Capítulo VII- Las Siete Etapas

Vydia couldn't believe she was going to meet her younger self. Well, younger self in an older body. It was a thought that came to mind but it was very faint considering the dangers that come along if you are near your past self in the same timeline. They were specifically told not to engage with their doppelganger by the commission.

Five swung the fridge door open, rummaging through the food in the fridge. Glass clattered against one another and Vydia sharply whispered, "Couldn't you be louder? Luther's sleeping." He tilted a container of water to his lips. He gulped the water down. "You know, you have to evenly distribute it throughout the day," Vydia said, waving her container of water around.

He took a breath, "Yeah, well, we don't have much time." He continued to chug the gallon.

"Five? Vydia? What-" Luther paused, furrowing his eyebrows. He eyed Five. "You okay?"

Five sighed heavily, wiping his mouth, "I'm gonna need to be hydrated." He put the container back into the fridge and shut the door

Vydia rolled her eyes, "We've been through this. Chugging will help but- ugh never mind." She set her water down and picked up the baby powder. She had already applied it before she grabbed her water. She handed it to Five.

Five rose his arms and shook the bottle. The powder flowed down his short-sleeve into his armpit. Luther inquired, pointing to the bottle, "What's with the baby powder?"

"It'll help with the itching," Five shortly explained, applying powder to the other sleeve.

"What itching? There's itching? What the hell is going on here?" Luther gasped, "You do have a plan."

Vydia shrugged, "Yeah, somewhat."

"Well, it's a desperation move," Five grabbed his blazer off the chair, "but since our brain-dead siblings are incapable of meeting a simple deadline, we got no choice." They advanced to the living room filled with Elliot's conspiracies.

"No choice about what?"

"Five and I are going to find our past selves in 1963." Vydia drank from her water.

Five threw his blazer over his shoulder and checked his watch, "We just arrived in Dallas 15 minutes ago."

"Should I be worried about you?" Luther furrowed his eyebrows at the pair. 

"Luther, if you recall, we were sent to 1963 on a job by the commission to make sure the president was assassinated," Five said, stretching his legs and back.

"Oh! So, wait your old selves are out there."

Five rotated his head, "Precisely."

"What, just walking around Dallas?"

Vydia folded her arms, "Yep. We arrived early to roam around Dallas first. We should probably be at a pub right now with a briefcase that will get us home."

"Oh my god, you guys are geniuses."

Vydia raised her hand, "Ah, but there are a couple of flaws to this. One, we are trained assassins and from our spar sessions, Luther, you know I'm not easy to takedown. Unless someone brings out the bionic destabilizer."

Five ran his hands through his hair, continuing, "We're Arguably the most dangerous assassins in the time-space continuum. If I know me, I'm not going to react kindly to bumping into myself. Problem two and this one is the real fly in the ointment here: you're not supposed to exist in close proximity to yourself in the same timeline."

Vydia collected her hair into a ponytail, "That's the one I am most concerned about. The side effects aren't the prettiest. I was literally insane too, still am but not like I was." She stretched the elastic band around her ponytail in her hands.

"Side effects? What sort of side effects?"

"Well, according to Commission Handbook Chapter 27, subsection 3b, the seven stages of paradox psychosis are," Five listed, "stage one: denial, two: itching, three: extreme thirst and urination, four: excessive gas, five: acute paranoia, six: uncontrollable perspiration, and seven: .... homicidal rage."

Luther leaned on the doorway's post, "Homicidal rage?"

"Yeah, really looking forward to that one," Vydia sarcastically said.

"Jeez, I don't know. This maybe isn't a good idea."

Five raised his arms in the air and dropped them, "It's a Hail Mary, but what choice do we got, Luther?"

"I don't know, you seem a bit squirrelly if I'm being honest."

"Look, Luther," Five grabbed his arms to make him face down at him and Vydia, "we're gonna need your help to get through on this one, all right? We need a spotter."

"Spotter," Luther quirked an eyebrow. "What is that? Like a wingman, wing woman?"

Vydia lightly hit him, "What, no? It means that if this whole paradox psychosis gets out of hand, you're going to help us stay on task. Or in one case, knock me out if you have to one point."

"What, knock you out?"

"Don't act like you haven't tempted to before."

"So, whatever happens, whatever we say, need to get that briefcase," Five finished, slowly nodding. "Okay?"

"Okay," Luther nodded.

Five and Vydia shuffled to the top of the staircase. They whipped around not hearing the third set of footsteps. "Luther, come on," Five said.

Luther moved from the door's post, "Right."

Five's pale face and sweat glimmered on his skin underneath the Dallas sun. Although it was fall, the summer breeze never left, well, to Vydia this felt like a normal summer breeze. Vydia caught Five scratching himself, he tried to be secretive but he couldn't hide from her. Unlike him, her effects hadn't kicked in. Her durability helped fight it off.

Luther opened the wooden door and they were instantly met by Irish music. People in their conversations barely took over the noise of glass cups and plates. Luther casually stepped into the tavern, Five and Vydia merely peeked their heads behind Luther.

Five adjusted his blazer. "Well, there we are." Physically older Five and Vydia were at the bar with the suitcase between their legs.

Luther furrowed his eyebrows, his thumb pointed to the briefcase, "Why don't we just grab the suitcase and run?"

Vydia scowled, "Maybe because we're trained assassins."

"Luther, we would never let that happen. We're trained to guard these suitcases with our lives. Plus, it's the inherent paradox where this gets tricky. We're endangering our existence just by being in the room with ourselves."

"Huh," Luther lightly tapped the back of his hand on Vydia's shoulder, "what do you mean?"

"If old Five and Vydia don't travel to 2019 like we did, then everything goes to shit. We won't exist. Time travel," Vydia raised her arms.

Luther slowly nodded, "I get you."

"So, our best chance is to talk to them, to reason with them. They'll understand. Trust me I know myself better than, uh," Five sighed, "better than myself." Five twitched and his hand reached for his neck.

Luther's eyes went wide, lowering his voice and pointed at his brother, "You just itched yourself. That's stage two of paradox psychosis."

"No, I didn't."

"You did too," Vydia jumped in. "I saw it on the way here too."

Five spoke in a deeper voice, "I haven't itched my neck."

Luther reminded, "Denial is stage one."

"I'm fine, okay? Let's stay on task, shall we." 

Vydia rolled her eyes. Five and she took a step, but Luther pulled them back, "Wait. Maybe I should go first."

"Why?" they said in unison.

"Well, you'll freak him out. Bumping into your tiny doppelganger? He will lose his shit. Vydia will probably be somewhat confused. Just let me break the ice."

"Okay."

"Fine."

Five sucked in a breath through his teeth as Luther stalked off. Five rubbed his hands together and Vydia fiddled with her necklace. A thin layer of sweat coated her nose. "I could feel the effects coming. I could care less about the other symptoms but the murderous tendencies I had a year ago won't help."

"It's gonna be okay. We are older than them by 14 days to a year," Five grabbed her shoulders. His hands trailed down her arms and grabbed her hands. "We just gotta stay on task."

Vydia exhaled, "Okay. We got this. We got this. Okay." She squeezed his hands and tightly smiled.

Luther spun around, he nodded at the pair telling them to come out of their hiding spot. The duo crept out from behind the pillar. "Hey there, stranger," Five greeted.

Younger Vydia stared at her older self in her a 17-year old-body, "What the shit?"

"Okay, let's take a seat," Luther awkwardly pointed to the empty table in the center of the room. "No need to freak out, we just want to talk."

"Vee, stay here," both Fives said not breaking eye contact.

The Vydias switched their gazes between the two Fives, "Woah."

Luther watched as the Fives didn't remove their gazes from each other. They often glanced back at their Vydia but for the most, they trudged their way to the table. "It's kinda rude Five didn't let us join them," Vydia slid into a seat one over her younger yet physically older self.

"Just what I was thinking," younger Vydia agreed. "But I think we both know it's for protection."

"Even though we can beat him in a fight."

"He still won't admit to it out loud?" younger Vydia asked, resting her chin on her palm.

"Nope," Vydia shook her head. "At least he knows." They returned their gaze to the Fives, they glared at each other without batting an eye. The youngest Five had the briefcase between his legs. Vydia turned to her younger self, "Wanna intrude them?"

She nodded, "Yeah, if we don't make them break eye contact, they'll probably fall in love with themselves." Vydia chuckled at her. In sync, they hopped off their chair and dragged them to the table. The chair screeching against the wooden planks averted their attention from them.

"I told you to stay over there," both Fives said.

"Too bad," the Vydia's retorted. 

The oldest Vydia said, "You're gonna deal with us."

Luther sighed. "Well, this is nice, isn't it?" He tried to smile through the awkward aura. "The five of us together like this."

"No," the Five's answered.

"Kinda," the Vydias shrugged.

Younger Five demanded, "Somebody explain to me how it is I'm having a pint of Guinness with my younger self."

Five corrected, "Older, actually. I'm you, we're just 14 days older."

"I have pubic hair smarter than you."

Younger Vydia faced her Five, "That makes no sense. Psychosis getting to you already?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine."

Vydia rolled her eyes. "Listen to us. In one hour from now, you guys will break your contract with the commission. We already know you're planning it. You told younger me before we stepped foot in this place."

Five rested his hands on the table and leaned forward, "All those years in the apocalypse, we never stopped worrying about our family even when we had one of our own. Well, today, you are going to do something about it. Today, you are going to attempt to time travel forward to 2019. However, you are going to screw up the jump and end up aging yourselves backward."

Younger Five clasped his hands together, "Even if I was to believe you. What am I supposed to do about it, not jump?"

Five pointed at his younger self, "No, I need you to jump. If you don't jump, we cease to exist. What I need from you is to jump correctly."

"I'm listening."

"The first time through, I got the calculation wrong. That's how we ended up in this body, but know, I know how to correctly calculate them."

Vydia wanted to move and ask Five why he told his younger self he could change the calculations. They agreed they wouldn't age themselves back up to their current age, but she was sure Five was using it to get what they needed, to get their younger selves to time travel forward to 2019.

"What is it?" younger Five quickly spoke. 

Vydia smiled at him, scooting her chair forward, "We'll tell you if you give us the briefcase."

"Yeah, yeah, so you go back to 2019 as planned, but this time with the right math so you remain a full-grown man," Luther elaborated. "In exchange, we get that briefcase that you two no longer need."

Younger Vydia acknowledged, "Then the timeline would be restored and the loop will continue." She had been observing everyone's movements, more specifically her older self in her younger body.

"Yes," Five confirmed. "Everyone goes on existing happily ever after."

"That's quite a bit to take in," younger Five managed to get out.

Five clenched his fist and rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together, "What do you guys think?"

Younger Five and younger Vydia exchanged glances. They took a brief moment of mental communication. He faced the teenagers on the opposite side of the table, "I think... I need to piss."

Vydia's eyebrows pinched together and mouthed, "What?" Her eyes shifted to Vydia's finger scratching her quadriceps. Since she was in her older body, the symptoms must be kicking in faster than her being in her teen body. "Are you doing okay? Any effects yet?"

"No, I'm feeling better than I have in days. Are you sure you're not hallucinating already?" she asked. 

"No, you're being paranoid. My vision is better than yours."

"We're the same person."

"And?"

The two Vydia's squinted their eyes, staring at one another. Another itch came over, and the Vydias tried to ignore it, but their arm spasmed, begging them to be scratched. "I'm gonna check on Five," younger Vydia slowly got out of her seat and entered the woman's bathroom. Vydia was sure she was going to geo-leap from one bathroom to another.

Luther patted the sweat off Five's face. "Oh, Well, besides the flop sweat, I think that went pretty well, am I right?"

Vydia shook her head, "I'm not sure. I saw her itch herself and Five is doing his best not to jitter around. Did you see him lacing his hands together, it was to keep them still."

Five didn't look away from the bathroom door, "No, no, Vee's right. There's something- Something doesn't feel right about this."

"What do you mean?" Luther questioned.

He swallowed and adjusted his blazer. "I don't trust him, I don't trust them." Five pointed to the bathroom.

"Me either. Once we agree to something, it's hard to convince us. They're gonna plot something." Vydia repeated, "I don't trust them."

"But they're you."

Five and Vydia responded, "Exactly."

"I'm gonna talk to him," Luther rose from his chair.

"Okay, but don't screw things up. Stick to our plan," Vydia sternly said. Luther nodded and proceeded to the door. She turned to Five, "She's already two stages in. I'm on the first stage and now I'm sweating and twitching. Next thing is I'm going to be a gassy mess like you are."

Five took a swig from his drink, "They're plotting something."

"Well, it's us, what more can you expect. I could read you and myself," Vydia snapped. "I have to keep an eye on myself. I was very impulsive when it came to... things."

Five sarcastically responded, "Wonder what gave you that idea?"

"Oh, shut up, assclown." Vydia made eye contact with her younger self. She sent her a small wave. "Mood swings. Got it." Five and Luther came out of the bathroom behind her. They stood beside the table.

"We good?" 16-year-old Five asked.

Younger Vydia smiled, "Yep, we're good."

"You got a deal," younger Five replied. "We gotta hurry Kennedy is in route. Less than an hour until showtime."

Five got up and he suspiciously asked, "Why are you so anxious to get going all of a sudden?"

"Relax, you're getting paranoid."

"Oh, am I?"

Both Fives farted. The Vydias burst into a fit of laughter. "Okay, let's roll," Luther stated. Younger Vydia followed her Five. Vydia and Five looked at each other, he deeply inhaled and exhaled. Vydia connected their sweaty hands and trailed behind them.