1955 // The Commission

"I must admit, Number Five, Riley, in all the time that I've been here, I've never met anyone quite like you," said the Handler.

She, Riley, and Five stepped away from one building (what looked like an observatory) and toward another (what looked like an old mansion).

"Hazel and Cha-Cha, for example, are talented, certainly, but they can't see the big picture. Your spunk, your enterprising spirit, and your revolutionary ideas, well, it reminds me a great deal of myself, if I may be so vainglorious–"

Riley and Five followed the woman up the stairs to the building.

"– If things work out for you here, you could potentially make two fine successors."

As soon as they entered the building, someone took the Handler's coat to hang it up somewhere.

"I'd like to discuss the logistics of our family's safety at your earliest convenience," said Riley.

They knew they wouldn't stay here long– there was an apocalypse coming up.

And the sooner Riley and Five could get away from here, the better.

"– As well as this body replacement," Five added

"Such chutzpah. It's refreshing, I'll admit," commented the Handler and led the two up a large staircase.

"Slow down, you two. All in good time. In fact, now that you've finally agreed to work with us, we've got all the time in the world."

"The Commission works in support of a delicate balance between the time line of events and mankind's free will," explained the Handler as they passed the 'Briefcase Room'.

It was, as the name said, the room where the Commission kept the timetravell Briefcases.

Five walked a bit slower.

"The briefcase is no longer part of your kit, Five. Free your mind. You're both in management now."

She placed her hands on Riley and Five's backs and pushed them both past the room.

"All the people on this floor are case managers, each one responsible for one major event at a time."

The three stopped at a door to a room.

Hundreds of people sat at small desks, which made the room seem to go on forever, and went about their daily work.

"So many of them," Riley said in amazement.

Back when they were still working for the Commission, Riley had a small office for them alone.

"Impressive, isn't it? Being part of something… so grand. Come along."

The Handler led Riley and Five through more hallways.

Neither of them ever been in this part of the building, which was smaller on the inside than on the outside.

So, Riley wondered why the Handler showed them all this.

"Whenever someone chooses the wrong path and the time line is changed, the Commission gets a report from field agents on the ground. These field reports are sorted and assigned to a case manager. They determine if anyone needs to be… removed from the equation to assure that their event happens as it should."

Riley and the others stopped at a second room.

"Based on that determination, the case manager sends instructions via pneumatic tube to… temporal assassins like you formerly were, Number Five," the woman explained what a secound woman in the room was doing.

So the orders came from here, Riley thought, trying to remember the room's position.

"– Any queries so far?"

"Yeah," said Five. "Who was the case manager handling Riley and me?"

"Ah. You mean the apocalypse."

The woman motioned for the two to follow her and stopped in a room that Riley reminded of a classroom.

"Five, Riley, meet Dot."

Dot was a nice looking woman, sitting on one of the small desks.

She stopped working, when Riley and the other two arrived.

"Oh, hi," Dot greeted Riley und Five with a friendly smile.

Five nodded and Riley smiled back.

"Dot is responsible for all apocalypse matters," explained the Handler. "In fact, it was Dot here who first flagged your appearance in 2019."

"No hard feelings," Dot assured and Riley raised their eyebrow.

"Well, you certainly put us through the ringer. Outsmarting two of our so-called best temporal assassins–," said The Handler and then spoke a little louder: "If that doesn't spell leadership material–"

The room became quiet for a moment and the others looked up from their files for a secound.

"– I just don't know."

"I suspect, you two like a challenge," the woman spoke again. "Which is why I've given both of you a particularly complex first case."

She handed Riley and Five each a red file.

"Anyhoo... if you have any questions, I'll be right behind you," the Handler said, before she left the room.

Riley and Five looked at each other, knowing they had to work these cases for their plan.

So, sat down at their desks.

Riley placed the file in front of them and threw the empty ice cream container into the trash can next to their desk.

Then they opened the file and began to read.

Until they got bored.

"Psst," Riley tried to get Five's attention and moved their opper body a little in his direction.

"What?"

"What’s your case?" Riley wanted to know.

"The Hindenburg. Yours?"

"Some expedition into the rainforest."

~~~~

Since there was no clock, Riley didn't know how long they had been working on the case.

So far they had identified two people who could prevent the expedition.

Which was apparently unacceptable.

"Hiya, Five, Riley," Dot interrupted the silence after some more time passed. "How's it going?"

"I must have utter silence in order to complete this task," said Five.

"Oh, okay."

"Hey, a few of us are having lunch, and I was wondering if you–" Dot tried again.

Five cleared his throat and grabbed a small boxes from one of the drawers.

"– you're doing something."

Five rolled up a small piece of paper and stuffed it into the box.

He stood up, muttered to Riley that he'd be right back, and left the room.

A few more minutes later, Riley finally found the one person who needed to be "corrected".

With a small smile on their face, Riley wrote the name on a piece of paper.

The moment they grabed a box when Five entered the room with the Handler.

"I'm sure you've all heard that Mr. Five has proven to be as adept with a pen as he was with a sword. Let his effort serve as inspiration to you all."

She patted Five on the back and he sat back down at his desk.

Riley rolled their eyes, knowing Five was enjoying this– even though he wouldn't admit it.

"Herb! How long have you been on the Lusitania?" The Handler addressed the man at the desk in front of Riley.

"Oh, ah– Well, let's see, I, uh... I..."

"Sorry?"

"When I first started–"

"Sorry? I can't hear you."

"I–"

"Still can't hear you."

The teenager felt a bit sorry for him.

But Riley couldn't follow their thoughts because the sound of bell-like sound signaled them it's time for lunch.

Everyone, except the couple, got up and headed to lunch.

Riley and Five stayed at their desks and waited until everyone was out of the room.

Five sighed and grabbed the apocalypse file from Dot's desk.

~~~~

While Five wanted to look at the file on the apocalypse, Riley made their way to the department where they used to work.

They walked through the hallways, ignoring the stares of their former colleagues.

"Riley?"

The teenager stopped and turned around.

"Martin, good to see you again," Riley greeted the man politely.

They don't really want to– he had always been a little too nice to Riley.

"I never thought I'd see you here again."

Riley shrugged, looking for an excuse to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

But they quickly realised, that Martin was hoping for the opposite.

"You look different– younger, I mean," Martin corrected as Riley raised their eyebrow.

"Yeah, long story," Riley replied with a sigh and crossed their arms over their chest.

Martin nodded.

"Anyway. I gotta–" Riley planned to end the conversation.

They turned to go further.

"No, wait–"

Riley ignored him and continued walking down the hallway.

Not even stopping when they passed their old office, which now belonged to a Theresa Gilbert.

Martin tried to follow the teenager, but several other people coming out of one of the rooms stopped him.

Riley stopped in front of a vintage-looking office door.

They exhaled and knocked on the door.

Without waiting for an answer, Riley opened the door.

They stopped when they realized there was only one person in the room– they were expecting two.

Robert sat at his desk. He was so engrossed in his work that he only looked up when Riley cleared their throat to draw attention to themself.

The man, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, looked up.

He needed a moment to recognize who was standing in front of him, but when he did, a small smile appeared on his face.

"Riley Hargreeves… I thought you were dead. You know, there was a bet here on how long you and your little husband would survive before Hazel and Cha-Cha would kill you two."

The corner of Riley's mouth twitched upwards and they stepped towards the desk.

"What did you bet?"

Robert's smile widened and he leaned back in his chair.

"I never doubted you. Cha-Cha and Hazel were never a match for you two anyway."

"They did a lot of damage" Riley said. "But thank you for believing in me."

Robert nodded to on one of the two chairs in front of the desk and Riley said down.

"Anyway," the teenager added after a small dramatic pause. "I'm not here for small talk."

Robert listened and put his pen next to the file he was working on.

"Well, I'm listening. You have my full attention."

"It's just a small thing and then I'll leave you to your work. It's just–"

Riley scoffed before continuing.

"Where is the child?"

"What child?" asked Robert.

He furrowed his eyebrow and looked at Riley like he had no idea who they were talking about.

Riley sat up further and met Robert's gaze. They had no time dealing with this.

"THE LITTE GIRL! I trusted you with," Riley replied.

Robert was surprised at Riley's mood change. He cleared his throat.

"Right, that little girl."

"Yeah, that little girl. Where is she?" Riley repeated their question.

Their eyes fell on the small sofa where the girl was sitting the last time Riley left this office.

"Well, she's not here," Robert mumbled and stood up. "You want a drink?"

The man stopped in front of one of the cupboards and opened it. He took out two glasses and a bowl with a brown-gold colored liquid.

"I can see that," Riley replied, rolling their eyes.

Robert went back to the desk, poured some of the liquid into both glasses and handed one to Riley.

"Robert, don't make me repeat the question."

The man looked at Riley. He had to tell them the truth, but he knew Riley would be incredibly angry.

He and Riley were kind of friends and he had seen when Riley was angry– he didn't want that anger directed at him.

But as said, he saw Riley as a friend and they respected Robert enough not to lie to them.

"The handler picked her up–"

"What!"

"Yeah, she came by shorty after you and Five left. She said you knew she would pick the girl up."

"Robert–" Riley placed the glass on the desk. "I asked you not to let her out of your sight. I thought, I could trust you."

"You still can," assured Robert.

He picked up Riley's glass and put it back in their hand.

"You know the rules. I couldn't have said no," the man tried to explain himself.

Riley didn't want to hear half-hearted explanations, but nodded anyway and sat back down.

Meanwhile, Robert walked around his desk before sitting falling back into his chair.

"What's the deal with her anyway? It's just a girl," the blonde man wanted to know.

"Yeah, an innocent little girl," Riley said. "She doesn't deserve to be involved in all of this."

"Well, don't worry. She will be fine. The Handler brought her back to her timeline, standard procedure."

Riley sighed, leaned back in their Chair and nodded.

"Right", they agreed with a small smile and Robert took a sip of his drink.