|Doppelgänger| Five Hargreeves

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖𝟑

 I stood by Five's side as he used the payphone. We managed to find an auto shop to fix Diego's van, luckily, so we just sat and waited for the vehicle to be ready. The boy was contacting his coworkers from the CIA, trying to get some help with finding the couple that took Jennifer.

_"I need a run on a Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country, '80, '91. Brown, simulated woodgrain sides, New Mexico plates. Look for matches with an owner first name Gene. That is Golf-Echo-November-Echo. Or Jean. That's Juliet-Echo-Alpha-November."-I heard Five speaking, giving very specific details of every information we had about them. My attention got caught by the others when they started talking with each other.

_"Hey, you know what's strange? All those people back in New Grumpson. They were wearing Hargreeves-branded military gear."-Luther brought that up again. I thought we had already silently agreed that that was Reginald's doing at the end.

_"Luther, the entire goddamn place was a Hargreeves town."-Allison told the man.

_"Yeah. It's like it was designed to keep Jennifer hostage."-Ben made sense. She seemed to be the only one not trying to kill us and not knowing what was happening just like us.

_"What's so important about her anyway?"-Lila asked. I had my theories.

_"Maybe she's one of us."-I said. Five hung up the phone, and walked with me to approach the others.

_"No. No way."-Ben didn't agree with me, but it seemed like the most reasonable answer.

_"I mean, that would make sense. Why else would dad build a Truman Show around her?"-Five seemed to have the same theory.

_"The guy played us, all right? Nothing Jennifer said jibed with Sy's story."-Ben told us. Apparently, he had spent some time talking with Jennifer before all that shit happened.

_"Well, they're both gone now, so that leaves us with two shitty options. We either go after the Keepers, or, worse, talk to dad."-Viktor suggested, and I grunted. Shitty options indeed.

_"Come on, man."-Diego muttered. He wasn't happy with that idea either.

_"Think we need to split up. Me, Y/n and Lila will follow up with the Keepers. The rest of you go talk to dad."-If I had to choose, I would like to avoid Reginald, so I mentally thanked Five for including me there.

_"Nuh-uh. I'm going with you guys."-Diego got up from his seat. I glanced at Five, he glanced back.

_"And I'm going after Jennifer."-Ben had his own plans in mind.

_"It's better if we stick together."-Viktor said, and I'm not sure if I completely agreed with him given the recent events. Ben thought the same I did.

_"No, it's not. And this little field trip proved it."

_"You're awfully gung ho for a person that didn't wanna go in the first place."-Diego found the man's behavior strange. I also thought it was a bit weird that he changed his opinion about this mission so quickly.

_"You're all a bunch of clowns. I'm going on my own."-Ben said at last, before walking away from us. Luther, as always, tried to stop him.

_"Ben. Don't you walk away from me."-...He walked away from him.

_"And then there were seven."-Lila said. I'm not sure if that quote was right.

We had to wait some time in awkward silence and small talk, until the van was finally working again. Me and the others got in, and started to drive back to the city, somehow more exhausted than when we left.

-☂-

The van stopped in front of a building that I did not recognize. According to Five, that was the Keepers HQ, where Gene and Jean would usually be found. They probably had ran away already, but it was worth a shot. Maybe we could find useful information.