Chapter 25
Diego parked the "borrowed" car a few blocks from Elliott's store.
He, Five, Lila and Rhea walked the last few meters.
In front of the building they met Riley, who was also walking towards the building.
"Riley, what are you doing here?" asked Five.
"Elliott didn't want me to use his telephone. Because of some… safety issues... he said. I don't know. So, I used a phone both," Riley explained.
They weren't surprised to see Diego, but they were surprised to see a woman and a girl with them.
"Oh right, these are the crazy lady and the kid," Five introduced the two.
Riley scoffed and raised an eyebrow.
"And do they have real names?" Riley wanted to know, looking at Five.
"We do. Hi, I'm Lila and this is my sister Rhea."
Lila held out her hand to the teenager. Her sister stood behind her and gave Riley a small wave with her hand.
"I'm Riley. Nice to meet you two."
"Okay, let's stop wasting time, alright? We have important business," Five complained.
He turned around without another word and entered the building.
Riley rolled their eyes and followed him up the stairs.
The group entered the living area of Elliott's apartment/former electronics store.
"Where did you get the film?"
Riley turned their head a bit to the side and saw Elliott walking towards them and the others, a rifle pointed at them.
"'The Frankel Footage'. The truth this time."
"You know this lunatic?" Diego wanted to know from Five and Riley.
"New acquaintance. He's harmless."
“You sure about that?” Rhea asked and stepped behind Lila.
"Are you or are you not an enemy of the people?" Elliott spoke louder this time, seeming to think that this made him appear more threatening.
But not for the Hargreeves'
"Look for an open-ended question", Diego murmured.
"What does Enemy mean?", Riley asked, addressing no one in particular.
"Really depends on the people," said Five and Diego nodded in agreement.
"You move one more muscle, I will blow your brains out," threatened Elliott, not satisfied with the answers.
"You want to take this or should I?" Diego asked Riley and Five.
"No, I'll take care of it," Riley assured, taking a step behind Five. "Or do you want to?"
"No, no. Have fun," said Five.
Riley's mouth twitched upwards.
"Hey, girls..." Diego spoke to Lila and Rhea.
He distracted the sisters for a moment and Riley made themself invisible.
They ran towards Elliott, who realized too late that Riley was no longer with the others.
The teenager took the gun from his hand and Elliot stumbled back.
"What the hell just happened?"
~~~~
A short time later the group tried to watch the tape.
They had Elliott tied to a chair and Lila was painting his toenails.
Rhea sat nearby and tried to open a small bag of chips– Riley didn't think it was a good idea, but Lila allowed her to stay and watch the tape too, so they said nothing more about it.
Diego also sat down while Five and Riley tried to turn on the projector.
"Now it should work," Riley mumbled and the projector played the tape.
"Is it on?", asked the older woman seen on the film.
"I don't know," replied a male voice.
"What do you mean? There's an 'on' button. Just… There's something over… That jigga-ma-thing, whatever."
"I hit the jigga-ma-thing."
"Okay, well, just... Give it to me. I know how to do this."
"All right, here. Here. Hurry up."
"Okay, all right, let's see…"
"They're so cute. I love old couples. I'm always so proud of them for not murdering each other," Lila commented.
"Oh, believe me, she was definitely thinking about it more than once," Riley scoffed.
"But she didn't, didn't she," replied Five, smirking at them.
Riley rolled their eyes and turned back to the film.
"I'm Dan Frankel. And..."
"I'm Edna Frankel."
"– Edna Frankel. We are in Dallas, Texas, to see the president. Today's date is November 22, 1963."
“That’s six days from now,” Lila noticed.
"Holy shit. This is it. The grassy knoll. Kennedy's about to get shot," said Diego. "How do you do this?"
"Hazel died to get me this footage–"
Rhea gasped as the bag of chips flew out of her hand.
"– It must be the key to stopping doomsday", said Five.
Lila was about to reach for the bag of chips to pick it up, but Five was faster and picked it up.
"Hazel?"
"Long story."
"What's doomsday?"
"Longer story," Five replied, opening the bag of chips.
"What exactly did he say to you?", Diego wanted to know exactly.
"Well, he was killed before he could explain. But whatever he wanted us to see, it's on this film," said the black-haired teenager.
He took out one of the chips, ate it and gave the rest back to Rhea without taking his eyes off the film.
"This is very exciting", said Mr. Frankle happily.
Then, shortly after, a shot rang out in the background.
"Oh, my God!"
"Oswald," Diego murmured.
"The president!"
The Frankles and the other people panicked and ran back and forth in fear.
"Oh, no," Five muttered.
He seemed to have noticed something in the background, rewound the film for a few seconds and then stopped the film.
He then pushed the projector further back to enlarge the image slightly.
Riley and Diego also recognized the thing in the background.
"This can't be," Riley whispered and walked up closer to the wall with Five and Diego.
"Okay, you gonna fill us in now, guys? What the hell is this shit we're watching?" Lila asked, but no one answered her.
"No, that's impossible," said Diego.
"Clearly, it's not."
"But that's..."
"What... What is it?" Rhea wanted to know.
"Dad."
~~~~
"Of course Dad would be involved in the assassination. I should've known," said Diego.
"No, you're jumping to conclusions," Five tried to calm down his brother.
Riley sighed and sat down next to Lila and Rhea, who were also watching the discussion.
"What else is he doing standing on the grassy knoll, holding an open black umbrella on a sunny day in Dallas the exact same moment the president gets shot?"
"It doesn't look good, I admit."
"No, he's the signalman for the whole goddamn thing."
"Easy, Diego. Seriously."
"No, it makes sense. This is what Hazel was obviously trying to tell you. We have to stop Dad from killing the president."
Now Diego really sounded crazy, Riley thought, shaking his head slightly.
"Diego, calm down, all right? Dad was no Boy Scout, but presidential assassination? It's never been his thing."
"How would you know? You and Riley skipped out on his golden years."
"Skipped out?" Riley repeated.
The teenager stood up and walked up to the two men and stopped next to Five.
"You think we had it easy, Diego? It was just us two for 45 years," Riley tried to explain to their brother.
And Diego seemed to be seriously thinking about it and slowly realizing what Riley was saying.
"You know what? We don't have the time for this right now," Five changed the subject. "Dad's clearly in Dallas, right? Let's just go talk to him. Maybe he can help us fix the timeline."
"Do you really think he would even listen to us?", Riley pointed out.
"It's worth a shot, don't you think Or do you have a better idea?"
"Touché."
"Dallas is a big place. We need to find him first."
"Gee, if only there was some magical object to help people find other people and their addresses," commented Rhea.
The girl spoke quietly, but you could still hear her.
"The kid's right," said Five and grabbed the phone book. "Let's start simple. His name."
He passed the phone book to Diego, who placed it on the kitchen table and looked for Reginald's address.
"Shit, nothing here."
"Try his company," Riley suggested.
"D.S. Umbrella Manufacturing Co," Five added.
"Yeah, I know the name. Thanks," said Diego and turned to another page.
"Holy shit. 'D.S. Umbrella. Eighty-two Olive'. Let's go."
They left the kitchen.
"He okay to leave here like that?" Diego asked, pointing to Elliott.
The other man was still bound to the chair and was now having his fingernails painted by Rhea.
"Yeah, he's fine," Five assured before turning to Rhea. "Look after him for us please, will ya?"
The girl nodded and Riley noticed that someone was missing.
"Where is Lila?"
"Shit," Diego muttered. "Give me a second."
~~~~
"This is it," Five muttered after Diego parked the car in front of the building.
Riley, Five and the others got out.
"Okay, Diego, you and I are going in. Riley, you wait here. Call if you notice something," said Five.
"But–"
"Love," Five interrupted his other half. "Please. Just stay here."
The two teenagers looked at each other for a moment and Riley sighed.
"Sure," Riley nodded and sat in the passenger seat. "Take care of yourselves."
The two brothers turned to the building and walked towards it.
Until Five stopped halfway.
"You okay?", asked Diego.
"Yeah, fine," Five explained and stopped at the front door with Diego. "Just..."
"How long's it been since you've seen the old man?"
Diego pulled out a knife and tried to open the door with it.
"Forty-five years."
"That's a trip."
"No kidding. You know, when I was stuck out there in the apocalypse, there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't hear his voice in my head."
"What was he saying?"
"'I told you so' and 'It's your fault'."
"Well, if Dad's here, he's never met you before, so he can't say "I told you so" and you didn't ask Riley to follow you that day, so it's not your fault."
"I'm sure he'll find a way," said Five.
Before Diego could reply, Five jumped into the building and opened the door.
"Right. Gotta remember that," Diego muttered and followed Five.
Riley hadn't been waiting long for their husband and brother when a car pulled out of a side street.
The teenager opened the car door and watched as the car moved further and further away from the building.
"What the... Five!"
"We are here," said Five.
Five and Diego approached them and both seemed to be hurt– Diego more than Five.
"Oh my... you are hurt. Wh– what happened?"
"I'll explain later," assured Five. "Let's get away from here."
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