☂ 𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 || 𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝚡 𝙾𝙲 || 𝑩𝑲. 𝟐 ☂

16. METAMORPHOSIS

As Five and Elaina turned the corner of the stairs to meet their father at the bar, their siblings shortly followed, leaving through the elevators they came in. Reginald sat at the bar, his posture was unervely upright and proper as his eyes drifted over to the teens, his monocle briefly catching the light.

Elaina felt sick again.

Five took the seat besides the old man while Elaina sat on the other side of Five, gaining as much distance as she could from her future father.

"You seem to be the sensible one of the bunch," commented Reginald to Five.

"That's because I'm the oldest," explained Five, making Reginald raise a brow. "You know, technically, I'm older than you right now,"

Reginald gave an impressed nod as he leaned forward to look over Five. "And you, you certainly seem the most interesting," he said to Elaina, making the girl look at him blankly.

"Am I now?" she questioned tightly. "What about me seems so interesting?"

"Besides that show with the fruit, your comment about not aging and how it wasn't naturally acquired,"

"Yeah, well, I have you to thank for that, Reggie," Elaina answered snidely, sporting a tight smile, making the old man look at her in unamusement.

"Elaina," warned Five as he gave her a look.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to disassociate, okay? He's not technically 'Dad' yet," she explained before seeing the bartender place a pricey bottle of cognac in front of her father. "While we're here, we should at least have a drink, right?" she commented, jerking her chin in it's direction.

Reginald noticed the bottle. "Cognac?" he offered both Five and Elaina.

Five smiled. "Just a smidge,"

"Make mine a double," nodded Elaina.

The bartender nodded in understanding as he began pouring their drinks.

"The other night you quoted Homer at me," directed Reginald the question to Five. "Why?"

"You forced us all to learn it as kids," responded Five.

"Practically drilled it in our heads," added Elaina. "In the original Greek, no less,"

The bartender then placed their glasses of cognac in front of each of them. Reginald held his up slightly in a small toast, Five and Elaina following suit as everyone drank from their respected cups.

"The world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline," said Five, getting to the real topic he wished to discuss with their father.

"Words end," stated Reginald with a shrug. "Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on,"

"We can do something about this one," stressed the boy.

"Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control,"

"I need your help. Alright? You're my last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make,"

"It's legit a matter of life and death," tacked in Elaina before she made a face at her own comment. "Well, not ours, a group of random strangers, that is," she said, sipping on her cognac.

Five continued on. "What do you know about time travel?" he asked.

"In theory?" questioned the old man.

"In practice," corrected Five.

"I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing--"