"there are no secrets that time does not reveal"

★・・・★・・・★

I woke up with an intense headache. I groaned and sat up on the bed I had been sleeping on. Where am I?

My eyes scanned the poorly lit room. It was cluttered with a bunch of old furniture and knives. Low voices spoke from a corner of the room.

Slowly, I pushed myself off of the bed and walked over to the voices, which belonged to Luther and Five.

"Morning," I greeted both of them.

Luther gave me a curt nod, while Five smiled and waved back.

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

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

Luther's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"It wouldn't have mattered," Five brushed him off.

"Of course it would." Luther crossed his arms over his chest. "We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing."

Five interrupted him, "For the record, you already tried."

Luther was quiet for a minute before responding hesitantly. "What do you mean?"

"I found all of you. Your bodies." Five avoided eye contact with Luther.

"We die?" Luther questioned in disbelief.

Five nodded. "Horribly." He paused letting it all sink in. "You we're together, trying to stop whoever it was that ends the world."

Luther wore a terrified expression as he listened to Five. "How do you know that?"

Five took out the small, brown bag that held the prosthetic eye. He showed it to Luther. "This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you." He tossed the eye to him. "Must've ripped it out of their head right before you went down."

"Whose head?" Luther said as he examined the eye.

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

"Well, there's a serial number on the back." Luther stated the obvious. "Think maybe you could try—"

"Tried it." I spoke.

Five agreed, "It's a dead end."

Luther passed the eye back to Five. "It's just another hunk of glass," Five chuckled sarcastically.

The door to the room flew open and a man walked in. "Piece of shit," he said to himself angrily.

I remember him. He was the man that carried me here last night. Diego? I think that was his name.

Diego stomped over to Five and I. He pointed his finger at us, "Do you have any idea what you just did?"

Luther grunted as he held Diego back.

"Get your ape hands off of me!" Diego demanded.

Luther held him with little effort. "I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down."

Diego panted and stopped struggling. "Fine."

Luther dropped him on his feet. "Now, wanna tell us what you're talking about?"

Diego glared at Five and I. "Our brother and his little friend have been pretty busy since he got back. They were in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the Academy looking for him." He accused angrily.

"None of which is any of your concern," Five replied nonchalantly.

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

Luther turned around to face us. "Who are they?"

"They work for my former employer," Five began. "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." He shrugged.

Diego's eyes narrowed at Five, "And now they're my fair game. And I'm going to see to it they pay."

Diego began to walk out of the room as Five called after him. "That would be a mistake, Diego. They've killed people far more dangerous than you."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," Diego said as he stormed out of the room.

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

Five shook his head, "Well it's a long story."

Luther sat down, signaling that he still wanted to hear it. I sat down too, and listened to his story.

"They turned me into the perfect instrument for rehabilitation of the time continuum, or 'corrections' as they called them. I wasn't the only one. There are others like me. 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. They didn't realize it, but I was hiding my time, trying to figure out the right equation so I could get back. If I could just get back, I knew I could stop the apocalypse. Save the world. So I broke my contract."

I was completely speechless after listening to Five's story. It was shocking that our pasts were so similar.

At some point during Five's speech, Luther had gotten up and made two cups of coffee. He back walked over and handed Five and I a mug. I mouthed a thank you to him.

"So.. you were a hit man?" Luther asked unsure.

"Yes." Five stated.

Luther hesitated, "You had a code, right? You didn't kill just anybody."

Five stared at the ground. "No code. We took our anyone who messed with the timeline."

"What about innocent people?" Luther questioned sadly.

"It was the only way I could get back here," Five replied.

"But that's murder," Luther exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Five rolled his eyes. "Jesus, Luther, grow up. We're not kids anymore."

I took a sip of my coffee and looked away awkwardly.

"There's no such thing as good guys or bad guys. There's just people, goin' about their lives." Five drank some of his coffee. "But when the world ends, all those people die.. including our family."

Silence filled the air. Luther was still processing this new information, while I sat there quietly drinking my coffee.

Five sighed. "Time changes everything."

★・・・★・・・★

Five and I left Diego's room in the boxing building, and walked back to the Academy. As we were walking to his bedroom, we noticed bloody footprints on the floor.

We looked at each other with confused expressions. I noticed that the tracks lead to Klaus. I tapped Five and pointed towards him.

Five started walking towards Klaus's room. He knocked on the door, "You okay?"

"Hey. Yeah, I just... Long night." He replied, clearly exhausted.

Five chuckled. "More than one, from the looks of it."

"Yup." Klaus struggled to pull his shirt over his body.

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

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

"How about that new tattoo?" He asked again.

"You know," Klaus looked at the tattoo on his shoulder in the mirror next to him. "I don't totally remember even getting it. Like I said, it was a long night."

"You did it didn't you?" Five said.

I looked over at him questioningly. Did what?

"What're you talking about?" Klaus asked.

Five began walking further into the room. "You know I can recognize the symptoms, Klaus."

Klaus replied almost out of breath, "Symptoms of what?"

"The jet lag. Full body itch. Headache that feels like someone shoved a box of cotton up into your nose and through your brain," Five finished naming 'symptoms.' "You gonna tell me about it?"

Klaus rubbed his face and sighed. "Your pals, when they broke into the house and couldn't find you, they took me hostage instead."

I frowned. I had no idea Klaus had been missing. How come nobody knew?

"And in return, you stole their briefcase." Five finished his brother's sentence.

"Yeah. I thought there was money in it, or I could pawn it, you know, whatever. And then I opened it." Klaus's eyes glossed over as he looked away.

Five began pacing, intrigued with the mentioning of the briefcase. "And the next thing you knew, you were.. where? Or should I say when?"

"What difference does it make?" Klaus responded, annoyed with this conversation.

"What diff- okay how long were you gone?" Five asked.

"Almost a year," Klaus said sadly.

"A year?" I exclaimed.

Five walked closer to Klaus. "Do you know what this means?"

Klaus responded as if the answer was obvious, "Yeah, I'm ten months older now."

"No, this isn't any sort of joke, Klaus. Hazel and Cha-Cha will do whatever they can to get the briefcase." Five looked around the room. "Where's it now?"

"Gone. I destroyed it." Klaus replied simply. "Poof," he motioned an explosion with his hands.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Five scolded Klaus.

Klaus yelled back. "What do you care!"

"What do I care? I needed it you moron, so I could get back. I could start over." Five spat.

"Wait, start over? You were just gonna leave?" I asked Five.

Five didn't say anything, he just looked back and forth between me and Klaus.

Klaus got up from his bed and shuffled out of the room, so I followed behind him.

"Where are you guys going?" Five called out.

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

"Lexa, where are you going?" Five asked.

I faced him and shoved my hands in my pockets, "I think I'm gonna hangout with Klaus for a little bit, okay?" I faked a smile.

He nodded slowly. "Okay.. Be careful."