A few weeks after Five and Riley ended up in the apocalypse, they walked through the destroyed streets.

They wore different clothes to protect them from the sun.

And Five was pulling a small handcart behind him. The teen took a sip from the water bottle before handing it to Riley.

Years passed and the couple moved across the country. First in the hope of meeting other survivors, then to find a place where they can stay longer.

"Do you remember that, uh, little mansion just outside the city limits?" asked Five on a warm summer day.

"The mansion with the-"

"Yeah. Yeah, well, it turns out the wine cellar was untouched. Picked up a few cases of your favorite Bordeaux."

"Your favorite Bordeaux," Riley corrected. "That's basically the only thing you drink."

"That's an exaggeration. I don't drink too much."

Riley raised an eyebrow.

"You know, I– Why would you even say that?"

All of sudden, they both heard a strange noise.

Five reached for his rifle and aimed at a woman with blonde hair and a black coat.

~

"When's it supposed to happen? This... apocalypse," Luther asked.

He, Five and Riley were still at Diego's.

Five was already awake and sitting on the bed while Riley was still sleeping.

"I can't give you the exact hour, but... from what I could gather, we have four days left."

"Why didn't you say something soo-"

"Pssst," Five interrupted Luther because his brother had spoken a little too loudly.

The teenager nodded his head in Riley's direction.

"Sorry," Luther muttered.

"It wouldn't have mattered, anyway," Five explained.

"Of course it would," Luther began.

This time, however, he realized that he was speaking too loudly again and corrected his volume.

"We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing."

"For the record, you already tried," replied Five.

"What do you mean?"

Five had tried to suppress these memories all these years. He and Riley had barely spoken about it until now.

There was always this unspoken promise between them to try everything to stop the apocalypse.

Riley rolled over in their sleep and placed their hand on Five's.

"We found all of you. Your bodies."

"We die?"

"Horribly. You were together, trying to stop whoever it was that ended the world."

"Wait, how do you know that?" Luther wanted to know.

Even when Five explained something, things didn't make sense to him.

The teenager took the eye out of his pocket and showed it to Luther.

"This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you."

He gave Luther the eye before continuing.

"Must've ripped it out of their head right before you went down."

"Whose head?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"Well, there's a serial number on the back. Think maybe you could try-"

"No, that's a dead end," Riley murmured, half asleep. "We tried, but the lab exploded. Now it's just another hunk of glass."

Riley sat up and ran a hand through their hair.

"You okay, Love?" asked Five in a whisper.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy. Where are we?"

"Diego's."

Riley barely had time to fully wake up before Diego unexpectedly opened the door and stormed into the room.

"Piece of shit. Do you have any idea what you just did?"

Diego wanted to attack Five and Riley, but Luther put his arms around him and picked him up so his Brother could calm down.

"Nope, let me- get your ape hands off of me!"

Riley looked at her brother confused. What was his problem? Why was he suddenly so angry?

"I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down," said Luther.

"Fine."

Luther let Diego down again.

"Now, wanna tell us what you're talkin' about?"

"Our brother and sibling have been pretty busy since they got back. They were in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys masks in attacked the Academy, looking for them."

"None of which is any of your concern," Five defended himself.

"It is now," replied Diego. "They just killed my friend."

"I'm so sorry," Riley said.

"Who are they, Five, Riley?"

"They work for our former employer," Five answered Luther's question. "A woman called The Handler. She sent them ... to stop me. Then, as soon as Diego's friend got in their way, well, fair game."

"And now they're my fair game. And I'm gonna see to it they pay."

"That would be a mistake, Diego. They've killed people far more dangerous than you," said Riley worriedly.

"Yeah, we'll see about that."

~~

"Former employer? What's this really about?" asked Luther. "And don't give me any of this "It's none of your business" crap, all right?"

"Well, it's a long story."

~

"Who the hell are you?" Five asked the woman in the black coat.

"I'm here to help," she explained and slowly moved closer to Five and Riley.

"Tell me why I shouldn't put a bullet through your head right now!"

"Because... if you did, you wouldn't hear the offer I'm about to make you. Which would be rather tragic, given your... current circumstances."

The woman sat down on one of the large stones in the ruins.

"I work for an organization called the Commission. We are tasked with the preservation of the time continuum through manipulation and removals."

"I don't understand," Riley intervened in the conversation.

"Sometimes, people... make choices that alter time. Free will, don't get me started," the woman began to explain and lit a cigarette.

"When that happens, we dispatch one of our agents to... eliminate the threat."

Five took a step in front of Riley and pointed the gun he just lowered back at the woman.

"No, no, no, no. You misunderstand me. You're not a target. You're a recruit. I've come to offer you two a job. We've had our eye on you for quite some time. And we think you have a lot of potential. Your survival skills have made you and your spouse quite famous back at headquarters."

"You said that we... We could actually leave here? Go... Go back?" Five wanted to know.

He and Riley looked at each other. It sounded good– too good.

Riley was sure there had to be something wrong with this offer.

"In return for five years of service. Once your contracts are done, you can retire to the time and place of your choosing with a pension plan to boot."

"If you can alter time, why not just stop all of this from ever happening?" asked Riley.

"That's quite impossible, I'm afraid," said the woman. "You see... all of this, it was supposed to happen."

"That's insane. The end of everything?"

"Not everything. Just the end of... something. So... do we have an agreement?"

~

"They turned me into the perfect instrument for rehabilitation of the time continuum. Or "corrections," as they called them. Riley worked in the office and would sometimes accompany me on my- let's call it travels. But we weren't the only two. There are others like us. Beings out of time, fractured, extracted from the lives that they knew. I don't know how they got there. But I do know that none of them were as good as me."

Five turned his head to Riley. His Spouse placed their hand on his and gave him an small encouraging smile.

"They didn't realize it, but I was biding my time, trying to figure out the right equation so we could get back. If we could just get back, I knew we could stop the apocalypse. Save the world."

Riley remembered it well, it was only a few days ago.

Five was standing at the garden fence, aiming the rifle and waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger when he suddenly put the rifle away.

He took his book out of his pocket in which he wrote all his stuff and looked through it- he was looking for something.

Five finally found the solution.

"So we broke our contracts," Riley finished the story.

"So... you were a hit man?" Luther asked, handing his siblings a cup with something to drink in it.

"Yes."

"Uh... I mean, you had a code, right? You didn't kill just anybody."

"No code. We took out anyone who messed with the time line."

"What about innocent people?"

"It was the only way we could get back here and the only way to protect Riley."

Luther looked at Riley.

"You can't be okay with this."

"It wasn't about what we thought. We both had to do things we didn't agree with."

"But that's murder."

"Jesus, Luther, grow up. We're not kids anymore. There's no such thing as good guys or bad guys. There's just people, goin' about their lives. But when the world ends, all those people die, including our family. Time changes everything."

~~~~

Back at Reginald's house, Riley was heading to their room when they noticed the bloody footprints on the floor.

The footprints led from one of the bathrooms to Klaus' room.

The door was open, Klaus was standing in his room, searching for something- Riley didn't know what.

Their brother seemed to be shaken because of that and the blood, so Riley decided to knock.

"You okay?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, I just... Long night."

"More than one, from the looks of it," said Five, who was now standing next to Riley.

He also noticed the blood on the floor and wanted to know what was going on.

Riley had already expected it.

They knew that Five hated it when he didn't know everything.

"Yeah."

Klaus pulled a t-shirt over his head, which made the couple notice the dog tags that their brother wore around his neck.

"Don't remember the dog tags," Five commented.

"Yeah, they belonged to a friend," said Klaus.

It was a simple answer, but you could hear in his voice that there was more to it.

Klaus sounded tired, exhausted and simply drained. As if he had had very little sleep for a long time.

"How about that new tattoo?" asked Riley.

"You know, I don't totally remember even getting it. Like I said, it was a long night."

"Klaus, my boy, I have a tattoo, too. And I know what they look like when they're freshly done. And I can see from here that yours is a bit older," said Riley, crossing their arms over their chest.

"Riley, please–"

"You did it, didn't you?", Five changed the subject.

"Five, what are you talkin' about?" Riley wanted to know this time.

"You don't recognize the symptoms, Love? The jet lag. Full body itch. Headache that feels like someone shoved a box of cotton up into your nose and through your brain."

Riley had to look closer for a moment to see what Five was talking about.

After his first mission, he was just as sick as Klaus was now. And the side effects only stopped after a while.

It took two weeks for Five to get better. Two weeks in which Riley listened to how bad he always felt.

"You gonna tell me about it?"

"Your pals, when they broke into the house and they couldn't find you, they took me hostage instead," Klaus reported and collapsed onto his bed.

"I'm so sorry," Riley said, sitting down next to their brother.

"And in return, you stole their briefcase," summarized Five in an amused tone.

"Yeah," Klaus confirmed. "I thought there was money in it, or I could pawn it, you know, whatever. And then I opened it."

"And the next thing you knew, you were... where?" Five asked further.

"Five, give him a fucking break," Riley complained.

'Don't you remember how you felt after your first time travel?' the teenager wanted to ask.

But that would have started a discussion and Riley didn't want Klaus to hear them arguing. He was already miserable enough.

"Or should I say when?" Five added, tearing his better half out of his thoughts.

"What difference does it make?" Klaus wanted to know.

"What diff- Uh- Okay, how long were you gone?"

"Almost a year."

"A year?" Riley repeated in surprise. "Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah, I'm ten months older now," Klaus joked, but Five didn't seem to find that funny.

"No, this isn't any kind of joke, Klaus."

Riley put their hand on Klaus' shoulder. They had to find out where the suitcase was so that no one else would get hurt.

"Hazel and Cha-Cha will do whatever they can to get the briefcase. Where is it now?"

"Gone. I destroyed it," Klaus replied. "Poof."

"What the hell were you thinking?" Five hissed.

That's it, Riley thought. They stood up and stood between Klaus and Five. The brothers didn't mind and just continued arguing.

"What do you care?" Klaus asked as he looked around Riley.

"What do I care? I needed it, you moron, so Riley and I could get back. We could start over."

While Five was talking, Klaus apparently lost the desire to talk to his siblings, so he got up and walked out of his room.

"Where are you going?"

"Interrogation's over, just... leave."

"Nice job, Five," Riley complained.

The teenager followed Klaus, caught up with their brother in the hallway.

"I– I understand now", mumbled Klaus.

"You know what always helped me when I traveled through time? Hot chocolate. Would you like one too?"