To Nightfall

Chapter 8: For Reason Or For Love

Warnings: blood, guns, gunshots, gore, death, mentions of alcohol

Word Count: 4282

"You're serious?"

As Luther asked, the siblings grouped together in the poolroom with him and Sloane, aside from Klaus who was babysitting Stanley, and (Y/N) who had not yet arrived from whatever business she had been taking care of, and Five who was still gone with Lila.

"We use Sloane as an olive branch," Luther explained. "We let her go as a gesture of peace, along with the bodies of Jayme and Alphonso."

"Once I'm back with my family, I can convince them the old guy had nothing to do with you and get them to stand down." Sloane added.

Diego shook his head. "You wanna let her go after attacking us? Uh-uh."

"Me? I lost two of my siblings to you and your murder troll."

"Again," Luther started, trying to ease the tension. "Harlan is not with us."

"Well, he's not not with us." Diego defended.

"He was just trying to protect me." Viktor quietly spoke.

Sloane sighed. "This only works if I can convince my family he isn't a part of your team, so is he with you or not?"

"Harlan saved our asses. He can stay here as long as he wants." Diego leaned away from the table and looked straight at Luther. "You know what, Luther? He can take your bed. Since you're sleeping with the enemy."

"Watch it." Luther warned. Before anything else could go down, Viktor quickly moved to stand between his brothers.

"Guys, come on. Having an ally on the inside could help us right now."

"Right?"

Allison crossed her arms and falsely smiled. "Yeah, but how do we know we can trust Gravity Barbie?"

Luther sighed. "I trust her."

Diego snickered. "Yeah, you trusted emails from a Nigerian prince."

"Tunde was not a prince, he was a king! And he was unjustly deposed!"

"Okay," Sloane moved to stand so she was facing Allison. "So, rumor me again. Go on, not hiding anything. Whatever it takes."

Allison's eyes moved up to her brother. "Do whatever the hell you wanna do, Luther. That's on you. I got bigger shit to deal with." She spat before walking out of the room, Diego following after her.

At the Commission, Five had been talking Lila's ear off about his frustrations with what they needed to do in order to save the universe as they climbed a flight of stairs. "This is just like a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit. There's no clear directives in here about crisis management. You know, Lila, I shouldn't even be here. I was... I was out. I was done, and yet here I am, swept back into the chaos." He scratched the back of his neck. "Why can't I just... escape this hellhole?"

"Because you love it."

They reached the top of the stairs, but their conversation momentarily paused when a squeak of flatulence sounded from him. He slowly turned around with a slight look of embarrassment. "My bad." He muttered before continuing on.

"Face it, Five," Lila continued. "Apocalypse problems are the only things that get your heart pumping."

He scratched his neck as his nerves spiked. "That is entirely untrue. I don't know why people keep saying that. I don't actually like chaos. I don't want disorder. I... I want retirement."