of this," he said not letting go, but Allison's mind was somewhere else, she needed to find Five, even in the dark, his eyes had looked so… lifeless. There was no abrasive or brilliant spark in them and his frame had looked so small and frail, had he always looked like that?
Ray pulled apart when Allison remained silent, she looked shattered, "Allison, what's wrong, did you know that kid? Did I hear you calling him Five? What the hell is going on?"
Allison was about to give an explanation when a siren was heard at the distance.
"Quick, everyone, we need to leave right now!" somebody yelled in the crowd.
She thought she heard Five's familiar zap again and looked around one more time in hopes of seeing his signature blue power, but there was nothing, of course he wouldn't be able to keep jumping with that wound, there was nothing, no sound, no light, just the rhythmic sound of the rain washing off the blood of bodies long gone, washing off her brother's blood.
"Ray… he's hurt, I need to find him," breathed Allison hoping he'd understand.
The man looked at her sternly, he had no idea what was happening, but this was clearly important to Allison, "We need to go right now… but we will figure this out, okay?" He said before taking her hand and pulling her farther away from Five.
Notes: "How come Five managed to make so many jumps and even teleport the knife" you say? Well my friends, the other times there was no risk of one of his siblings dying, so he'd stop at his limit, but here, were he knows with each passing minute Allison's life is at bigger danger? Of course he'd disregard his personal well-being and literally destroy his body by pushing far beyond his limit if need be!
Thank you so much for reading :D