End of the Beginning [Five]

Fifteen

What would the title of your autobiography be?

The station's platform didn't automatically lead to Five. Of course not. It would never be that simple.

Emery realized this as he all but glared at the expansive map that wound around a wide-set pillar, routes, and destinations creating a complex maze that he traced helplessly with his eyes.

Five would have only needed to go one station over, back to his apocalypse. He would have then traveled through time, back before the Jennifer incident ever occurred, and stopped Ben from going on that mission in the first place.

The only problem was that Five wasn't there and Emery had nearly gotten his head blown off by apocalypse Five when he tried calling out to the boy.

He wrung his hands together now as he continued to stare at the map, making no further progress. Perhaps Five had gotten lost; taken the eastbound train instead of west. Maybe he was enjoying a cocktail with his alternate self or maybe he had wound up in a dangerous apocalypse and had died.

Emery shook his head to rid his mind of such a thought as he pulled out his journal, leafing through the pages until stilling, eyes catching on a rough diagram of lines going every which direction, circles, and symbols intercepting their routes. It was the same page that had Sloane's name hastily scrawled at the top, an arrow attaching her name to something off the page as if room had run out.

Ripping it out, Emery held it up against the master map before him, biting his inner cheek as he tried to find a match.

He felt like an amateur detective, looking for clues where there weren't any to begin with, putting all of his faith and trust into some pocket notebook written supposedly by another version of himself.

He bit back a smile as he realized the absurdness of it all. Seven years ago now, he would have laughed at the prospect of other timelines existing, of time travel and multiple apocalypses. Finding out he had powers should have been his first clue that nothing would ever be normal for him.

"You look like a vacuous ignoramus." A voice said, startling Emery's attention. His head snapped back, eyes landing on Lila Hargreeves standing there in the mouth of the station, hands on her hips.

"How long have you been saving that insult?" Emery found the air to say. "What does that even mean?" He was surprised at the woman's presence but couldn't bring himself to be astounded. Last time he checked, Lila could shoot laser beams out of her eyeballs. Finding him suddenly seemed like a lesser feat in comparison.

"A complete nincompoop. A blundering moron, a dim-witted dolt. Shall I go on?" Lila said.

Emery just shook his head, going back to trying to find a match in the master map as Lila went on, clearly enjoying this.

"A bafoon? A doltsih nitwit?"

"I get it." Emery deadpanned.

"A daft lummox?"

Emery glanced at the girl, head tilted. "What?"

"A klutz." She supplied, "I mean for what it's worth you look fine all things considered." She said, approaching him and flicking the dirt from his hair. Emery rolled his eyes as the woman fussed over the state of him, saying something like how he was no better than her own kids.

She held up a glass shard a moment later. Emery must have shattered them on his way in without realizing it. "It's like following a dog's trail with you." Lila went on. "Are you okay? I know your powers are out of whack but I thought you had more control."

Emery cursed, rubbing at his temples, the strain from using his powers setting in on his muscles and joints like a goddamned freight train. "I'm fine." He said. "How did you find me?"