Chapter One of Divorce

"Look, come quick, Imogen," Elliott peaked through the curtain that was drawn halfway across the window, blocking out some of the daylight.

Inanna — or Imogen, as Elliott knew her — gulped down the last of her coffee before hurrying to the window, the coffee cup still warm in her hand from the hot drink she had recently poured for herself.

Inanna had never seen one of the energy surges in person, she had seen countless photographs that had been taken and developed by Elliott but she had never seen one first hand. Elliott believed that the energy surges were beings from another planet 'aliens' but Inanna believed otherwise and spotting Diego Hargreeves's mugshot in the newspaper only proved that she was right.

"Oh, no," Elliott gasped as he pulled the curtain closed in a rush. "I think someone is coming. Yes. They saw me," Elliott panicked, his hands pressed against his chest.

"Who?" Inanna asked. Her body phased as her head turned and her eyes followed Elliott to the middle of the room.

Inanna sat her mug down on the window sill, her hands pressing against either side of her head in hopes of soothing the sharp and rapid pain that ran across every cell in her body. "Who s-saw you?" Inanna asked, her voice cracked and she swallowed harshly, dropping her hands to her side.

Each 'phase', whether or not it was just her hand or her entire body, always hurt like her skin was being torn from her bones in a ray of dull colours.

"A-a boy–" Elliott's response was cut short with a knock on the apartment door. "I will just tell them to go away," Elliott gave Inanna a quick nod.

"Okay," Inanna mumbled as Elliott hurried to the door.

Elliott opened the door a crack and stuck his head out. Elliott glanced around the corridor before his eyes dropped and set on the boy in front of him. "What do you want?" Elliott asked.

"Hi, I'm selling encyclopaedias for my youth group-" Elliott looked down the stairs. "I was curious if–" Elliott stepped back and closed the door on the boy's face.

Elliott turned back to Inanna and began walking away from the door, but as the boy appeared in the kitchen next to him in a flash of blue (the same colour as the energy surges) Elliott stumbled back into the counter with a scream.

Inanna froze and Elliott struggled to open the drawer next to him. Inanna wasn't frozen in fear, she was frozen in shock. Inanna wasn't sure what the exact date was when she had last seen the boy who stood in the kitchen, unaware of her presence, but for Inanna she knew it had been at least six years since she was stranded in 1957 and presumed dead by the Commission after her briefcase had exploded in her hand. Although, when she had last seen him he was much older with grey hair and a moustache of the same shade. Inanna herself was much older then but thanks to her almost death, Inanna had been stuck in her sixteen year old body since her return home from a mission had gone wrong. It didn't matter how long it had been, or what he or she looked like, Inanna would never forget the man — and boy — she had spent a lifetime in the apocalypse with. Inanna Hope would never forget Five Hargreeves.

"How did you do that?" Elliott asked. He held out a small blade towards Five hoping it would keep a distance between him and the intruder.

"Don't really have time to explain," Inanna smiled as Five's voice floated through the apartment. He sounded just as she remembered.

"You from the Pentagon? Huh?" Elliott asked.

Elliott always feared that someone from the Government would approach him one day and after Inanna moved into his home to help him investigate the energy surges that fear was only heightened when he found out she wasn't exactly 'normal'.

"Definitely not," Five didn't move and only tilted his head as Elliott backed further away from him with a terrified and strong grip on the counter behind him.

"CIA? FBI, KGB?".

Five smiled and his eyes wandered away from Elliott to the coffee that had been made less than twenty minutes ago by Inanna. "Is that fresh?" Five pointed at the coffee pot.

Five didn't wait for an answer as he blinked from his spot to the small coffee table. Elliott screamed and turned to point his blade at Five again as Five poured himself a drink.

Elliott pressed his back against the door frame as Five stepped passed him into the next room, a yellow cup of coffee held in his hand.

Five's eyes flickered across the wall and his brows furrowed at the amount of news articles and files that were stacked high. "Hmm," Five looked down at the coffee after taking a sip of the dark liquid. It was good, some of the best he had had since being thrown back into his younger body. "This Colombian?" Five asked.

"It's his own blend," It wasn't the first thing Inanna had planned to say to Five after six years but her mouth opened before her brain could slam it shut.

Five spun towards her and in that one second before his eyes met hers, Five was afraid that the voice that had knocked him breathless wouldn't belong to the only woman he had ever loved. Five shook his head with disbelief. It was her.

Five blinked towards Inanna making Elliott scream. The coffee spilled out of his cup and splashed onto his blue and red bowling shoes and onto Inanna's light brown coat.

Inanna took a step back, unable to stop her body from phasing again as Five stepped towards her, caging her between his body and the desk behind her.

"Are you-" Five lifted his hand up to Inanna's cheek and watched intently as the phasing slowed.

Inanna lifted her hand and cupped Five's hand with hers, "Real?" Inanna looked at their hands before she moved them to her cheek, proving to Five that she wasn't a fragment of his imagination.

Five sat his coffee cup down on the desk behind Inanna without taking his eyes from Inanna. Five smoothed his thumb across her cheek as he brought his other hand up to her face as well. "They said you died," Five whispered.

"Since when do you believe anything the Commission says?" Inanna leaned into Five's hand.

"Since you didn't come back to me," Five hardly believed anything the Commission said, never mind the Handler who had been the one to tell Five about Inanna's 'death' but when Inanna didn't return to the Commission and he was unable to track her down, Five had to believe that his wife was gone.

"I love you," Five muttered. His words were barely audible but Inanna caught them and a smile tugged on her lips. It was a rare sentence to leave Five's mouth but when he said it Inanna knew he always meant it and even when he didn't say it Inanna knew exactly how Five felt about her.

"Don't get all mushy now," Five dropped his gaze from Inanna's to the top button of her shirt. "I love you," Five's eyes met hers again. He had only ever heard Inanna say that she loved him a handful of times in their many years together and every time his heart skipped a beat.

"I'd sure hope so," Five smirked when Inanna rolled her eyes and with a small step that was barely a step Inanna closed the gap between them. Inanna let go of Five's hand and hooked her arms around his torso. Her hands pressed flat against his back and her head rested on his shoulder.

Five didn't hug Inanna back for a moment but as soon as Inanna mumbled his name Five gave in. One arm circled her waist, keeping her close and his other wrapped around her shoulder as his fingers brushed over her red hair, again making sure that she was real.

Before they pulled away with Five becoming increasingly aware of Elliott's confused stare burning into his back, Five scanned over a few headlines from the newspaper articles that had been torn and stuck up on the walls, all of them referencing 'flying saucers' in some way.

"You ever heard of, uh, Area 51?" Five asked Elliott. He picked up his coffee before stepping back into the middle of the room, "Roswell?" Five asked.

Elliott chuckled as he tossed the knife onto one of the cluttered desks, "Hot damn!" Elliott clapped his hands together. Elliott paced side to side, his excitement bright on his face. "See, I always knew we weren't the only ones. See, Eleanor thought my head wasn't screwed on tight, but... but it's all true, yeah? UFOs, crop circles...".

"The truth is out there," Five responded.

"No, no, no, no, no," Elliott shook his head as he stepped towards Five, his hands out in front of him. "The truth is right here in front of us," Five took a step back from Elliott. "Tell me, wh..why is it always an anal probe?" Elliott asked.

"Any closer and I'll melt your brain," Five leaned towards Elliott, his tone alone threatening.

Elliott nodded, "He needs a little space," Elliott whispered, "Yes, I'll be over here," Elliott pointed behind him before he turned and walked away from Five, giving him the space he wanted before he went through with the threat.

Elliott wanted to ask if Inanna — Imogen — was like Five. It made sense for her to be, but he was too focused on Five and the fact that he had been correct about the UFOs and everything else he had researched.

"All those contraptions on the roof, you built those, right?" Five walked around the room looking at the random files and information that Elliott had collected over the years.

"Oh, yeah," Elliott pointed at the ceiling. "Yeah, sure did. Yeah, I've been tracking anomalies in... in the atmosphere. Imogen has been helping me- How do you know Imogen?" Elliott's eyes darted between Five and Inanna.

"Imogen?" Five repeated. Elliott nodded as he pointed at Inanna. "Oh, Imogen," Five raised his brows as Inanna gave him a small wave.

"She's my wife," Five opened one of the files that Elliott had left out on the desk.

In legal terms, Five and Inanna weren't married as their marriage wasn't official in the slightest, with only bugs as their witnesses and a handmade wire ring that Five had crafted one night. It wasn't much and the ring had been lost amongst the rubble as they moved from one spot to the next, but Inanna didn't need it and neither did Five. They were married, end of.

"Wife?" Elliott shook his head and extended his hands out towards Inanna. A million questions ran through his head at once when he looked at the girl who had been staying with him. The girl he believed was a young runaway in need of a roof over her head, food in her belly and some form of care. "Are you-".

"I'm not like him," Inanna nodded her head towards Five. "I mean, I'm not exactly like you either but I'm more like you than him".

"He's not fifty-eight and trapped in a kid's body," Five pointed at Elliott as he lifted his cup to his lips. Inanna had never liked coffee much, not when she was younger and not so much now — especially since it caused her heart to race a little more than usual which made her phase more regularly — but while she was stranded in time, away from the only person she knew and loved, the strong smell of hot coffee reminded Inanna of her husband.

"Hate to break it to you but I think I'm technically sixty-four now," Inanna said.

"Fifty-eight? Sixty-four?" Elliott pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes. "I think I need to sit down before I fall down," Elliott whispered as he sat down on his couch.

"You look good for your age," Inanna scoffed as she crossed the room and Five smirked, turning to face Elliott as he tucked his free hand into his pocket. "Why do you have all this?" Five asked.

"I've been waiting," Elliott answered.

"Waiting for what?" Five asked.

Inanna picked up a file and looked over her shoulder to Five. "You," Inanna said.

"Me?" Five furrowed his brows.

"No, Marty McFly," Inanna rolled her eyes. Unimpressed, Five narrowed his eyes and lowered his brows. "Yes, you," Inanna had been waiting for him too.

"It— It all started in 1960, the year the Silvertone Omega was released," Elliott started as he stood up from the couch. "I was in the middle of a sale when something very... strange happened. And for the past three years since that day, I've witnessed five energy surges in that alleyway out back," Elliott pointed towards the alley outside of his window. "Same thing every time. A bright blue light then something appears".

"Did you get a good look at any of them?" Five asked as he looked at the black and white photos Elliott had taped up on a board, all different photographs from the alleyway on the nights that the energy surges happened.

"Yeah," Elliott nodded, "The first one and then the big, sensitive one".

Five turned towards Elliott, "Sensitive?" Five repeated.

"Yeah, cried a lot, kept coming back to the alley, sat around for hours calling a woman's name. Uh..." Elliott looked around as he tried to recall the woman's name. Elliott's eyes widened, "Allison," Elliott snapped his fingers.

"Luther," Five mumbled.

"Yeah, he... he wasn't the only one. Uh, the others came too off and on over the years, looking for each other. Eventually, they stopped".

"So, my family is alive," Five spoke quietly. "I think I stranded them here".

Five turned back to Elliott. "Now listen to me," He sat his coffee cup down on the desk next to the board before approaching Elliott.

Elliott stumbled backwards into the couch. "Elliott. Elliott. My name..." Elliott tripped over the couch, grabbing the table behind it to support himself as Five blinked. "My name is Elliott".

Five reappeared back in front of him and Elliott fell into the table, hitting his head against the lamp that sat upon it. "Whatever, all right? I got ten days to find them and save the world. Now, I need your help to do that," Five pointed at Elliott.

Save the world? Inanna had no idea what Five meant but the last time the world ended she was stranded alone with Five with no idea how she got there and as much as she loved her alone time with her husband, she knew she'd go insane if that happened again.

"You need..." Elliott poked his finger into his chest, shocked that someone needed his help, "My-".

"Found it," Inanna pulled a piece of paper from the file and held it a little above her head.

Five blinked over to her and Elliott pressed his hands against his chest. Elliott didn't think he'd ever get used to Five's blinks, he was barely used to Inanna's phasing. Five reappeared next to Inanna and snatched the piece of paper from her hands, almost giving her a paper cut.

"Manners?" Inanna's brow rose as Five scanned over each word and the two photographs of Diego Hargreeves in the middle of the page.

"Thank you," Five mumbled under his breath, his eyes never leaving the paper in his hands.

"Is that the mugshot?" Elliott took a few steps towards Inanna and Five. Inanna nodded, "I-I thought it looked like arrival number four," Elliott said.

"I always had a feeling you had something to do with this," Inanna leaned into Five's side as she read the headline again for what might have been the thirteenth time since she had met Elliott, "I recognised your brother instantly".

The headline read: 'Disturbed man with multiple knives arrested outside 1026 N.Beckley'.

"So then, that's helpful?" Elliott pointed at the mugshot of Diego.

Five folded the piece of paper in half, "You have no idea".

"Fi-" Five blinked out of the apartment before Inanna could offer her help. Inanna sighed and she tucked her hands into her pockets.

"He's... He's great," Elliott nodded as Inanna tucked her hair behind her ears.

"That while blinking thing-" Inanna waved her hand towards where Five stood moments before, "-gets irritating pretty quickly," Inanna spoke as she left Elliott's side to pour herself another cup of coffee.

EDITED A/N AS OF 26.02.23
I'm currently editing and rewriting somethings for Divorce. I plan for s3 to have quite a few changes as i'm not happy with it but s2 will be very similar with a few added scenes here and there.

inanna's 'phasing' is linked with her heart rate. she can "control" it as long as her heart rate is steady. her 'phasing' isn't a superpower. it hasn't enhanced her in anyway and anytime it happens, she is in pain until it stops.

ON A BRIGHTER NOTE... happy technically 33rd birthday to Inanna!