Backstabber (Five Hargreeves x Reader)

Number Five

Song Choice: Mindless Self Indulgence - Molly

The gun fired echoed as the bullet froze midair.

"Neat trick, isn't it?"

Five turned around to face the Handler. "Hello, Five. You look good, all things considered." She said, motioned towards his child body. Five turned fully around and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "It's good to see you again."

The Handler smiled. "Feels like we met just yesterday. Course, you were a little bit older then. Congratulations on the age regression, by the way. Very clever. Threw us all off the scent." Five looked at his body then shrugged. "Ah, well, I wish I could take credit. I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and, well, you know. Here I am."

"You realize your efforts are futile. So why don't you tell me what you really want?"
"I want you to put a stop to it."
"You realize what you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me. What's meant to be is meant to be. That's our raison d'etre."

Five pulled out the gun that he was gripping in his pocket and pointed it at the woman before him. "Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?"

The Handler only smirked. "I'll just be replaced. I'm but a small cog in a machine. This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse is just that. A fantasy. I must say, though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative, your stick-to-itiveness, really quite something. Which is why we want to offer you a new position back at the Commission, in management." Five chuckled, "Sorry, what's that now?"

"Come back to work for us again. You know it's where you belong."
"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time."
"But you wouldn't be in the correction division any longer. I'm talking about the home office. You'd have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel. You're a distinguished professional in schoolboy shorts. We have the technology to reverse the process. I mean, you can't be happy like this."

Five glared, not being sold on her offer. "I'm not looking for happy."

"We're all looking for happy. We can make that happen. We can make you yourself again." Five sighed, thinking about his decision for a moment, then spoke. "And what about my family?"

"What about them?"
"I want them to survive."
The Handler sighed with a roll of the eyes. "All of them?"
Five clenched his jaw. "Yes, all of them."
"Well I'll see what I can do. Anything else?"

Five pondered very hard, biting his lip as he thought. "... Does the name... (Y/n) mean anything to you?"

The Handler's somewhat relaxed face slowly shifted into an expression similar to someone who's remembering their ptsd from war. Her eyes widened and her smile sunk into a parted frown. "Never speak of that name again."

Five's brows furrowed, determined to know how she knows who she is. Five wouldn't admit it to her face, but he's very suspicious of (Y/n). Always seems like she's hiding something, dodges certain questions and just overall having unusual behavior. He does trust her though. But maybe that's just his fondness and early attachment to her is speaking over his mind. "Who is she, really?

The Handler sighed, seemingly disappointed she has to explain this. "Do you remember the attack on the Commission all those years ago?" Five nodded, almost offended she thought he forgot about such a tragic, unforgivable act. "How could I forget? 112 members were brainwashed into jumping off the roof."

"The attack was by our worst enemy. The Despair Facility. A large group full of crazed psychos who love the feeling of grief and despair. Almost every single horrible, infamous person who has ever lived was part of the Facility. From Adolf Hitler to the Ku Klux Klan to Ted Bundy to the Zodiac Killer. They're all satan followers because apparently the founder and original leader was the devil himself. Years went on and the mastermind of the group would pass on the throne to their successor. The mastermind at the moment is named Lana Griz. She took one of their new recruits under her wing as her private pupil. And that pupil is (Y/n) (L/n). She's probably aiming to be the next mastermind just like the rest of those insane lunatics."

That much information about (Y/n) made his stomach turn into knots. She's the private pupil of the devil's successor. 'Does that mean? No, I refuse to believe it.' "Why were you at war with them?"

"We still are. But the reason is because of the apocalypse. They are also trying to cause the end of humanity but for the worst reason."

"And what is that?"

"For fun."

Five refused to believe that that kind, thoughtful girl he met was like any of those crazy freaks. 'But still... does that mean that maybe all this time she...' Five clenched his eyes shut. Pushing the truth further from his mind. "But (Y/n) isn't like them. She's different. She was just raised to believe in awful things. She knows what they're doing is wrong."

"They all know what they're doing is wrong. That's why they're doing it." The Handler snapped. "Don't think differently about her just because she's nice and pretty. Nice is different than good. They're all nightmares disguised as daydreams. It's a circus there. No, no. It's a freak show."

Five finally opened his eyes, showing Handler a serious glare. "I don't care. I want her to live too. The whole facility can die but I just want her to make it." He could've swore his voice broke at the end. Even if she does have a healing factor that doesn't mean she can't go down with the whole world.

"Fine, that can be arranged. Do we have a deal?"