▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀʀᴛʏ ᴍᴄғʟʏ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ɪs ɴᴇᴀʀ ꒱　


❝ I TRUST YOU ❞

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

On April the first twenty-nineteen, the earth was destroyed in a cataclysmic event. 

Billions of people were wiped out in a matter of minutes.

Ironically, the seven survivors of the apocalypse were the very siblings who brought it on.

In an unremarkable alleyway several very strange events occurred. Across the span of three years, six living siblings and one dead one dropped out of the sky due to a rift in the space-time continuum.

The first to arrive was a grown man and his ghostly counterpart. They fell, screaming from the heavens before they were stopped abruptly by the hard concrete of the alleyway floor. As they recovered, the man spoke first: ". . .that was—"

"Exhilarating," the ghost finished for him. As the living man recovered, the darkly-clad one stood and looked around the off-street in confusion. "Where's Five?"

"Huh?"

They both turned their gazes to the portal that had dropped them in the place before they shouted in turn: "Five! Diego! Allison!"

There was no response from the people to whom those names belonged.

"Where is everybody?" the man in the vest asked. "Oh, they're gone. They're gone, like a fart in the wind." He let out a whimpery, crying sound. "Poof!" He sighed. "It's just me and you again. Great."

Used to the man's complaining, the ghost-teen ignored him as he finally asked a relevant question: "so where the hell are we?"

The duo began walking down the street and they realized that, even then, where wasn't the most pressing issue. "I think the question is when are we."

In an effort to find the answer, the living man— Klaus— tried to ask a few pedestrians, all of whom ended up ignoring him. It was his tagalong that found the answer on a discarded magazine cover: February 11, 1960.

☂☂☂

May 14, 1960

Still in daylight, a portal in the sky opened again, this time spitting out a fifteen-year-old girl onto the hard concrete ground. After taking a moment to clear some of the fuzzy after effects of time travel from her head, she scrambled to her feet as she called "Five! Five! FIVE!" in progressively louder tones until the portal snapped shut above her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alexandra saw the flash of what looked suspiciously like a camera but the overwhelming sense of panic waylaid her investigation. Shutting her eyes, she pictured in her mind the last images of her siblings from what felt like both seconds and almost a year and a half ago: how they'd stood in a circle, holding hands, as the world collapsed around them. The tug of Five's powers that felt like electricity zapping across her skin and the interference of her own, clashing together in both harmony and discord. 

Then, she opened her eyes and looked down. "Shit."

Something had happened. She was no longer a thirty-year-old woman but a fifteen-year-old girl. Around her as they attempted to save themselves, her siblings had appeared de-aged as well but something told her they hadn't stayed young. Looking back up to the sky, she tried in a futile effort to get a response. "Five! Diego! Klaus! Anyone!"

There was no answer, of course. The blonde-haired girl squeezed her eyes shut again, this time feeling dizziness wash through her. She collapsed against the dumpster behind her and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was alone. Never in all of her life had she been alone— even after leaving the Academy, she'd at least known where her siblings had been. Now, a horrible thought crossed her mind: what if I'm the only one left?

At this, she buried her fingers in her now-long hair to clutch the sides of her head as her breaths came in shortened gasps. They couldn't be dead, right? They were all too stubborn and hard-headed to die. Even as her mind swirled with the onslaught of possible grief, a smug little voice whispered in her ear: you are the only invincible one. Maybe that's why you, alone, survived.

Alexa squeezed her eyes even more tightly shut and forced her fingertips painfully against her head. No, she thought sternly. I protected them.

As her whirling thoughts calmed, she forced herself to push aside the storm of emotions. Now was not the time to unpack them. First, she had to figure out where— and when— the hell she was. She had a strong suspicion that she wasn't in 2019 anymore.

Then, she had to start searching for her siblings. They were alive, she had to keep believing that. She'd never give up on them no matter how frustrated or angry she got. She hoped they would do the same for her.

She also needed to establish herself in this new timeline. She'd done it before after leaving the Academy so it shouldn't be too hard— but it would be challenging as a fifteen-year-old girl. How the hell that had happened, she couldn't even begin to fathom an answer. Five would probably know.

Finally, her breathing was easing back to normal and Alexa released her head from her hands to lean it against the dumpster. It wasn't the best resting spot but she didn't have anywhere else for now. Her hands lowered to the ground, about to press down on the concrete, but she hesitated. It would be way too dirty. Instead, she stuffed them in her pockets.

The crinkle of paper startled her.

As she withdrew her hand, a green piece of paper and a white one was revealed, both crumpled. Straightening out the first one, she felt a spark of hope. A twenty-dollar bill. She had no idea when she was, of course, so maybe it wasn't valid currency but it was a starting point. She turned to the other piece of paper. Uncurling it, her heart leapt at the sight of the scratchy handwriting of a note that seemed to be from another lifetime: I'll be back.

It was from when Five had disappeared on them. It had to be a sign, right?

A renewed sense of determination washed over her. Yes, she was alone, but that was hardly different than the nearly fifteen years she'd lived away from the Academy. She could just pretend her siblings were at all of their old haunts even as she searched for them.

The blonde-haired girl rose to her feet and brushed at the now-baggy jeans she wore. She'd have to get some new clothes, too.

Then, she remembered the bright-white camera flash that had gone off right before she'd freaked out.

It was time to investigate.

1961

In the dark of night, the blue portal lit up the same alleyway. This time it dropped a dark-skinned woman in an all-black outfit from the sky where she landed harshly on the same concrete her siblings had months earlier.

A camera flash in a second-story window was the only witness.

1962

Nearly a year later, a large, gorilla-like man landed heavily on a dumpster as an exclamation of shock escaped from his mouth. Scrambling to his feet, he stared desperately into the glowing blue light as he called a single name over and over even after the dark sky returned: "Allison! Allison! ALLISON!"

While audio recording wasn't a common household item, the camera from the second-story window caught a blurry rendition of the emotion on the man's face.

September 1, 1963

Admittedly with the neatest landing of them all, a man clad in all black dropped from the portal as his eyes scanned the alley with suspicion.

A flash from the roof caught his arrival and his gaze trained on the unseen object until a woman's cries for help called his attention away.

October 12, 1963

Now in daylight, a woman dressed in all white fell face-first onto the ground. Scrambling away from the noise of the portal in distress, she appeared to be not completely together as she stumbled right into traffic. Luckily, the car wasn't going fast enough to leave serious damage.

The only thing the camera caught, though, was her graceless arrival.

November 22, 1963

The rain puddle did little to soften Five's fall as he landed from his journey in his own portal. He stood quickly and squinted into the blue light. Raising his voice above the whipping wind, he cried out his sibling's names: "Luther! Diego!" And then, barely allowing himself to hope: "Lexa! Alexandra!"

The silence that followed was answer enough: he was completely, utterly alone.

Again.

Then, he realized that wasn't strictly true. Gunshots in the distance caught his attention, causing him to turn towards the sound. As he stumbled out of the alleyway, he appeared on the scene of a battlefield where tanks, soldiers and bullets were everywhere he looked. Racing towards the only clue he could see, the boy crouched to read the words on the paper and murmured, "'Soviets Attack U.S.?'" He stood and moved into the middle of the street. "No, this can't be right."

Cries of "medic! Medic!" rang throughout the streets as men were wounded. One soldier noticed his presence and issued a warning: "hey, kid, get down!"

Normally, he'd be up in arms about being called a 'kid' but he was too taken by the scene in front of him to care. The boy looked around in dismay. "What the hell did we do now?"

Then, almost as if his thoughts had drawn her to him, a familiar wall of blue appeared out of thin air to create a barrier between him and the tank as a blast of heat exploded from the barrel as the missile was launched, aimed straight towards a floating, ivory-skinned woman. As if anticipating the blast, she held out her hands and invisible waves rippled through the air which dismantled the missile before it could harm her.

As the threat disappeared, so did the projected shield and Five's gaze was caught on the woman— no, the girl— who'd created it. Alexandra Hargreeves' eyes burned a brilliant, solid blue as her now-long hair blew backward from her face in the aftereffects of the missile launch.

In the moments after her use of power dissipated, her eyes returned to normal and widened as they fell on him for the first time. Even as their siblings fought around them, they stared at each other across the battlefield and for a horrible moment, Five thought she would turn away, as if she couldn't accept his very existence. But, she didn't.

Instead, the blonde-haired fifteen-year-old raced towards him as she cried out his name over the sounds of fighting: "Five!" Then, she was there, in front of him, real and breathing and very much alive.

Before he could react, she'd thrown her arms around him and clung to him desperately. "I thought you were— you were—" she started, then: "I'm sorry."

It was a moment before he could properly return the hug, a feeling so foreign now it was almost surreal to have her in his arms again, as if they were back in that safe, dark space between the bookshelf and back wall of the library. 

All too soon, the moment was over and Alexa pulled away with suspiciously bright eyes. Five wrote that off as the dust from their surroundings. He wasn't sure why she'd apologized but there was only one question that was important right now. "What the hell is going on, Lexa?"

She gave a wry smile. "A whole lot of shit, unfortunately. There's no time to explain now." She gave the sky above a nervous glance before she returned her gaze to him. "You have to get out of here. Now."

"W-what?" he'd only just gotten there! He couldn't just leave, not when his family clearly needed him.

The blonde girl shook her head. "You just have to do as I say. I know you hate following directions but please, just this once, listen to me." When he gave a hesitant nod— his mind was reeling too much to let his mouth be of use— she continued: "you need to get out of here." She plunged one of her hands into her pockets and pulled out a folded piece of paper to press it into his palm. "This is how you'll find me in another timeline. You're our only hope to set things right, Five. It turns out I'm a crap leader."

As her hand brushed his to gently fold his fingers into a fist around the paper, he finally got his thoughts together and exclaimed vehemently, "I'm not leaving you to die."

She gave him a small, sad smile. "If you stay here, you're doing just that. That's why you've got to go. We're going to die today and there's nothing you can do to stop that. At least by going into the past you have a chance to fix everything."

Alexandra gave another worried glance upward and then again returned her gaze to him, her blue eyes studying him with some unknown emotion. Then, in a turn of events that he could never have guessed, her hands released his own to grasp the lapels of the jacket he wore and, in a quick jerk, they were pressed against each other. There was no time to be embarrassed, though, as the second they were close enough, she kissed him.

Five felt as though his brain froze in the second their lips met. He'd waited nearly half a century for this and it was as if nothing had changed. For the second time in that short span, he was plunged backward through his life to his earliest childhood memories of quiet, muffled giggles at the excitement of this new game (only now it was much, much more than that), the smell of lavender and coconut permeating the small space instead of the blood and dust of the battlefield and the one thing that time couldn't touch: the age-old, familiar feeling of her lips on his.

All too soon for his liking, she pulled away with her face flushed and eyes glittering. Alexandra opened her mouth to say something— he wasn't sure what— then she closed it and opened it one more time to decide on announcing, "I trust you."

And then she was gone, leaping nimbly over the rubble as if she were born to the death and destruction around them. Even as bullets showered around her, the blonde-haired girl was unaffected. Both of her hands flashed out and a blue light emitted from them in a single wave which disintegrated the bullets as they flew through the air.

Even Diego's angry shout couldn't make him draw his eyes away from the blonde head that steadily bobbed through the street. It was only when Hazel appeared out of nowhere with a briefcase in hand that Five finally turned his eyes on someone else. And, despite the girl's warnings, he was still reluctant to leave his family.

"You can't save 'em if you're dead."

"I trust you."

He took the older man's hand and together, they disappeared in a flash of light.

A/n: Here we gooo! Chapter one is super long since I wanted to get all of their entrances in. I've only watched through episode 6 so far since my parents are making me wait for them, but season two is so, so good. I'm not sure about my update schedule yet, but I want to at least get two chapters out ASAP and then we'll see.

I hope you'll stick with me throughout book 2! Thanks for reading!