A bit later, Riley sat in Five's room, looking through a book while Five wrote some equations on the wall.

And since he had been working on it for a while, all of his walls were written on with chalk– luckily his walls were green.

"Okay, I think I've got something, Love", said five. "It's tenuous, but promising."

"That's great, sweetie," Riley replied without looking up from the book.

"What is all this?" asked Luther, who now entered the room.

"It's a probability map," replied Five.

"Probability of what?"

"Of whose death could save the world. I've narrowed it down to four."

"Are you saying one of these four people causes the apocalypse?"

"No, he's saying that their death might prevent it," Riley explained and turning to the next page.

Five continued writing and Riley finished reading the new page.

"I'm not following," Luther admitted

"Time is fuckle, brother," Riley began, putting the book down. "The slightest alteration in events can lead to massively different outcomes in the time continuum. The butterfly effect."

"So all we have to do is find the people with the greatest probability of impacting the time line, wherever they may be, and kill them," Five added.

He jumped off the bed, grabbed Vanya's book and wrote down the four names on a random page.

Luther came around the bed and read the names too.

"Milton Greene," Luther read one of the names. "So who's he, a terrorist or something?"

"I think he's a gardener," Five muttered.

He threw the book back on the bedside table.

"You can't be serious. Wait, this is madness, Five. You–"

Luther stopped as Five pulled a bag from under the bed.

"Where'd you get that?"

"In Dad's room," Five explained and took the rifle out of the bag. "I think he used it to shoot a rhinoceros. It's similar to the model I used at work. Nice shoulder fit and highly reliable."

"But you can't– This guy Milton is just an innocent man."

"It's basic math," replied Five. "His death could potentially save the lives of billions. If I did nothing-"

"We," Riley Five corrected. "If we did nothing– You are not doing this alone."

"Right, my apologies. If we did nothing, he'd be dead in four days anyway. The apocalypse won't spare anyone."

"We don't do this kind of thing," Luther replied angrily.

"We are not doing anything. Riley and I are."

"I can't let you go and kill innocent people. No matter how many lives you'll save," said Luther.

"Well, good luck stopping me," replied Five.

He turned to the door and started walking toward it.

As Riley wanted to get up to accompany Five–

"You're not going anywhere."

– Luther grabbed the teenager by the collar, picked them up and held Riley out the window.

"Luther, what the–"

Five turned around and aimed the rifle at Luther

"Put. Them. Down."

"Put the gun down," Luther replied calmly. "You're not killing anyone. They are important to both of us, so don't make me do this."

Five said nothing, his eyes flicked briefly to Riley and then back to Luther.

"It's either them or the gun. You decide," Luther said afterwards.

Five dropped the rifle and Luther brought Riley back inside.

Luther stepped away from Riley and grabbed the rifle while Five jumped over to Riley.

"I can keep doing this all day," commented Luther.

Five gave him an angry look before leading Riley to the bed so they could sit down.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry."

"I know you're still a good person, Five," Luther addressed his brother. "Otherwise, you and Riley wouldn't have risked everything coming back here to save us all. But you're not alone anymore."

Riley and Five looked at each other for a moment before Riley nodded slightly.

"There is one way," Five pointed out. "But it's just about impossible."

"More impossible than what brought you back here?"

~~~~

Luther parked the car in the middle of the country road.

Since there was hardly any traffic on the road, this wasn't a problem.

Now all they had to do was wait and if the plan worked they would be one step closer to preventing the apocalypse.

"You know, I never enjoyed it," Five interrupted the silence.

He sat in the passenger seat while Riley settled into the backseat and slept.

"What?"

"The killing," said Five. "I mean, I was... I was good at my work, and I... I took pride in it. But it never gave me pleasure. I think it was all those years in the apocalypse..."

"Yeah, well, you were gone for such a long time. I only spent four years on the moon, but that was more than enough. It's the being alone that breaks you."

"I wasn't alone," Five replied, looking at Riley through the rearview mirror.

"Right," Luther said and followed Five's gaze.

"Wait. You said that Riley took care of the paperwork? Why not working as a– the same job as you?" Luther wanted to know. "I mean, you could have worked together."

"Because I wouldn't let that happen to them," Five replied.

Luther nodded.

At the same moment, Riley woke up.

"You think they'll buy it?" Riley wanted to know and pointed to the briefcase that was standing between Five and Luther.

"Well, what I do know is that they're desperate. It's like a cop losing his gun. If the Commission finds out, they'll be in deep shit."

"Not to mention the fact that they'll be stuck here until they get it back," Riley added.

"Well, I should hold onto it," suggested Luther.

"Hm?"

"In case they make a move on one of you."

"Okay, Luther, but be careful," Five agreed. "I mean, we've- Riley and I lived a long life, but... you're still a young man. You got your whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it."

Riley nodded and then looked out the window.

After a few minutes another car drove towards them.

"Five," Riley spoke to their husband and nodded to the car.

"Here we go," Five mumbled as the car drove past them.

Riley, Five and Luther got out their car and waited until the secound car stopped.

Luther stood by the car while Riley and Five walked towards Hazel and Cha-Cha, who had also gotten out of their car.

"If this all goes sideways," Five muttered. "I'm sorry."

"It will work," Riley replied before they stopped in front of Hazel and Cha-Cha.

"The masks really necessary?" asked Five.

Hazel and Cha-Cha pulled their masks off their heads and carelessly threw them on the street next to them.

"So where is it, kids?"

"Wow, that's how you're gonna start," Riley chuckled. "You know, we can get right back in our car and call it a day."

They grabbed Five's arm and acted like they wanted to leave.

"You won't even make it halfway there," Cha-Cha replied.

She pulled out her gun and aimed it at the two

"Maybe," Five shrugged. "But as I'm sure you found out in your previous foray, my brother is not your average giant."

"He's right," said Hazel. "You dropped a chandelier on him, got right back up."

"By the time you took him out, he'd smash your precious briefcase to a pulp."

"Probably us too, right? So, how do we help each other?" Hazel wanted to know.

Riley and Five looked at each other and Riley nodded slightly.

They didn't like the plan, but it was the only way to save the world and their family.

"I need you to get in contact with your superior so we can have a chat with her. Face-to-face," Five explained.

"About what?"

"Honey, I don't believe that's any of your concern," said Riley.

"Just don't tell her about the briefcase."

"Fair enough."

Five turned and walked back to Luther with Riley walking backwards.

Cha-Cha turned around and went to the phone booth to call her boss.

"What happens now?" Luther wanted to know from Riley and Five.

"Now we wait."

They had been waiting for a good ten minutes when they heard the chimes of an ice-cream truck.

"Is that her?" asked Luther.

Riley shook their head, suddenly feeling the need for ice cream.

But it wasn't the Handler.

It was Klaus and Diego.

Diego looked at the road but Klaus turned his head in their direction and waved as they passed.

Riley and Luther, both irritated that the two were there, waved back.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

As previously said, the ice cream truck drove past and headed straight for Hazel and Cha-Cha.

The two got their guns and started shooting and Luther stood protectively in front of Riley and Five.

And then everything stopped.

Riley and Five waited a moment before peeking out from behind Luther.

They took a few steps away from their brother.

"Neat trick, isn't it?" Riley heard a familiar voice.

They and Five turned to the woman in the black coat.

"Hello, Five. Hello, Riley. You look good, all things considered."

"It's good to see you again."

"Feels like we met just yesterday. Course, you were a little bit older then. Congratulations on the age regression, by the way. Very clever. Threw us all off the scent."

"Well, I wish I could take credit. I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and... Well, you know. Here we are."

"You realize your efforts are futile. So why don't you tell me what you really want?"

"We want you to put a stop to it," said Riley.

"You realize what you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me. What's meant to be is meant to be. That's our raison d'être," said the handler

Riley nodded and they and Five pulled their guns out of their pockets.

"Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?"

"I'll just be replaced," replied the Handler. "I'm but a... small cog in a machine."

"This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse... is just that. A fantasy," the woman continued and took a step closer.

"I must say, though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative, your... stick-to-itiveness, really quite... quite something. Which is why we want to offer both of you a new position back at the Commission, in management."

"Sorry, what's that now?"

"Come back to work for us again. You know it's where you two belong."

"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time," Riley reminded the woman.

"But Five wouldn't be in the correction division any longer. I'm talking about the home office. You'd both have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel," explained the handler.

"You're two distinguished professionals. We have the technology to reverse the process. I mean, neither of you can't be happy like this."

Riley was happy actually. They had their family back.

Being 13 again didn't really matter to them.

It was a small inconvenience, but nothing they couldn't handle if that meant having their family back.

"I'm not looking for happy," said Five.

"We're all looking for happy," replied the handler. "We can make that happen. We can make you yourself again."

She addressed Five, believing she would be more likely to convince him.

But what she didn't know was that Riley and Five had talked about it.

They agreed to "give a damn" about the age regression.

Even though Riley knew that Five wasn't as chill about it as they were.

"And what about our family?"

"What about them?"

"We want them to survive."

The Handler sighed and looked around.

"All of them?"

"Yes, all of them."

"Well..." said the woman and put her sunglasses on her nose. "I'll see what I can do. Do we have a deal?"

The Handler stuck out her hand.

"One thing," said Five.

He picked up Hazel's gun, removed the magazine and threw both parts in different directions.

Then he pushed the bullet that was flying towards Luther a little to the side so that it wouldn't hit him.

Five joined Riley and the Handler again and was about to accept the deal-

"Wait," said Riley.

They ran to the ice cream truck, climbed in and grabbed two ice creams from the freezer.

Riley stood next to Five, who shook his head slightly.

The Handler held out her hand once more and Five accepted the deal.