tacenda || f.hargreeves (0): A PREQUEL (COMPLETE)

Part 15: Ardor (END)

Five and Nine threw glances at each other. "Your survival skills have made you both celebrities back at the headquarters. That and your ability to time travel," The woman then turns to Nine, "and your strong manipulation of electricity and magnokinesis."

Five steps forward, "You're saying that we... could actually leave here? Go back?"

"In return for five years of service. Once your contract is done, you can retire to the time and place of your choosing with a pension plan to boot."

"If you can alter time, why not stop all of this from ever happening?" Nine asks. "That's quite impossible, I'm afraid." The woman tells her, "You see, all of this... It was supposed to happen."

"That's insane! The end of everything?" Five spoke up. The woman chuckles, "Not everything, just the end of... something."

"So, do we have an agreement?" The woman stretches her hand out to them. Five and Nine could only look at each other in pure hesitation. 

Should they accept her invitation?

(cont.)

"Nine?" Five calls out, stopping in his tracks as he sees her by two graves.

Five slowly walks up to her, trying not to startle her in any way. Nine could feel his presence but kept quiet as she stared down at the graves. Five wrapped his arms around her waist and placed his chin on her shoulder. 

They both stay still, looking down at the graves with the initials;

N.H & L.H

"You doing alright, sweetheart?" Five whispers, "The Handler's waiting for us."

Nine inhales deeply and slowly exhales. She nods her head, trying not to cry on the spot. "Yes. I'm just saying one last goodbye before we leave this place." She tells him, smiling sadly. 

They've agreed to join The Handler, in hopes of thinking of an escape while doing business with them. The Commission. Five years of service, and after that, maybe they can go back time to where their siblings are. Maybe they can make things right again and stop whatever causes the world to end.

Five nods, kissing her shoulder. "They'll always be with us," he reassures her.

"I know." Nine whispers back, "I just wished we had the opportunity to meet them."

Five turns her around so she can be facing him. He placed a kiss on her forehead, grazing his thumb across her cheek. "We can try again, Nine. Maybe this time, everything will be alright. We can live normally after we serve them. We can save our siblings." He pulls her head to his chest, "We're gonna make things right."

Nine didn't say anything, but she believed him. She trusts him too much to even question him. She just hopes that serving the Commission will make everything go back to normal. They could save their siblings, the world, their children. They can try again, make everything alright. 

What could possibly go wrong?

~

(YEARS LATER) 

Nine cautiously looks back, trying to catch anyone who could be following them. When Five finally opened the door, he quickly pulled her in with him. 

"We're just going to leave Sam's body here?" Nine asked him, looking down at the unconscious guard on the ground. Five grunts in response, taking a briefcase from the racks in front of him. 

"Leave him. I'm sure they'll take care of him when they found him later." Five tells her while placing the briefcase on a table. Nine grimaced as she carefully went over the body, trying her best not to trip in the process. 

Five then turns around to face her, causing her to stare back at him with loving eyes. Five leans in to give her a kiss, his mustache tickling her nose. "Are you ready?" He asks her as soon as he pulls away from the kiss. Nine nods, "Of course."

Five smiles at her, pulling her left hand with a visible ring identical to his closer to his mouth, giving it a kiss. 

"Hey! There they are!" Someone shouts from outside, causing Five and Nine to share a knowing look. They both nod before Five finally opens the briefcase, and in the blink of an eye--they teleported away.

(time skip to where they finally traveled back to the Academy)

A/N: This part is also stated in Book 1, umbra. 

"What's with all the commotion?!" Diego yells, hearing a loud sound coming from the courtyard. No one answered him from inside the house and he decided to come to look for it himself.

His eyes went wide as a vortex had appeared before him. "What the hell is that?!" He hears footsteps and turns to see Vanya. "What is going on?!"

Luther and Allison had also come out to see the ruckus outside. "Don't get too close!"

"Yeah, no shit! Looks like some temporal anomaly."

"Either that or it's a miniature black hole. One of the two."

"Get out of my way!" The four siblings turn to see Klaus holding a fire extinguisher, and making his way to the vortex. He threw the fire extinguisher into the vortex, which did nothing.

"What is that going to do?!" Allison shouts.

"I don't know! Do you have a better idea?" Klaus said, giving up. The vortex suddenly went bigger and louder, which made Luther pull Klaus behind his back.

"Everyone get behind me!"

Diego pushed Luther, "Yeah! Everyone get behind us!"

"I vote for running, come on!"

They watched as the vortex revealed two old couples, but they couldn't say what exactly they were. Suddenly, the two old couple changed their features and fell to the ground. The five siblings analyzed them, and slowly moved up to them.

The two unknown people groan and slowly stood up. One of them immediately look at his partner and wrapped his arms around her. "Are you okay?"

"Does anyone else see little Number Five and Nine, or is it just me?" Klaus asked the rest, still shocked.

"Shit." With wide eyes, Five and Nine shared a knowing look. 

They finally did it. They were finally back. But... 

Why in the hell do they look like 13 again?

~

A/N: Book 0: tacenda, has ended. Proceed to Book 1: umbra, or Book 2: saudade to read more about what happens next after all of these events in TUA. 

Thank you for supporting this book and waiting so long to see it end. I'm sorry if I have to end it this way. But I hope you all stay tuned to Book 2, and an upcoming book about Number 8's origin. 

END.