Five turned the steering wheel and the car swerved onto the next road, causing a few other drivers to beep and shout angry profanities out their windows. I held up my hand and mouthed a 'sorry.' He wasn't an awful driver but he was under a lot of stress right now, so he was breaking almost every law of the road. I offered to drive but Five said he could handle it.

"I was left with no other choice. Dad's advice was complete shit," Five remarked. We were currently talking about the reason Five suddenly appeared all bloody at Elliot's place as we were on our way to pick up Vanya.

"What did he say to you?" I questioned him.

Five just shrugged. "I asked him what he knew about time travel in practice, and all he told me was that 'my appetite was disproportionate to the size of my abilities.' The old man said 'start small.' 'Seconds not decades'."

I hummed in response. "That's not bad advice." Five rolled his eyes. I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Come on, think about. Your calculations aren't the problem, you're just thinking too big."

"Maybe you've got a point," Five admitted. "It's a bit too late now though. The Handler offered me a deal that I had to take."

"What exactly did she make you do?" I asked skeptically. Knowing her, it had to be something bad.

Five had a look of regret in his eyes. "In exchange for a briefcase and the end of the apocalypse scares, she sent me to kill the board members of the Commission."

My eyebrows raised. "Christ, Five, when I asked if you made a deal with the devil, I thought you sold your soul or something," I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Wait, you're okay with this?" Five asked. He tore his eyes off the road for a brief moment to glance at me.

"I'm just saying, it could've been worse," I replied honestly.

"I've spent years killing people, innocent or not," Five said. He had a faraway look in his blue-green eyes. "I'm over it. I only did that for you and my family."

"I think the Order really messed me up, Five.. I'm just so used to fighting and killing that it doesn't even bother me anymore," I spoke aloud. "Last night, when I watched the Swedes torture Elliot, I just felt so.. numb. I watched him die and felt almost nothing."

"I should've been there with you," Five said. He appeared disappointed in himself.

"It's not your fault." I shook my head and frowned. "It's mine."

"Lexa, what happened to Elliot wasn't because of you," Five assured me. "You were attacked by a third party. That's not your fault." My mind was still replaying the events of last night. Not only could I not stop thinking of Elliot and the Swedes, but the faceless figure who handcuffed me. The cuffs did something to me or my powers because I wasn't able to phase out of them. That had never happened before.

"I know but I feel so guilty," I admitted. Slowly, I could feel the walls that barricaded my memories of the past begin to crumble and fall down.

"About Elliot?" Five asked.

"Yes.. well, not just him," I fumbled with my own words as I huffed. "About everyone! I abandoned all of my friends at the Order and let them sacrifice their own lives for me. I've tried pretending that it never happened, but I can't ignore the past and keep acting like everything that happened wasn't because of me." Five stopped the car in the middle of the road and turned towards me. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the sudden action. "Five, what are you doing?" I asked. "There are people behind us."

He held my hands in his. "I don't care," Five replied bluntly. "You're more important." I frowned at his sweetness.

Suddenly, a loud horn beeped from behind us and an old, rusted car pulled up on the passenger side. A middle-aged man rolled down his window and shouted at us from outside, "Hey kid, you can't just brake whenever you feel like it!"

"Go around, asshole! My girlfriend's going through something right now!" Five shouted back. He glared as he flipped off the other man, who angrily drove away with a line of cars following him. I couldn't help the smile that spread across my lips. In a strange way, he could be really sweet in random times like this. "Look, I know you feel like everything that happened in the past was your fault, but believe me when I say that it's not. If anything, it's mine. I was the one who sent you back there when we time traveled."

"I'm the one who's the glitch," I reasoned with him.

"Not in my eyes," Five said. Without warning, his hand cupped the side of my face and pulled me in for a kiss. My eyes widened from the suddenness before closing in content as I kissed him back. When we pulled away, Five wrapped his arms around my waist as we hugged. I rested my head in the crook of his shoulder. "I don't want you to think that you're anything less than perfect. Glitch or not."

I smiled and pulled away, planting another delicate kiss on his cheek. Five took the car out of park and started driving down the road again. I don't think he'll ever know how much that really meant to me.

★・・・★・・・★

My eyebrows furrowed as Five and I passed another car on the road. "Isn't that Vanya?" I asked. Five must have already noticed because he was staring her down intensely.

Both cars skidded across the gravel as Vanya and Five came to a complete stop. All three of us hopped out of our vehicles and walked over to the other.

"What are you guys doing here?" Vanya asked.

"Looking for you," Five replied. "We're going back to 2019."

Vanya shook her head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Look, I don't really have time to explain right now, but I found a way home," Five told her. He pulled out his watch to check how much time we had left to reunite everyone. The clock seemed to tick quicker than usual. "We have thirty minutes to leave."

"What about my friends?" Vanya asked. "I can't just leave them here."

"Vanya, you don't have a choice in this, alright?" Five exclaimed. That statement seemed a bit unfair. Vanya had made new memories here with new people. I agreed with Five in the sense that none of us belonged here and needed to go back to our original timelines, but he had to be a bit more understanding, especially since most of his siblings built a new life here. "Doomsday will happen if you don't come with me," Five stated.

"Okay, well than I'm bringing them with me," Vanya replied.

"They belong in this timeline!" Five said.

"Says who?" Vanya snapped. "Sissy deserves a life where she doesn't have to pretend to be someone she's not. And Harlan? There's a name for what he has. We can get him the help he needs."

"Vanya-"

"Look, a mom and her eight-year-old son are not gonna screw up the timeline, Five!" Vanya was yelling at him now. I don't think she meant to but she just had so many bottled up feelings and emotions. "They're insignificant."

"No one is insignificant," Five retorted. "I'm sorry, alright? But we can't take that risk. They have to stay." Five turned around and begin walking back to the car.

"Why do you get to decide?" Vanya questioned him. "You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place."

"If I did nothing, we would all be dead right now, thanks to you," Five stated bluntly.

Vanya didn't say anything for a few moments. "They're coming with me," she declared.

Five scoffed and slowly made his way over back to his sister. "Vanya, do not test me right now."

"That's funny," Vanya said, her expression void of emotion. She took a few steps closer to Five. "I was just about to say the same thing." Her eyes began to glow white as her skin paled. A high-pitched tone resonated softly off of her.

Five's hands glowed bright blue with his powers. I stood between the two feuding siblings as my brown eyes flickered between both of them nervously.

Finally, both of them powered down and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Fine," Vanya said.

"'Fine', what?" Five questioned her.

"I'll be there but I need to say goodbye first," Vanya told him.

Five shook his head. "Vanya, we don't have the time."

"Well, it's either that or I'm not coming," she stated. Vanya spun on her heel and walked back over to her car.

Five scoffed in disbelief. "The alley," he called out to her. "Don't be late."