Right Back Where We Started [Five]

Nine

You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?

Somehow, Emery managed to arrive in one piece. He didn't know if it was possible or if it wasn't supposed to be but here he was. And the extreme excitement that he most definitely had was gone the moment his feet hit earth.

"That's the commission?" Emery asked, digging his hands into the depths of his pockets against the frigid air. Wherever they had teleported to looked to be in the middle of the goddamned ice age.

The Commission didn't look very commission-like. In fact- it looked more like a homeless shelter egged bricked by a hoard of people with anger issues.

"Yup." Five said, sounding just as surprised. "Come on." He added a moment later, beginning the trek forward, briefcase in hand.

"Holy shit." Lila laughed as they got closer. They hiked up the snow-ridden steps and stepped inside the door that was hanging on by a single hinge. "I was just here. How long was I bloody gone?"

"It seems the grandfather paradox is affecting everything." Five said, placing the briefcase down to adjust his tie. "Even places out of time."

"Is that possible?" Lila asked.

"Look around you," Emery said, casting a glance at the entry hall that looked like it had seen better days. Several better days.

"Oh, I stopped tracking what was possible a long time ago." Five sighed, bending down to pick the case back up as he readied himself to go.

Something gave from the barely held together ceiling above their heads and debris floated down not-so-gently. Emery took a step back to avoid being covered in a new layer of what he knew not.

"We better get moving." Five said. "Emery and I will check the Infinite Switchboard."

"And I'll check Herbs office. Little cockroach would survive anything." Lila added, moving to walk down the deranged hall on the main level while Emery and Five began heading up the steps to the next. "Bye." Lila called out.

"See ya." Five offered back.

"Miss you."

"That's weird."

"You guys are children." Emery rolled his eyes as he took another step up.

"Says the only legitimate child of us all."

Emery pursed his lips. "Which only furthers my point."

"Ah, fair." Five admitted. A cool breeze swept through the place, pushing the loose strands of Emery's hair back. "Come on, we're getting close." Five said, pulling Emery through an open doorway at the next landing and down a hall.

They entered a small hall with several screens plastered to the wall. Wires were jutting from the panels and more of the screens were black, ruined, or shattered.

"Okay." Five said, exhaling as he walked forward toward a specific screen and tapped at a few keys on the board below. "Okay that's good." He said aloud as the screen flickered to life. A man came on the screen and Emery knew without question that it was Herb. He was in distress as he addressed the tape, hands flaying wildly as he explained their current crisis.

"There's been a rip in the space-time continuum. It's swallowing everything. Oh, my sweet Dot, Iris, Josh from accounting, they're all gone. I've tried everything! I don't know what else to do. The timeline is collapsing." People cried out in the background of the tape and Herb cast a worried glance around. "This is... the end." He said, crying out himself when an invisible force took him and rendered him nothing but faded dust on the screen.