Opposites Attract | five x male!oc

The Day That Wasn't

As they walked together, The Handler couldn't help but notice Rowan's slight limp. "I see you've both been busy in your fight against the apocalypse."
"What are you implying?" Five asked despite knowing the answer, Rowan blushing with an amused smirk, The Handler simply ignoring him and changing the subject.
"I must admit, boys, in all the time that I've been here, I've never met anyone quite like you two," she commented, walking them through the entrance to the Commission. "Hazel and Cha-Cha, for example, are talented, certainly, but they can't see the big picture. Your spunk, your enterprising spirits, well, it reminds me a great deal of myself, if I may be so vainglorious," she continued to lead them up a set of stairs to a large looking mansion where numerous people buzzed in and out with a somewhat organised manner. "If things work out for you here, you could potentially make fine successors," she offered as she led them into the building. She removed her coat, handing it to a man who stood like his only purpose was to serve her - which it technically was.

"I'd like to discuss the logistics of my family's safety at your earliest convenience. As well as our body replacements," Five requested.
"Such chutzpah! It's refreshing, I'll admit. Slow down, Five. All in good time. In fact, now that you've both finally agreed to work with us, we've got all the time in the world," she humoured as she led them down the hall into a larger room. "The Commission works in support of a delicate balance between the timeline of events and mankind's free will," she told the two, noticing as Five read the title of a room they walked past, 'Briefcase Room'. It contained shelves upon shelves of identical briefcases, all holding the same use. "The briefcase is no longer part of your kits. Free your minds. You're management now, one of us," the woman said.

"All the people on this floor are case managers, each one responsible for one major event at a time," she explained, leading them down another hallway before stopping at a room where what seemed like hundreds of people with identical desks were working, rows going on for seemingly miles.
"So many of them," Five stared.
"Must be thousands," Rowan gaped.
"Impressive, isn't it? Being part of something so grand," The Handler said, watching over her subjects proudly. "Come along," she called, walking away from the room and continuing down the hall. "Whenever someone chooses the wrong path and the timeline is changed, the Commission gets a report from field agents on the ground. These field reports are sorted and assigned to a case manager. They determine if anyone needs to be removed from the equation to assure that their events happen as it should," she explained, leading them into a dimly lit room, the walls covered in a series of tubes. A woman with a small cart was in the centre, putting cylinders into the tubes where they were sent away to an unknown location.

"Based on that determination, the case manager sends instructions via pneumatic tube to temporal assassins, like you both formerly were," the woman said, smiling at him. "Any queries so far?"
"Who decided that one specific timeline was the right one?" Rowan asked, inquisitively.
"Well, the Founders of the Commission, of course. They created this organisation for a reason, and why else would they make this place if to not follow their fixed timeline?"
"But if there are alternate versions of ourselves, surely there'd be times we pick a different choice to what we would here, right?"
"You've always been a curious one, Huxley," she spoke, avoiding his statements as she turned to Five, not really wanting to hear anymore of Rowan's antics.
"Who was the case manager handling us?" Five asked.
"Ah. You mean the apocalypse," she smiled, tracing his cheek with her finger. Rowan glared at her, as if she were poisoning him with just the tip of her finger.

"Five, Rowan, meet Dot."
"Oh, hi," she smiled warmly at the two, Five giving her a blank expression while Rowan nodded at her.
"Dot is responsible for all apocalypse matters. In fact, it was Dot here who first flagged your appearance in 2019," she explained, putting a hand on Dot's shoulder.
"No hard feelings," Dot said with a smile while Five stared at her with his usual hard glare.
"Well, you both certainly put us through the ringer. Outsmarting two of our so-called best temporal assassins - if that doesn't spell leadership material-" she yelled, making the room go quiet as they stared at her. "I just don't know!" she smiled, reaching down to put her hand on Five's shoulder. She walked them over to two empty desks in front of Dot's row, "I suspect you both like a challenge. Which is why I've given you particularly complex first cases," she smirked, handing them both red files. "It's too bad Joseph Späh decided against sabotaging the fuel tank. It would've been so much easier," she laughed to herself, referring to Five's case. "Anyhoo, if you have any questions, I'll be right behind you," she reassured them with a smile, before exiting to where they assumed was her office of some sort.