[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝑂𝐹 𝑀𝐸 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄
"𝑇𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑠. 𝑇𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒."
—𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑊𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑠, 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤'𝑠 𝐸𝑑𝑔𝑒

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 than worried about teen Five as she and he walked up the stairs of a metal bridge, following Luther and adult Five, who were talking just a few feet in front of them.

Adult Five seemed to be perfectly fine, which was great, but teen Five . . . well . . . he wasn't doing so hot at the moment.

"What you lookin' at?" he jeered at someone who had passed by on the ground below them, who had not been looking at Five. "You see something funny?"

"Five," Mara sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder, "no one's looking at you."

He seemed to ignore her as he scratched the back of his neck, his glare still on the person as he shouted, "Asshole!"

"Oh, God," she groaned.

"Mind your business!" teen Five yelled at another man who passed them by, startling him. "Or I'll give you something to stare at."

Mara sent the man an apologetic smile before tightening her grip on teen Five's shoulder, and she sighed as she saw another person walking up.

"You wish you could pull off these shorts!" he shouted to the person as he scratched the side of his legs.

"No one gives a fuck about your shorts, Five," Mara muttered to him. "Let's go."

"Everyone cares," he replied with a scowl. "They're lookin' and judgin'. I see. I see."

"Stage five," Mara pointed out with a small groan. "Acute paranoia."

Five gave her a look of outrage as he exclaimed, "I'm not going through paradox psychosis!"

Luther joined them as they rounded the corner, a big smile on his face as he greeted, "Hey, brother. How you doing?"

Teen Five sighed as they continued to walk, "He's gonna kill me, isn't he?"

"He's gonna what?!" Mara questioned incredulously, her eyes widening as she turned to Luther, who then gave a scoffing laugh while they began to head down the stairs.

"What? What, him?" Luther chuckled nervously as he gestured towards adult Five. "He's gonna kill you. Yeah, right. That's ridiculous."

"You know, you're a terrible liar, Luther," teen Five said with a slight scoff as he put his hands in his pockets. "You're a worse liar than you are a spotter."

Luther's big grin faded as he conceded, "Okay, whose fault is that? What good is having a spotter if you won't even listen to him?"

Teen Five's expression became one of disbelief as he breathed out, "So you admit you're conspiring against me?"

"Do you admit that you're suffering from paradox psychosis?" Luther questioned with raised eyebrows.

"All I'm suffering from is bracing clarity about you and your murderous intentions," teen Five answered as he scratched his chest.

"No . . ." Mara squinted her eyes as she shook her head. "I think you're suffering from paradox psychosis."

"Look, it's not like he's gonna 'kill you,' kill you," Luther defended as they reached the ground and began to head down a parking lot. "He just wants to kill a, um . . . version of you."