TWO | A FAMILY REUNION,
GOD THIS IS WEIRD

We burst out the door and saw a warping blue light, Diego was surprised by the sight, "What is it?" Vanya asked, "Don't get too close!" She warned. "Yeah, no shit," Diego spoke sarcastically.

"Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole, one of the two." Luther thought as I stood behind him, following him closely. "Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan," Diego spoke out.

Klaus came running behind, "Out of the way!" Klaus was holding a fire extinguisher, "What are you—" Diego asked in bewilderment as Klaus tried using it before flinging it towards the hole.

"What is that gonna do?" Allison shouted, "I don't know, do you have a better idea?" Klaus fired back.

The thunder was getting worse, Luther lent his hand out, "Everyone get behind me," Diego copied him, "Yeah, get behind us," Diego joined in. I hid behind Luther, worrying about what that was, observing the warp in the sky.

"I vote for running, c'mon," Klaus tried to convince us. The blue waves began to flicker, and we looked up in surprise to see an old man glitching into a young man and back into an old man before he fell sharply and the thunder began to vanish.

The kid face-planted straight to the pile of leaves and we slowly strolled towards the kid, he got up, wearing a suit way too oversized for him as he faced us with concern.

"Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?" Klaus questioned, thinking he was hallucinating. Five was confused till he looked down at his clothes, "Shit?" Five mumbled.

Five placed a chopping board and knife onto the table. "What's the date? The exact date?" Five asked as he went over to grab a loaf of bread. "The 24th" Vanya answered, "Of what?" He asked furthermore, "March," I responded.

He looked barely relieved, "Good," Five nodded, before looking up at me. I stared at him before he stared back at me. "Nice to know you're free from your coma, Tate," Five commented, sending me a smile.

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked. Five ignored his question and laid out two slices of bread on the cutting board, the others didn't seem surprised by the interaction.

Luther was annoyed that Five ignored him and got up, "It's been 17 years " Five just scoffed, "It's been a lot longer than that," Five walked in front of him, and I quickly got up and stepped between them.

Five looked at me and teleported behind Luther to reach for the marshmallows on the shelf. "I haven't missed that," Luther sighed. "Where'd you go?" Diego asked, fiddling with his knife. "The future," Five teleported back to the table. "It's shit, by the way," Five remarked. "Called it," Klaus raised his finger, agreeing with Five.

Five moved to the fridge, "I should've listened to the old man. You know jumping through space is one thing," Five grabbed the peanut butter as he went on, "Jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He looked up at Klaus. "Nice dress," he complimented.

"Oh well, danke," Klaus waved the skirt around. "Wait, how did you get back?" Vanya asked perplexed. "In the end, I had to project my conscience forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." He blabbed on.

"Wow, that was interesting," I joined in, Five just glared at me. Diego interrupted, "That makes no sense," I rolled my eyes. "Well, it would if you were smarter," Five commented, causing Diego to get up until Luther stopped him, placing his arms in front of Diego.

"How long were you there?" Luther asked. "Forty-five years, give or take," Five estimated. Luther slumped back into his seat before realizing, "So what are you saying?" "That you're 58?" I finished. "No, my consciousness is 58," Five rolled his eyes, unable to explain further the difficult topic.

"Apparently, my body is now 16 again," Five said, squishing the slices of bread together. "Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked, bewildered at the concept. "Delores kept saying the equations were off," Five said before taking a bite of his sandwich. "Eh, bet she's laughing now,"

"Delores?" I raised my eyebrow. He continued to chew till he grabbed the newspaper, "Guess I missed the funeral," Five said. "How'd you know about that?" Luther asked. "What part of the future do you not understand?" He spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Heart failure, huh?" Five said.

"Yeah,"

"No,"

Five sighed, "Nice to see nothing's changed," He walked off, "Uh, that's it? That's all you have to say? Alison chimed in, flabbergasted at Five's last words. "What else is there to say? The circle of life," Five answered. "Well... that was interesting," I got up from the table, wanting to escape this madness.

"So how did you stay so young?" Five asked as I admired Five's portrait. "You were always the favorite child, weren't you?" I stared at the details in the painting. "Really?" Five stated, crossing his arms. "Nice outfit," I commented, realizing he was wearing the academy uniform, causing Five to smile.

"You know the usual, Reggie, a crypto freeze machine you see in movies where it's like they pay money to freeze people for years and years, and when unfrozen, they're the same but different world," I explained. "So you're still 16?" Five asked. "Yeah, I feel like I missed my chance to do a lot of adult things," I mocked before Five pulled my arm over to the bar.

"How about we start slow? Your first shot," Five led us to the bar. "Find me the best stuff they got here then," I took a seat at the counter, watching Five search for alcohol. "Damn, they have nothing," Five said, head deep in the cabinet.

"Seriously?" I sighed before Five perked up on the counter with a bottle. "A little strong but you should learn first," Five said, setting down some shot glasses. "First drink of the day," I said as Five poured some whiskey into the small glasses.

"Cheers," I said as Five and I raised our shot glasses. "Do I just shoot it?" I questioned. "I'd recommend drinking it normally. You're definitely not gonna be used to hard alcohol shooting it will make you wanna cough up your lungs," Five said with a chuckle before shooting it down.

"Sips?" I suggested. "Sips, and only that until you know how it tastes, got it? Don't be a moron, Eight?" Five warned sternly. I took a small sip of the whiskey before reacting with a disgusted look. "Why it does burn?!" I groaned, wiping my mouth.

Five chuckled, amused by my reaction. "Too strong for you? Need some water?" Five questioned before trying to find some water. "More than ever," I nodded heavily, pushing the glass from me.

"Coming right up, idiot," Five said before shoving an ice cube toward me. "Thank you," I mumbled, placing the ice cube on my tongue as Five stepped away from the bar.

I turned around to face him as I watched him fascinated by the picture. "Nice to know, Dad didn't forget about me," Five commented, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Vanya joined us in the room, causing Five to turn around. "I read your book, by the way," Five informed Vanya. "Found it in a library that was still standing," Five informed, Vanya stared back at him warily

"I thought it was pretty good, all things considered," Five paced around the room, his eyes wandering around the fixtures. "Yeah, definitely ballsey, giving up the family secrets," Five leaned towards Vanya. "Sure that went over well," Five sent a comforting smile to Vanya.

"They hate me," Vanya muttered. "I don't, not yet at least since I haven't read the book," I reassured her, hopping off the bar stool. "Oh, they are worse things that can happen," Five promised.

"You mean like what happened with Ben?" Vanya asked. "Was it bad?" Five asked. I nodded, recalling the tragic incident. Five looked away from me, avoiding eye contact as he processed the answer.