Time's on Fire

Venti

☂︎ THIRD PERSON POV ☂︎

"When's it supposed to happen? This... apocalypse." Luther asks Five.

"I can't give you the exact hour, but... from what I could gather, we have four days left." He explains, his voice deep from sleep.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"It wouldn't have mattered."

"Of course it would. We could've banded together and helped you try to stop this thing." Luther explains, getting more irritated by the minute.

"For the record, you already tried."

"What do you mean?" Serafina asks Five, not having heard this side of the story yet.

Five stares at her, looking for the right words to say. He couldn't blatantly tell her that he held her dead body in his arms, crying for her to wake up. As much as he wanted to rip off the bandaid and do just that. "I found all of you. Your bodies."

"We die?" Luther asks.

Five nods solemnly. "Horribly. You were together, trying to stop whoever it was that ends the world."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you." Five explains, reaching into his blazer pocket and pulling out the prosthetic eye. After giving it a useless once over, he tosses it to Luther who catches it. "Must've ripped it out of their head right before you went down."

"Whose head?" He asks.

"Like I said, I don't know." Five reiterates.

"Well, there's a serial number on the back. Think maybe you could try-"

"No, that's a dead end. It's just another hunk of glass." Five interrupts Luther, chuckling weakly.

He takes the prosthetic back.

At the top of the stairs, Diego slams his door open. "Piece of shit. Do you have any idea what you just did?" He glares at Five, stomping into Luther's arms as he tackles him. "Nope, let me- Get your ape hands off of me!"

"I can do this as long as it takes you to calm down." Luther states calmly, holding Diego off the ground so that his feet struggle to find the floor's surface. "Fine." Diego pants.

"Now, wanna tell us what you're talking about?" Luther asks, having dropped him back on his feet.

"Our brother's been pretty busy since he got back. He was in the middle of that shootout at Griddy's, and then at Gimble Brothers, after the guys in masks attacked the academy, looking for him." Diego points at Five.

"None of which is any of your concern."

"It is now. They just killed my friend."

Luther gives Five a look. "Who are they, Five?"

"They work for my former and her current employer. A woman called The Handler. She sent them... to stop me. Then, soon as Diego's friend got in their way, well, fair game." Five explains.