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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀʀᴛʏ ᴍᴄғʟʏ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀ ʙʀɪᴇғ ᴄᴀsᴇ ꒱　


❝ I CAN DO THIS ALL DAY ❞

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As Old Five set up his station, Alexa wasn't quite sure what to do with herself while they waited. Then her mouth opened suddenly as inexplicable prickles raced over her skin— as if her entire body had fallen asleep at once, the pins and needles setting her hairs on end. Her Five turned to her immediately. "Lexa, what's wrong?"

She gave him a wide-eyed look. "I don't know. Someone— our siblings— they're in danger."

"What? Where? How do you know?" Luther demanded as he came to tower over her.

She was distinctly reminded of their number roles from childhood and struggled to give him an answer. "I don't— I don't know," she stammered. "It's— almost everyone, I think. I've never—" She broke off and pulled up the sleeve of her purple shirt to reveal the spiky hairs on her arm.

Luther's eyes widened. "Shit. Did you just start feeling this now?"

"I— um, sort of. It kind of prickled earlier but I've been feeling it more often this week so I wasn't too worried—"

"Why wouldn't you say something?" he snapped.

"Hey!" Five said, getting in between them. He put one hand on Luther's chest and gave him a little push. "That's enough, okay? We've got enough to worry about right now." He almost sounded like himself again.

The boy turned to look at her and his expression softened slightly as he took her arm in his hands. She tried not to shiver as he gave her a worried look. "Do— do they need you?"

"Probably, but I'm useless now. And no, I'm not taking it back," she added firmly. "I'm also not going to go AWOL when you need me the most."

The portable radio crackled to life as the reporter began speaking. Old Five set up the pieces of his gun, completely oblivious to the family crisis that was currently going on. "This is my favorite part, the calm before the storm."

As he spoke, young Five seemed to zero back in on their mission and his eyes snapped to the unattended briefcase by his other self's feet. "Look," he said. "The briefcase." He made a move to start running.

"No, don't!" Luther exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "You'll never get there in time."

Alexa raised her hands to create a shield to stop him only to remember that she'd given all the power she could. Still, she didn't regret it for a second. Her hands lowered.

"Of course I will," Five hissed. "This is our only chance."

"Five—" the blonde started and then stopped. She couldn't believe they'd reached stage seven already— but then again, this was Five they were talking about. How was she supposed to reason with him?

"Yeah, just remind me what the final stage of paradox psychosis was again?" Luther asked.

"Homicidal rage."

Alexa made a grab for his wrist. "Five, listen to me. You're invincible now but you know it's going to wear off—"

"Which is why we have to act now!"

The boy pulled free and crouched along, heading for the briefcase. He vanished but the Older Five did too and they switched places. Five Senior was now pointing the loaded gun straight at his younger self. "Bad idea, shit-heel!"

Luther marched over and yanked the gun out of Old Five's grasp. "Stop it, both of you! Alright? Pull it together."

Young Five paced back and forth, itching his head while Old Five glared at him suspiciously. "Now, Kennedy will be coming around the corner any minute," Luther said. "Okay? So everyone let's stay calm and take a deep breath." The two Fives did a poor imitation of Luther's instructions. "Now, we're all family here, okay? So can we all just try to get along for a few more minutes?"

"You want it?" young Five asked.

"You go."

"Want what—" Luther started only to be interrupted by young Five lashing out and kicking him in the groin, causing him to crumple quickly.

"Luther!" Alexa exclaimed, rushing forward. "Are you okay?"

The two Fives blinked around them as her brother ground out, "just fine."

They both reappeared on either side of them and the blonde saw her chance. "Fives!" she shouted, trying to get their attention. "Cut it out!" Neither paid her any mind, however, as they both kicked Luther in the stomach. 

"I'm getting really sick of this!" he exclaimed.

Alexa's eyes were drawn away from the brilliant blue flashes to the briefcase lying innocently on the ground. Old Five had left his post. Dashing forward, she could hardly believe her luck as her hands grasped the handle of (arguably) one of the most important items in the world.

They reappeared again. "Getting tired yet?" the Older Five asked.

"I can do this all day," Young Five said, readying himself for another jump.

"Guys, this has to stop!" Luther protested.

"Eat shit, ape-man!" the two Fives ran towards each other and their energies caused the blue light to pulse brighter as they crashed against each other.

Luther bent down and picked up the gun. "Hey! Assholes! I'm done listening to you both. I'm in charge now. Alexa's the only one around here with any sense!"

At the direction of Luther's pointing finger, all three of the men turned to the blonde who was holding the briefcase in front of her, both hands grasping the handle.

"Put the briefcase down, Lexa," Old Five warned her.

"I don't have to listen to you, old man," she retorted easily. "But I am very disappointed in both of you. Five Senior, I thought you'd want to help your family. Five— uh, my Five, I expected better composure from you." They both shifted guiltily and glared at each other. "That's enough," she insisted. She took a page out of Five's book and laced sternness in her tone.

To her surprise, they both slumped slightly. "Sorry, Lexa." They sounded reasonably apologetic.

"Good," the blonde approved. Then she shared a glance with Luther, eyed the gun, and jerked her head towards Old Five. "Hit him, Luth."

Her brother knocked Five Senior down with the butt of the gun while he shouted: "now! Open the portal!"

Young Five jolted out his shocked stupor. "Right," he said, and closed his eyes as the blue light began emitting from his fists. Alexa's jaw dropped. In the brilliant glare, she saw the same scene that she had been a part of three and a half years ago. In her memory, she could hear Luther's shout: "it's a black hole! Or a temporal anomaly. One of the two!"

Luther trained the gun on Old Five as he gained consciousness. "Don't even think about it!"

"Into the vortex you go, asshole!" young Five shouted over the wind.

"Fine, but give me the math so I don't end up looking like Tiger Beat over here!"

"You stand next to the vortex and I'll tell ya." Old Five hesitated. "GO! Closer!"

"This is close enough!" Old Five called back. "Now give it to me!"

"It was a typo!" young Five explained. "We put the decimal in the wrong spot in our proof of the existence of a bound number for the limit of cycles of planar polynomial vector fields to a fixed degree."

Even with four years of advanced physics, the information was lost on her. Alexa focused on keeping her grip on the briefcase as the wind tugged at her clothes and blew at her hair.

"Alright," Old Five said. "I guess this is it."

"This is it. Go."

Out of nowhere, a red fire extinguisher sailed through the portal. SHIT. Why hadn't she remembered that? The heavy canister hit Luther square in the head, knocking him down and causing him to drop the gun.

"No!" young Five shouted as the Old Five raced towards Alexa.

The blonde dropped the briefcase and snatched up the gun. She'd never used the weapon before but their father had given them excessive information on the workings of all types of self-defense machinery. Pulling it up to her shoulder, she heard the safety release. "Back to the portal, old man!"

His eyes went wide. "You wouldn't shoot me!" he shouted over the wind.

"Hesitate any longer and try me, asshole!" As much as she loved him, two Fives were one Five too many for her. Besides, she had quite a lot of pent-up anger still lingering over their lost years.

Old Five, who'd snatched up the handle of the briefcase in her quick exchange, held up his hands, time-travelling device included and backed towards the portal. "Drop the bag, you imbecile!" Alexa's finger stayed trained on the trigger, the gun steady despite her frantically beating heart. If she had to shoot him, she'd aim lower (like the legs) but he wouldn't listen if she wasn't aiming somewhere vital. She took a step closer and her eyes widened as she saw the portal closing. "Five, it's shrinking!"

Luther had recovered by then and scrambled to his feet. Together, he and young Five gave Five Senior a giant push, sending him flying through the blue abyss— the problem making itself clear when the portal snapped shut on half the briefcase. 

☂☂☂

The second the portal closed, Five seemed to return to normal. His eyes lost the crazy, wild look that had been present for most of the time Old Five had been in the same space as him. He turned and saw Alexa still holding the gun and his face instantly dropped. "Oh my god, Alexa—" he started and she could sense an apology coming on.

She quickly threw the gun to the side and closed the space between them as her hands grabbed both sides of his arms. "Hey, Five, it's okay," she said quickly, her eyes wide and earnest. "It's okay. I will always be here to help you—"

Almost immediately, he started shaking his head. "This was too much. I-I wasn't in my right mind when I asked. I shouldn't have made you do this—" She'd never seen him look so regretful.

Any chance of reassuring him died as his hands came up to gently cup both sides of her face as they had done so long ago and she jolted when she realized he was looking at her the same way he used to. She'd never been able to exactly describe it but it was a mixture of admiration, respect, longing and something almost like self-doubt with another emotion she could never say.

And suddenly, Alexa knew what was going to happen.

Except, it didn't.

The longing in his eyes made her heart ache and tears prickle behind her own and she wished more than anything in the world that he would just kiss her, even with Luther standing right there. She didn't care anymore; half of their siblings knew anyway.

Her breath stuttered in her throat as the pad of his thumb gently brushed against her lips, causing them to part slightly. She was sure her eyes were pleading for what she wanted. The boy leaned closer, his breath warm on her face. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and she wasn't sure what exactly he was apologizing for.

Don't cry, she told herself sternly and swallowed against the disappointment. The cheers from the crowd as the president pulled around startled them back to reality.

"Guys what the fuck?" They both jumped apart at Luther's exclamation as he looked between them, shocked at the sudden display of affection coming from his arguably least affectionate sibling.

The sound of gunshots brought any explanation to a halt and Five's eyes widened. "Shit, Diego!" He leapt for the remaining briefcase and used it as a stepping stool to peer over the fence while Luther easily towered over it to look.