ALWAYS [FIVE: THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY]

0.9 I'M COMING HOME

             "Five?" Hope whispered in awe. She didn't full believe that he was the man in front of her, after thirty-eight years. "How is this possible? How are you here? You work for them? How have I never seen you there? You sent for me?" The questions seemed to spew for Hope's mouth as she quickly advanced toward Five. Five nodded at the woman's last question as he climbed down from the bar stool and watched as Hope weaved her way through tables to get to him. 

           When she finally reached him she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. She finally had a friend again."I'm so confused. I thought you were dead. I'm so sorry." She ranted, her voice muffled in his suit, "and then I got the note and I had to see who would help me escape, I wanted to go get you from the apocalypse but I thought you were dead. A-and I-" 

           "It's okay. Just let me explain. Okay, Whinnie?" Five cut her off, wrapping his arms around her; returning the hug. Hope smiled at the nickname she hadn't heard in so long. In that moment, the name seemed to have a whole new meaning and value to the girl. After a few seconds, Five moved his hands to Hope's shoulders and slightly pushed her a step back, but kept his hands where they were. His eyes explored her face as he looked at how much she grew. "You're still beautiful." He noted, watching as she smiled and looked down.

          "Why don't we sit down." Hope suggested. Five nodded but didn't move, instead he brought his had up to Hope's hair and twisted the one gray stand around his fingers; his expression completely lost in thought. Hope chuckled at the man and lead him back to his seat. Choosing the spot next to him, Hope put her case under her feet; just like how Five's was, and sat down.

          Five copied her action and went to his original seat. "Okay, so I guess I'll explain now," he said as he settled down. "Long story short, I was in the commission for three years and in the apocalypse for a total of 42 years. I signed a contract with the Handler for five but I can't do what they are asking anymore. I need to get home. So when I found out that you were in the commission, I started to form a plan. But I knew that if you didn't show up I'd have to restart completely. But you did and now here we are."

            Hope nodded as she listened to him speak; doing her best to obtain all of the information. "It was smart of you to break the contract and leave early." Hope quietly noted, playing with her fingers in her lap."Once you finish one contract they will pull right back into another."

              "Is that why you stayed? Because of the contracts?" Five asked as he watched Hope, who's eyes were trained to her hands that rested in her lap. The woman nodded then spoke in a soft voice, "and if I did leave, where would I have gone? All those years I wanted to find you but I- I guess... I don't know. I could have escaped. I could have looked for you." Hope tone got slightly aggressive as she thought of more reasons to blame herself. 

          "Well, we're together now. And I think we have a chance at stopping the apocalypse. We can go to 2019 and fix everything." Five explained as he pulled something from the pocket of his suit. It was a pieces of fabric that held Five's biggest clue. The glass eye they found when they first appeared in the apocalypse. Stretching his arm toward Hope to show her the contents of his hand; he spoke in a hushed voice that had a sense of hope woven in it, "Don't you see? We can track the serial number and find the owner. Then we find out what he or she had to do with the end of the world." 

          Hope simply nodded, a new sense of excitement boiling within her. A small smile played on her lips, "okay. Let's do it."

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         It was all almost too good to be true. The woman couldn't quite believe that everything had changed so much. She was having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that it was real. Hope was slightly scared that this was all her imagination playing a cruel trick on her. It wouldn't surprise the woman if it was. Her mind had played game with her before. She could imagine waking up in her stupid white room with a false sense of hope, that maybe the dream had been real, maybe Five had actually helped her escape, and maybe she was free. 

         As she walked alongside Five on a concrete path to a destination unknown to Hope, the woman subtly brought her fight hand to her left arm and gently pinched herself; just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She was about to explain her thoughts to Five when a familiar beeping sound reached her ears. She looked to her left hand, which held her brief case, and recognized the noise. The case was about to self destruct. She looked with panicked eyes to Five and saw that he seemed to know what was going on. Then with a huff, the woman tossed the case and watched it skid on the concrete. Quickly as she could, Hope put a force field around the beeping object and within a few seconds the case had disintegrated in a ball of fire. 

           "So they can't track us?" Hope guessed the reason for the self destruction to the man next to her. "Yeah," he answered, "probably should've given some sort of warning, huh?" 

          "Yeah probably," chuckled Hope with a nod. 

          "You ready?" Five asked as he stopped in a small grassy area behind a white fence. "Always am." Hope responded as she walked to stands beside him by the large fence. The woman put her hand on Five's shoulder as she followed his gaze beyond the fence to the president's parade.

         "You know, I'm here on a mission to make sure Kennedy gets assassinated. But I don't want to be apart of the commission anymore, and I don't ever want to be apart of it again." Five told her as he put his hand over hers. Hope looked at the troubled man and gave him a reassuring smile. "Then let's go." She cooed. Five nodded, let go of her hand and walked back to the open space. The man stretched out his arms and focused his all of his energy into making the portal to the future. A neon blue began to flicker then it started to grow until it was a huge circle. 

           The pair nodded to each other then looked into the portal and took a step forward. Suddenly, a flash of red flew from the blue worm hole. It sprung upward and barely missing hitting Hope in the face. The woman stumbled a few seconds back in surprise and, after regaining her balance, found a fire hydrant laying on the floor a few feet away. After making confused eye contact, the two ignored the strange incident and jumped through the portal.

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