Till Time Do Us Part || TUA

2||

FIVE||

Just weeks after Harmony's departure, Five shot out from a blue light in the sky, landing in the same alley. He scrambled to his feet, a mix of confusion and frustration clear on his face as he looked around.

Everything was in shambles—soldiers firing their guns in every direction, chaos erupting all around him. His siblings were fighting alongside them, trying to hold their own. Hazel had handed him a briefcase, the key to teleporting back to the correct timeline, but before he could use it, three platinum-blonde men appeared out of nowhere and destroyed it.

Barely managing to escape them, he blinked and found himself right back in the alley behind Commerce and Knox. Catching his breath, he noticed movement in a nearby window—a man peeking out. But before he could get a good look, the curtains snapped shut. Bent on finding out more, he time-jumped inside the building and knocked on the first door he saw. Instead, the door beside it swung open.

The man who Five assumed had been at the window opened it just a crack, eyeing him warily. Five quickly put on a salesman's smile, pretending he was there to sell something, but the man wasn't buying it. With a suspicious glare, he slammed the door in Five's face.

Frustrated, Five blinked into the room, startling the man, who immediately became paranoid and scared. He scrambled to a nearby drawer, yanking it open and grabbing a knife, which he pointed shakily at Five.

"How'd you do that?" the man demanded, his voice trembling.

"Don't really have time to explain," Five replied, his patience wearing thin.

The man's paranoia only grew, his grip tightening on the knife. "You from the Pentagon? Huh?"

"Definitely not," Five answered, his tone flat and unamused.

"CIA? FBI? KGB?" the man continued, his fear and suspicion boiling over.

Five's eyes landed on a cup of coffee sitting on a table. "Is that fresh?" he asked, blinking towards it. The man's breathing quickened as he watched Five teleport from where he stood to the coffee table. He looked back and forth, trying to comprehend what just happened.

"What..." the man mumbled, bewildered.

Ignoring him, Five poured himself a cup of coffee—plain black, just how he liked it. The man was frozen in disbelief, unable to utter a word as he stared at Five. Calmly, Five walked past him, the man cautiously pointing the knife in his direction while pressing himself against the wall. Taking a sip of the coffee, Five paused and turned to the man, "Hmm. This Colombian?" he asked, clearly enjoying the taste.

The man, still wary, gulped. "It's my own blend," he replied nervously.

Five nodded, his eyes scanning the room. The walls were plastered with papers about aliens and UFOs. Amused, Five decided to mess with him. "You ever heard of, uh, Area 51? Roswell?" he asked casually.

The man's tense demeanor shifted slightly, a small chuckle escaping him as disbelief turned into a mixture of relief. He lowered the knife, clapping his hands together. "Hot damn," he muttered. "Whoo! See, I always knew we weren't the only ones. Eleanor thought my head wasn't screwed on tight, but... but it's all true, yeah? UFOs, crop circles..."

Five stepped closer, still surveying the room, coffee cup in hand. "Well, the truth is out there," he said, feeding into the man's excitement.

The man, immediately stepping closer, began to ramble even more. "No, no, no, no, no... the truth, it's..." His eyes locked onto Five, his mind racing with thoughts of government conspiracies and extraterrestrial life. "Right here in front of us."

Five took a step back, slightly concerned by the man's growing intensity.

"Tell me, wh... why is it always an anal probe?" the man asked, waving his hands wildly in the air.

Five started to take slow, deliberate steps backward as the man continued to advance toward him. "Any closer, and I'll melt your brain," Five warned, his tone calm but firm.

The man's excitement didn't completely overshadow his wariness, and he instantly backed up, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. "He needs a little space. Yes, I'll be over here," he muttered, retreating to a safer distance, still buzzing with a mix of fear and fascination.

After a few moments, the man began to spill what he knew, mentioning how Five's siblings, including Harmony, had all fallen from a flashing blue light, just like he had. He handed Five an old newspaper with Diego's headshot on it, a clear indication that his brother had already made some waves in this timeline.

In hopes of finding his siblings, Five visited Diego at the asylum. As soon as they met, Five asked where the others were. Diego, still recovering from the shock of seeing Five, told him he'd only seen Harmony so far, but even she didn't know where the rest of them had ended up and he hadn't seen her since. Diego then went off on a tangent, sharing his plan to stop Kennedy's assassination—a plan Five found utterly ridiculous.

Without hesitation, Five had the guards sedate Diego, knowing his brother's impulsive nature could cause more harm than good. As Diego was escorted away, Five left the asylum quietly, more resolved than ever to find his siblings—especially Harmony, his partner.