CLOUD TO GROUND ☂︎ FIVE HARGREEVES

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ANAGNORISIS
logic

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

After escaping the clutches of the corn fields, the three made their way to a diner on Five's insistence. Three freshly filled cups of coffee sat in front of them, the rest of the pot in front of the time traveler.

"You gonna tell me what the hell's going on?" Vanya sat between the two 'teens' just as confused as she had been earlier that morning.

"When you were a baby," Five began, "you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with six other siblings with extraordinary powers, but in the year 2019, in order to avoid the apocalypse, we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas."

Vanya stared at him blankly, understandably overwhelmed by the situation.

"Oh, by all means, break the news gently." Hypatia said sarcastically before turning to the woman beside her. "Vanya, I know it's probably a lot to take in, but do you have any questions?"

"What do you mean the apocalypse?" Her eyes were wide as she awaited an answer.

"I mean the end of the world as we know it."

"Yeah, but how?"

Five searched for something in his sister's eyes before asking, "You really don't remember anything?"

"No, nothing before a month ago."

"Then what do you remember?"

Vanya paused, slowly recalling the similar event they'd each experienced, though at different points in time. "I landed in, like a...back alley. Got hit by a car. My head was ringing like crazy. I had no idea how I got there, where I came from." She faced her brother. "What causes the apocalypse?"

Five had a clear choice to make in the moment, Hypatia saw his options running through his head before he finally spoke. "Asteroid impact. The big kaboom ends everything. Just like the one that got the dinosaurs, except way worse. Bad new is it followed us here."

"What do you mean 'followed us'?"

"Eight days from now, the world ends in a nuclear doomsday." His tone was far gentler when revealing this price of information that the former. "It's a different disease, but...same result."

Vanya looked desperately between the two. "That can't be right."

"I saw it. With my own eyes. You were there." He revealed. "We all were."

Hypatia was starting to get deja vu to the first night she'd met the two of them, how Five had explained the apocalypse and time travel the first time. And just like before, Vanya seemed to be handling the information less than ideally.

"Shit. I need to make a phone call." Getting up from the diner counter to use the phone on the diner's wall.

As Five got up to go after her Hypatia caught his arm, forcing him back to his seat. "Why didn't you tell her the truth?"

"I don't think she would have dealt with the fact that she ends the world very well Hypatia."

"She has a right to know." She insisted. "If it was me I'd want to know, not be lied to."