Attacca ─ Five Hargreeves

06. Fault Line

For the next few days, Five knew their dynamic required an alteration to fix what was broken between them. That was good, Genevieve needed time to understand everything, to determine whether he deserved a second chance or not. It was what he wanted, wasn't it? For her to do something about her emotions instead of bottling them up and letting them recede on their own. Even though the silence this time was quite unsettling, at least she was still here, she did not directly call shots to leave.

Words were switched only when necessary, the rest of the time they would just look for other things to occupy themselves and avoid each other. He still made sure she didn't do anything rash by glancing at her in between his work in finding the right equations, she still regularly checked their meal rations in equal quantities, no more, no less. The two juveniles still looked after each other in their own way.

And now that Genevieve was aware of his abilities, he could freely try to use them again. It had been a while, but perhaps it was enough for his powers to be a bit more accurate. Surely he wasn't attempting to jump as far as a century later, he was just aiming to get through a season. Seeing it was supposed to be fall by now, he was thinking about getting through the winter. It was probably the right decision considering last winter severely rooted out a lot of supplies, they could not afford to lose anything at this point, since they hadn't started searching for the bunkers her mother had prepared yet.

When Five announced he would try to make them jump a little to some time in the future, her gaze was immediately loaded with uncertainty. He didn't blame her, she already knew the last jump led to him being snared in the apocalypse. This was the same as gambling, in his mind he might have plotted the most factual equation possible, but sometimes reality did not always mirror the calculations. It could steer them to a more crucial situation, or worse it could divide them from each other.

And that was probably his biggest fear.

Five couldn't have her banished to a place or timeline he wasn't even sure he could get on to again. So he practically made a mental note, projecting it throughout his entire mind to make sure this jump was successful and hold her hand tightly. Fear still coursing through the nerves, but he had to try, it was the only way to know whether his spatial jump was still working or not. It was this skill itself that had thrown him this far, it was also the one that could bring him to safety.

"Close your eyes," he instructed, sensing how strained her grip and how jittery her breathing was, he squeezed her hand for reassurance, and spoke in a low tone, "this might make you a little nauseous."

The faint echo of clashing force bumped her ears, within seconds it felt like a surge of energy pierced Genevieve's whole frame, and the oxygen seemed to be sacked from her lungs as she let out a sharp gasp, automatically tugging her hand out of his grip harshly. She dropped to her knees, a sudden mild headache stinging her head. He was right, she felt badly nauseous, like someone had ripped open her stomach. It officially felt worse than when she woke up the first time. By her side at close range, he patiently waited for her to recover before she realised the changes.

A tingle of warmth jammed the temperature, a slight breeze caressing her cheeks almost immediately. It was still the same scenery, yet it felt disparate. Genevieve turned her head to look at Five—the boy's chartreuse eyes gleamed with glee and solace as he gave her a curt nod, indicating he had succeeded in taking them a step further into the future. Although it didn't get them anywhere else other than skipping a season, it was still a requisite development for his abilities, it might also have rebuilt his lost confidence.

Several weeks passed by in a blur, and they resumed the quest of searching her mother's next vault. It was a good thing they had something to seek, besides him still working out the right theorem to get back home. Five could tell through the map that her mother evidently geared up a lot—some of the circled red dots were the areas they had not yet explored—unlike his father who only arranged for him and his siblings to beat off evil and destruction on a large scale, yet he didn't organise anything in case their missions failed.