𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐄━━━━Five Hargreeves

8

❝ time travel ❞

Things weren't the same as before, and Alex was afraid they'd never be the same again. Fifteen years he'd spent in blind compliance and he wasn't sure if he could handle that again.

Every case he got, every colleague he saw in the hallway made him shift uncomfortably as if there had been a switch that flipped in his head ever since what he'd started to dub as "the incident".

Every mission he got, he couldn't help but wonder about what the person must have done, why he was sent to kill them. He never had a problem with killing innocents before, and he hoped he never would, that's what made him good at his job.

But now he had started to look at cases a different way. He wondered if the Commission was aiding genocide, helping the wrong side just for the "proper flow of time" as they repeated.

Alex had always seen the proper flow of time as his purpose, to ensure everything went right. It made him feel good about himself. He was getting rid of necessary evils for the greater good.

How was it the greater good if it meant letting a teenage version of himself suffer?

Perhaps it was selfish of him to not care about the people he was murdering, slaughtering, massacring, until it got to his own suffering. But Alex didn't care. All he knew was his world view had shifted and there was only one fucking person to blame.

"What the fuck is this, Herb?" No he didn't blame Herb, but Alex was waving the file he'd just received like a fan, his features livid as he approached the other man's desk. "Is this some sort of joke? Or a test? Or– or is the Handler trying to make me prove my loyalty or some bullshit?"

"No, Mars, I just received the word and I typed up the report, you know how it is." Herb shrugged, "Do you really think I want this?"

"No, I suppose not with your weird crush on him"

"I do not have a crush on him"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Herb" Alex plopped himself down on a chair. The only noise other than his dramatic screams as he entered waving the file, were the typewriters of the many others in the room. They gave him a side eye and rolled their eyes at his antics, but they knew better than to say anything.

Alex wanted to believe that he could trust Herb, he really did. But after "the incident" he wasn't sure he could trust anybody. Except for the person who's name was splayed in bold letters on the file he was holding.

Alex hated to admit it but his mind was divided. On one hand, he wanted to be what he had been for so long— a good little soldier that listened to orders, but nooo, Five Hargreeves had to come in and ruin everything for him. On the other hand, he really did not want to murder Five.

He'd been pretty out of it when he showed up at the other man's door, but he remembered Five's lips on his, and the way the man had leaned in again. Of course, that wasn't the only reason. Alex had killed his lovers or one night stands before, so he wasn't much of a gentleman in that regard. But there was just a nagging feeling at the back of his head which was all Five's fault, by the way.

And something in his gut was telling him not to accept the case, to just run away like Five had suggested. He may be no hero, but he could survive on his own.

"I can tell what you're thinking" Herb shook his head, "Don't make this any worse than it has to be, please"

Alex knew the man cared about him, he was only trying to be helpful. But it came out all wrong. Seven months Five had been working for the commission, seven months that meant nothing. He'd gotten close several times to the employee of the month and even received it twice. Seven months that meant nothing.