Five and Lila grunt when they drop onto the floor, their teeth immediately chattering as they look up from the snow-covered grass they were on and biting cold winds. It was just a snowy tundra and Five cursed when they dropped too far into the past, hiding the worry on his face with frustration. He was worried about getting back you

"Oh, brilliant idea, Lila! Welcome to the Ice Age!" He yells at her, shoving her to the side in annoyance as they both get up, him holding onto the briefcase. The cold made him wish he was back with you, with your warmth, back in bed just laying with you.

Lila turns behind her, a smile of relief on her face before shoving him back to get his attention. "Shut up and just look." The little assassin glares at her as he huddles from the cold, hugging himself before turning back behind him with her.

"The Commission..." Five whispers, a look of shock and concern while Lila just laughs, starting to trudge through the snow and wind towards The Commission building. "Shit..." he sighs, walking after her. The snow crunched beneath their feet before they were able to head inside away from the cold, Lila laughing in shock.

"Holy shit..." she looks around in surprise at the dilapidated and run-down building, Five a little more concerned with narrow eyes and pursed lips. "I was just here. How long was I bloody gone?" Lila asks and Five frowns.

"Its seems the grandfather paradox is affecting everything." He sighs out, setting the briefcase down and rubbing his wrists. "Even places out of time." Five thought him rubbing his wrist and the anxious feeling was from the major powersurge that went through him but he didn't know it was something else entirely.

"Is that possible?" Lila looks at him with concern now.

"I stopped tracking what was possible a long time ago." he sighs softly. 

He knew he had the tendency to hold onto things tight and to never let go no matter how small, that fear wired into his brain for his entire lifetime. And he especially had that fear overcome him when he fell in love with you. He wouldn't dare try to track how it was possible that he was able to have you, he just knew that he was never going to let go. He couldn't.

Five picks up the briefcase again, rubbing his hand over his heart as he followed Lila deeper into The Commission when sudden loud rumbling shook the building. The two supers quickly jump back to dodge the heavy and sharp debris that broke from the roof due to the harsh winds, coughing from the dust that disperses.

"We better get moving. I'll check the Infinite Switchboard." Five breathes outs, starting to head up the stairs.

"And I'll check Herb's office. Little cockroach would survive anything." Lila replies, starting to walk off but turns back to Five as he climbed the first set of stairs two at a time. "Bye!"

"See ya." he replies back nonchalantly, not looking back and quickly heading up.

"Miss you!" Lila grins, trying to rile him up.

"That's weird." Five calls back after some hesitation. 

The little assassin heads to the room where the Infinite Swithboard was, having memorised every hallway, every door, every chip and crack in the walls from the painful years of working in The Commission. He counted the steps it would take, being the same every time and the way every fifth to sixth step he would cross over the line between the tiles. He steps into the room, the Infinite Swithboard right in front of him, glass shattered from windows crunching beneath his feet, dust blanketing every centimetre of surface and the machines all switched off. It was... unusually grey, not its usual bright, saturated and chromatic atmosphere.

"Ok..." He sets the briefcase down quickly when he notices one of the monitor screens working, wiping the dust off it." He starts flipping switches in specific sequences, the monitoring whirring to life as the screen gets brighter. "Ok. That's good." He turns the dial and the screen morphs into Herb's face.

"There's been a rip in the space-time continuum. It's swallowing everything!" Herb was panicking. "Oh, my sweet Dot, Iris, Josh from accounting, they're all gone!" Five turns the dial to skip ahead in the video recording, putting his hands in his pockets after to continue watching. "I've tried everything! I don't know what else to do! The timeline is collapsing!" Herb flinches with panicked yelps as everything in the videotape starts shaking, electricity sparking and screams ripping through the air. Herb looks into the video with terror. "This is the end..." he whispers before screaming as he gets ripped apart and dissolved by something bright, just disappearing.

Five blinks in realisation, a sorrowful look on his face. The comrade who helped him and his family escape Dallas just... gone. He sighs and purses his lips, looking away unable to continue watching.

"I could kill for some scrambled eggs right now." Lila barges into the room and stands next to Five, him sighing at her 'impeccable' timing.

"This is bigger than the timeline, Lila."

"What's bigger than the timeline?"

"The entire universe."

"Yeah."

"Missing dogs, people... It's the opposite of the Big Bang." Five mutters. "Instead of the universe expanding, its now collapsing in on itself." He rubs the back of his neck, breathing out his anxiousness.

If I lose her...

I can't lose her. Not her of all people.

There has to be a way.

I can't live without her.

"Like a prolapsing rectum." Lila just replies back and Five grimaces as he gets pulled out from his thoughts

"That's a weird analogy, but yeah."

"Here, then. This might give us some answers." Lila brings out a book and hands in to Five. 

He takes it to take a look at it. "Master handbook!" He gasps, some resemblance of hope in his tone.

"The one and only."

Five quickly opens the book up and flips through while Lial played with pencils, the little assassin finding the page about the Grandfather Paradox. "Here we are. Ok, protocol. '"In the unlikely case of the grandfather paradox, the founder and any essential personnel should..." he trails off questioning this so-called founder as Lila jumps back up to finish reading.

"...be immediately remanded to the operations bunker." Lila finishes, chucking the pencils away. "The Founder." Five looks at her in confusion. "What Founder?"

"I don't know." he mutters back. The wind picks up harshly outside, a howling wind and the two supers bump back quickly when debris falls where they stood. Again. "We need to find that bunker..." Five sighs.

"Asap." The two supers say at the same time and Lila grins as she skips after the little assassin as he exists the room with the briefcase.

"Jinx. A-B-C-1-2-3, personal padlock." She pokes fun of him, smiling ear to ear as he just groans in annoyance.

"Can you not-"

"-you can't speak!"

"This is just like a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit! There's no clear directives in here about crisis management!" Five hisses, complaining as he storms up the steps and slams the book shut, Lila following close behind silently as she watches him with concern with pursed lips. 

He sighs in frustration, not wanting to go through this at all for the third time. All he wanted to do was go back to you, to try and help you escape your ghosts instead of him chasing his again. There was no point chasing his demons again, trying to undo his sins. He had tried three times, telling himself it was the last time but he always managed to get sucked back into the deep end. He had to leave it all behind him for you, to be there for you. It was your turn now. To hide his sins from the daylight for you so he could love you with every last second he had left.

"You know, Lila, I shouldn't even be here. I was..." he frowns, rubbing his heart as he thought of you, hoping you were ok. "I was out. I was done. We were done! And yet here I am, swept back into the chaos. Why can't I just escape this hellhole!?"

Why can't we escape this hellhole?

Five grits his teeth as he scratches his head, ignoring Lila when she says that he loves it, climbing the last step up into an open area with snow falling down. He grimaces when he accidentally farts, clearing his throat as he turns to Lila. "My bad..."

"Face to, Five, apocalypse problems are the only things that get your heart pumping. Well that besides (y/n)." Lila snickers as the assassin narrows his eyes at her with a twinge of red on his ears. It was the cold, he swears it is.

"I don't know why people keep saying that!" He hisses, scratching his neck and cheek. "I don't actually like the chaos! I don't want disorder! I..." he sighs. "I want retirement, with the woman I love."

Lila scoffs. "Yeah, right!" they continue to walk across the damaged room beneath the telescope and machinery to the other side. "What? A normal life of groceries and taxes. You would die of boredom!"

"I won't!" Five snaps back. "As long as I have (y/n)... its what I've always dreamed of having. Someone to live with and just... be alive with. No more life or death or timeline-related worries."

"That and you finally get to make up for the lost action in your old life." Lila teases. "I pray for your little girlfriend."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly cut out for domestic bliss either." Five retorts as he opens up a door and walks through it. He ignores the lectire Lila gives him as he hurries down the stairs, turning left and right before walking through the left hallway. He climbs over fallen shelves and boxes through the dark as she rattles on behind him until he stops.

"Why you smiling, you little pisspot?"

"'Cause of that." he points to the door with a sign ontop that says 'Operation Bunker' and he quickly walks towards it.

"Well, you could have led with that." 

The two ex-commisioners walk into the hallway when they open the door, rushing down the end to open another door as the heavy sliding door clicks behind them. Five becomes more irratble and itchy, pacing behind Lila as she stands in front of a giant safe looking lock that scans her eyes. 

She curses as the sirens blare red and a noise signals her no ganted access. "We're screwed." Five curses, ignoring Lila when she grimaces at how sweaty and fidgety he was as he scratched his neck and hops his weight from foot to foot in anxiousness. She asks him what was wrong but he just farts again and his eyes narrow in realisation. He pushes her to the side and faces the scanner as it scans his retina and his face, the alarm dinging in granting him access. "I guess you're essential personnel." Lila scoffs.

The giant wheels unlocks and rolls to the left revealing a giant blue room. The sides and ceiling were covered with those sound proof square materials used in asylums. A ventilator hisses, a cool air hitting the ex-commisioners as they walk into the room before the wheel locks behind them. 

Five stays by the entrance, looking around with worry and on high-alert. He was tense as he rubs his neck, gripping the booking in his hand deathly tightly while Lila just walks towards the giant tube in the middle of the room. "That's him, huh?" Five scoffs as he drops the book on the table before walking over to the tube. "The Founder."

"Looks like tinned beef. I was expecting more man and less..." Lila hits the tube. "Can."

When Five walked closer, his eyes widen when he recognised who it was, staring at the face straight on of a man he thought he would never see again. "It can't be..." the familiar face, familiar wrinkles, familiar grey hair.

"What's wrong?" Lila asks, seeing the little assassin, slightly back away as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His world breaking.

"It's me..."

She blinks at him and bursts out laughing. "No way! So the whole time you've been complaining about the Commission, and you're the one who founded it!" She wheezes, clapping. "Classic!"

Five narrows his eyes. "If I did, I have no memory of it." This was something that irked him, something that was strange. He should have memories of founding the Commission. It was classic time-loop logic. But... nothing. "Somethings not right. I don't have paradox psychosis. I could feel it outside, but in here, it's nothing..." he sighs out, looking confused as he stands uo straight. The itching, flatulence, the tense high-alert feelings were gone. This wasn't right at all. This old man in front of him was him but not... him?

"Never were too bright, were we?" the old man suddenly rasps out. "The operations bunker is paradox proof." Old Five breathes in shakily, straining to inhale as the ventilator keeps him alive. "I constructed it as a panic room in case of a collapse in the time continuum. In this room, all permutations of yourself can exist." 

This struck Five in an odd way, the way his old self said this.

"You must be here because of a... kugelblitz."

"Is that like a cheese blintz?" Lila asks and Five rolls his eyes.

"It's German for 'ball of lightening.' It's an extra kinky kind of black hole."

"The kind that can suck up entire timelines..." Lila purses her lips.

"So, how do we fix it?" Five says and his old version just laughs in his face.

"You don't."

"If you created all of this, then you must have a solution." Five strains, sneering at his old self as his fists his hands.

"All that will be left is... oblivion." his old self says and Five narrows his eyes at him. Five asks what he meant, slamming her fist on the tube and it suddenly spings unlock as it opens revealing Old Five with a strange tattoo on his chest and his left arm missing from the elbow down.

"This is what you have coming." The old man says and Five sneers at him.

"Listen to me, you ass! I just spent the last couple months running around saving the world from apocalypses, only to keep trying to save the world!" he slams his hand against the tube in fury and frustration. "Now I am stuck in this pubescent body, my hormones are raging, and all I wanna do is go out and buy a 1970s Corvette Stingray!"

"Take it easy on him, Five." Lila says and the old man sneers at her making her jump back.

"Home-wrecking whore! Stay away from me, you harlot!" the old man starts yelling at her and Five tells Lila to stay back.

"This is between me and myself, so stay out of it!" he snaps at her, turning back to his home self, yelling at Lila. She didn't want to be here anymore and quickly leaves the room to let the two Five's talk it out. "Now, this Kugelblitz, it is not some tiny leak that we can simply fix by patching a couple of pinholes. It is a giant trash compactor which is grinding up the universe and consuming it whole. So tell me how you stop it!"

"Where is she!? Is she here with you!? My love!" the old man starts yelling out in a delusion for someone. "Where is my wife! Where is she!?" he yells at Five, tearing up. "Don't you dare lose her! Don't hurt her like I did! Keep her safe! Don't you dare lose (y/n) like I did!"

It was as if freezing cold water was poured down on Five as the old man continued to yell out for his wife. He stumbles back as the old man yells out how he made a mistake, that he would do anything to have his wife back, thrashing around in the tube and screaming in a delusion that he made the wrong choice.

"Whatever you do, don't save the world!" the old man urges Five, looking at him earnestly. "I lost her because I tried to! Whatever you do, don't save it! Save her! Don't-" the old man chokes, the lights flicker and he turns his head to face a picture on a stand next to him. "-save the world-" the heartbeat monitor suddenly flatlines, everything in The Commission powering down once he was gone.

"What do you mean, don't save-Five!?" Five yells at his old self in frustration, panic surging through his as all he thought about was you. "How do I fix this!?" he pants but all he got was silence. He stumbles back shakily, his fingers carding through his hair in frustration as he picks up a glass and throws it across the room. He breathes out shakily, his mind whirring to you and his heart raced with fear.

Fear of losing you.

Five walks to the other side, seeing a little picture stand that his old self looked at one last time before he passed away and picks it up. He blinks in shock when he sees him, physically as he is now in a black suit, and you in a beautiful blue gown. He doesn't remember this happening, unable to recall the backdrop of a large hall but all he knew was that he wanted this to happen, to see that beautiful smile of hers in person.  

She looks like a dream.

Five softens as he stares at the beautiful smile you had beaming on your face for him in the photo, a love filled smile on his own face staring back at you. 

Shes so beautiful... perfect...

Five breathes in shakily as he thumbs your face, his heart aching and his old selfs words ring in his ears.

He had to save you.

No matter what it takes.

Five takes the picture out of the frame and pockets it, turning back to his old self and stares at the tattoo on his chest. "What's this?" He raises a brow, taking out his pocket knife to cute the tattoo out.

Edited