As The World Caves In [Five]

Three

What was the name of your favorite stuffed animal from childhood?

Emery wandered the streets for a time after that, taking the liberty of watching the current news on a TV outside of an appliance shop and getting caught up in all that he had missed. He had also taken the chance to change out of the old clothes he had been wearing that were covered in vent dust and dirt.

Paying for the shirt was easy enough as he just rooted around in all the other second-hand item's pockets until he had found enough lost loose change to pay for them while the shirt he wore under his old one with the collar spiked up to hide the fact that he was wearing more than two layers.

When he was outside, he shrugged the old undershirt off and tore a strip off, sitting on a nearby bench and tying it tightly to the area where the bullet had skimmed and then leaked blood down his leg. He had nearly forgotten about it in the flurry of meeting the Umbrella Academy; the painful stabs resorting into an incessant throb until he had all but forgotten about it. He cursed, hoping the thing wasn't infected. The bullet had only skimmed him anyway, in a few days, the wound would seal up and he'd be left with nothing but a scar.

He patted himself down for any trackers the Handler may have been able to sneak on him and eventually retired to a beaten-down donut shop down the street with enough coins in his pocket to get him a donut at best. It was empty of people when he arrived so he just sat down and waited, stacking the coins into a tall pile and moving them this way and that over and between the tips of his fingers absentmindedly.

The doorbell chimed a few moments later

"You only have a faint accent." Five said, taking a seat right next to Emery. "You weren't in France very long."

He scoffed, hardly surprised that the boy was here. "That's what you got from this?"

"Your consciousness is sixteen so something must be slowing you down because you weren't in Texas long either. You saw your chance with me and you took it. You were running from something- someone: the Handler. You can't time travel or you would have done it on your own and sooner but you were born on the same day as the rest of us so you must have the ability that allows you to travel through time. The question is what is it?"

Emery moved to respond but stopped when he noticed a gleam in Five's eye. "Why do you care?" He asked instead. "Last time I saw you, you looked like you would rather burn me at the stake than willingly spend another minute in my presence."

"You're an anomaly and you might be linked to the apocalypse."

"The whole thing the Handler was on about?" Emery asked. He knew the world was ending because of the old crow so it didn't come as a surprise when he figured out how little time they had left.

"Yeah. That. It's happening in eight days. And now I'm wondering if I should kill you now or wait to see if you actually have anything to do with it." Five seethed, looking very much like he wanted to follow through with the first option.

"Considering you still don't know what variable 'x' is, I'd suggest waiting or you're just as bad as her." Emery didn't have to specify who her was.

"What ability you have." Five answered for x, shaking his head as he tried to piece it together.

"Come on, you're so close." Emery teased with a cheeky smile.

Five rolled his eyes and reached forward, ringing the service bell a few times as he waited. The door chimed again and an older man walked in, sitting down to Five's left with a resigned sigh as he looked through the paper, a picture of the late Hargreeves on the front cover.