Attacca ─ Five Hargreeves

19. Somebody That I Used To Know

It felt different, it sure did not savour like the time they had tried to jump through the seasons, this felt much more intense and took a lot of effort to break through. Genevieve nearly thought they were running out of time but as the compact ground full of leaves collided with her entire body, there was a huge chance it might work. She coughed a few times, still keeping her eyes closed as her head suddenly began to bore a hole agonisingly. She had some ideas as to why, however, perhaps she needed to suggest an input for Five to navigate his spatial jumps so that next time they could have a softer landing.

For a few seconds there, Genevieve had concluded that everything was going well until she heard a male voice questioning the two of them, yet what caused her eyes to snap open and scramble to her feet, was the foremost confusion that glazed the plain inquiry regarding their presence. Genevieve stared at the five individuals who matched her perplexed visage before dropping her gaze to the man—the boy next to her. Surely, this wasn't part of the plan. They only preferred to arrive at the planned timeline, not push time through themselves to acquire their younger bodies back.

How did that happen anyway? What did they miss? Did they go through the wrong portal?

Five looked at the people in front of them before he glanced at her, his eyes widened in surprise. "Shit."

As Genevieve took in the whole scene, she briefly recalled how Five had been worried about an error in his equations, probably this was what he meant. But she never thought it would make them revert to being teens again, clearly, this would be somewhat of a disadvantage on their part. She checked down her own figure, noting that the clothes and the heels she was wearing now seemed too big.

Genevieve was lost in thought until Five's feet stopped an inch away from her, she immediately looked up and saw his eyes lit up with concern. "Your head—"

"Oh," she flinched a bit when his fingers made contact with probably a scratch on her temple, confirming how hard they fell earlier. "Don't worry, it'll heal."

Five then grabbed her hand gently and walked inside the house, passing by the people she now recognised were his siblings. Genevieve had asked Micaiah about the siblings before she left, so she had a vague recollection of their appearances. It wasn't hard to tell who was who, they all had their own distinct features. The siblings were, of course, still peering with baffled and questioning eyes, nonetheless, they followed the two as they strolled down the rather dimly lit hallway.

Genevieve used the moment to observe the entire building where Five had grown up. To say it was quite grand was understandable, yet it barely disguised how hollow and cold it was. If it weren't for the way everything was still neatly arranged and the lights still on, she might have thought this was an abandoned building. Five ended up taking her to the kitchen, perhaps after using all his energy to travel through time, he had gotten hungry. His siblings sat down at the dining table, still watching him with curious gazes as he prepped the ingredients.

"What's the date?" asked Five. "The exact date."

"The twenty-fourth," replied Vanya.

Five looked up, frowning at the lack of details. "Of what?"

"March."

It silenced him for a split second before he nodded. "Good."

While the Hargreeves siblings were immersed in raillery, Genevieve depleted the moment to reflect on what had just occurred. Minutes ago, they were in Dallas, expecting everything to come along according to the plans. Well, it did, but not with their drastically changed miens. And now, they were in the Academy, eight days before the apocalypse with a new task to find out what caused it. She realised that even though they had made it back here, the pitched battle was not over yet. It certainly wouldn't take the Commission long to catch up with the two of them, not to mention Micaiah's admonition about her brother.