Sarcasm | Five Hargreeves

Chapter 31

Y/N stumbled over her own feet, the blinding blue light of the spatial jump illuminating her face as she reached for the nearest source of support. Five, who flinched at her sudden grip on his arm, looked down at the girl in slight confusion as her dizziness settled and she regained her own footing.

Of course, she hadn't experienced the discomfort of a spatial jump in two decades. From her rattled expression and greenish complexion, it was obvious Y/N hadn't missed the overwhelming nausea.

Five's face of concern soon settled as she pulled away quickly, almost giving herself another round of whiplash as she tried to mask her embarrassment.

"A little rusty, are we?" Five mocked, nevertheless staying closeby just in case the motion sickness caught up with her.

Y/N would've rolled her eyes if she wasn't on the brink of hurling her guts out. "I'll just need to get used to it. Again."

Five moved up the stairwell with ease, the plastic cassette of the Franklin Footage in hand as he led the way up to Elliot's quarters. "It wasn't this bad in 2019. Maybe your old age is finally catching up with you."

Y/N scoffed but said nothing as Five opened the door to the shop, and she was hit with a sense of familiarity seeing the glass door labeled with Mortimer's name, the natural light seeping through the ceiling, and even the numerous superstitious headlines and conspiracies hung up along the walls. It was like nothing had changed.

Five, who was wandering the halls looking for the owner of the threshold suddenly stopped as a question sprung in his head, something that he oddly hadn't questioned before. Turning to glance at the woman over his shoulder, he absorbed her features one by one. Eyebrows curved into a signature resting frown, smooth skin illuminated by the rays from the skylight above, and flowing hair that seemed to always rest just below her shoulders. Y/N was radiant, untouched, and exactly how he left her. How was that possible?

Y/N noticed the sudden quietness and stopped looking around to see Five staring straight at her, any thoughts of finding Elliot escaping his mind in an instant.

"Y/N...why haven't you aged?" he wondered aloud.

Well, that was a rough subject for the girl, and she was more than willing to elaborate. Being stuck in her young adult body for twenty years was both a curse and a blessing. The curse was bringing too much attention to herself, while those around her (like Elliot) grew and matured, she was stuck in an endless loop. A loop that was forced upon her at the hands of a certain timeline obsessed organisation she 'd once meddled with. The blessing of not aging since her employment was as simple as it sounds, and it means no old knees, no tired backs, no spotty eyesight, and no retirement.

Y/N forced a small smile in his direction before lifting her sleeve, showcasing the jagged scar  from the needle a certain Mitch Rapp had left all those years ago. "The growth hormone," she explained, tracing a finger over the discolored gash. "It was effective for a prototype, almost impossible to replicate in this time period without modern day technology."

Five gaped, the memories of their month at the Commission resurfacing as he glared at the harsh mark. The thought of what they were able to achieve in such a short amount of time rattled him, and now that he knew what they were truly capable of, he wasn't so keen on their next encounter.

"Almost impossible?" he repeated Y/N's words, raising a brow. "You've managed to reverse engineer the hormone?"

Y/N pursed her lips and spared the scar one last glance before hiding it under her sleeves again, crossing her arms tightly. "It's not that simple. I need things that haven't been invented yet. Technology that won't exist until the 21st century."