Right Back Where We Started [Five]

Thirteen

What's your favorite type of pizza?

"You what?!"

"We walked through the hidden passageway, got chased by some psycho with a scythe, got my fingers chopped off and now we're here." Diego explained, nursing his bandaged hand with blossiming blood springing from his stumped fingers.

They were in the White Buffalo suite where Diego and Lila claimed they traveled to another world. The same room where Klaus supposedly died and came back to life and the same room where Stanley disappeared in.

"Sorry, just one more time." Emery said, hands wringing together and pulled knots in his hair.

"We walked through the hidden pa-"

"I didn't mean it literally." Emery sighed, hands falling to his sides. "This crazy. A whole new level of fuckery. Even for us." He said.

"That's what I've been saying." Diego flourished his hands around. "But that doesn't change the fact that I am missing two of my fingers and Stanley is gone!" He raged.

"Unbelievable. One second I'm riding on the back of a motorcycle and watching as Five gets a tattoo and the next, you're telling me there's a crazy monster on the other side of that wall that wants to kill us all?" Emery cursed, blinking his eyes repeatedly and shaking his head as if that would clear this all up.

"Five did what?" Diego exclaimed, pausing his ransacking of the suite. He held the suites bed pillow in his hands with a strong grip as if he may tear it apart.

"It doesn't matter." Five said from his place at the wall. He was frowning intently, running his fingers along the groove of the area for any hidden latches.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lila asked, coming in. "Stanley is gone! We need to face this!"

"Just check the chimney all right!" Diego demanded, continuing his search beneath the beds blanket this time.

"He's not in the bloody chimney! He's been Kugelblitzed!" Lila shouted.

"And whose fault is that huh? You're the one that brought him here!" Diego fought back.

"Congratulations." Five said, turning away from the wall for the first time. "You're both mildly terrible parents." He gestured to the wall behind him. "Can we focus? Come on. How did this thing open before?"

"I don't know. It was already kinda open." Diego said.

"'Already kinda open'." Five echoed. "You know, Diego, you should have been an engineer. It's a lost opportunity."

"Why'd you wanna go in there anyway?" Lila asked. "It's sushi and death."

"Because we want to go shake hands with the devil, Lila." Emery replied sarcastically. "Obviously we're trying to put an end to this."

"When we met future me in the Commission bunker, I warned myself about Oblivion." Five offered the rational response. "Now, Pogo told me--"

"Wait, whoa, whoa!" Diego said, halting Five. "Pogo's alive?" He said curiously.

"Different Pogi, but yes."

"A bit of an asshole really." Emery muttered under his breath.

"The monkey said Dad spent years training the Sparrows for some super-secret mission into..."

"Oblivion?" Lila ventured.

Five clapped his hands together. "So, I come back here to find that you two sentient STDs have actually been in there." He dug his hands into his pockets. "Everything's leading to Oblivion. So we have to go in there."