Right Back Where We Started [Five]

Eight

"Aha maintenance." Five snapped a finger, pushing open a door and stepping through. "This is where we're going to get something done. Nice jacket." He added on second thought when Emery entered the space.

He paused. "Thank you."

"No problem." Five said.

The two looked at each other for a moment longer before Five eventually got to work.

"Right." He clapped his hands and set to work. Opening a control panel in the wall, he attracted two bolts that sparked as he did so.

"Nice suit." Lila said when Five turned around.

"Thanks. Tailor in the lobby is a master craftsman."

"Still, I will miss those pasty knees." Lila added.

"Yeah, well, we could all stand to be shaking a little less skin these days." Five smiled with his faux grin.

"You know, sometimes I forget your an eighty year old man." Emery muttered.

Lila paused and blinked. "For you." She said, directing the attention back to the issue at hand as she gave Five more wires. "Ready to hot-wire this briefcase?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's do this." Five said, rocking in the balls of his feet as he mentally prepared himself. Emery felt the hair on his arms raise and then he sucked in a breath as electricity spluttered and sent them into blackness. "Ah shit!" Five's shout rang out. "Lila! Shit!" He cursed as the lights came back on and Lila started cackling as Five wrestled with the energy.

A flame started and Emery rushed to put it out as Five doubled over, groaning in pain and cursing to his hearts content.

"Yeah, I was 99% sure that wouldn't work." Lila said, still laughing as she stepped out into the hallway where the air didn't smell like a raccoon had gotten a private bath of electromagnetic radio currents.

"Well, I'm glad my pain amuses you." Five said dryly.

"You have no idea. It's like my therapy."

"Well, no we are down to one half-dead briefcase, and my jumps are only accurate up to a couple minutes." Five said, closing the door to the control room behind him.

"So, essentially, we're screwed." Emery said with a frown.

Five smiled but there was nothing sweet in it. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

"Maybe." Lila said. "Maybe not." She smiled.

"Whats on your mind crazy lady?" Emery asked.

"Oh, I hate that smile." Five said, shoulders dropping as he looked at Lila's own smile that eerily resembled that of the Cheshire cats smile.

"Listen, on your own, your little jumps are rather pathetic." The girl began. "But if we powered up together, you blinking, me mimicking that blink, I think we could create some kind of feedback loop and get enough juice to jump-star the case." Lila said, holding a closed fist up for Emery to fist bump it.

"Both of us together." Five said, trying to wrap his mind around the concept.

"We'd have to trust each other."

Five scoffed. "Lila, you just spent the better part of the last ten days trying to end my life."

"You killed my birth parents." The girl said.

"Fair enough."

"And your entire family stood by while that greasy Swede put a hole in the woman who raised me." Lila said, moving to leave.

"The Handler was going to kill you, Lila. In fact, she did kill you." Five said, effectively stopping the girl and gaining her full attention. Emery's brows raised. "Then I rolled back time and let the meatball do his work. Oh, and by the way, if you're leading Diego on as payback for what happened in Texas, you're pissing up the wrong ladder there 'cause that idiot may actually love you. The Handler never did." Five said, concluding his epic and moving to walk away. Emery wasn't too quick to follow. He knew what Five was playing at and it seemed to be working.

"What do you know?" Lila pressed. "You spent decades shagging a mannequin."

"Do not talk about Dolores like that, Lila." Five said, stomping toward the girl angrily. Emery nearly facepalmed.

"This is insane. There is no way we're gonna get past this to make it to the Commission." Lila gave up on the whole teamwork idea.

"Come on now. What other choices are there?" Emery asked.

"Okay, perhaps we can't get to trust but there is a certain honesty in white-hot hatred." Five insued.

"Then come over here, you god-awful little shit. And hold my hand." Lila said, holding her hand out as she reopened the door to the control room and stepped inside.

Five sighed, doing his best to convey his hatred for the woman in the single effort as he gave Emery a final forlorn look before taking the girl's hand and allowing himself to be pulled inside, the door falling shut behind him.

Emery sighed as he went to lean against the opposing wall. He pursed his lips as he studied the closed door and waited for a flickering of lights or another electrical shortage that would tell him they had done it but all he heard was muffled bickering. They couldn't even last thirty seconds alone in a room together without fighting?

"Don't you dare murder each other. Five. Lila. You two need each other if this is going to work!" He raised his voice and rapped a fist on the door to garner their attention. The bantering continued on though slightly less aggressively and then the door was creaking open and Lila was poking her head out.

"You better come with or I'm going to murder the little turd." She muttered, accent on full display.

"I heard that!" Came Five's distinguished cry from inside.

Emery bit back a laugh. "Couldn't I disrupt the system?" He asked. "If you can't exactly tell, Lila. I don't have the power of time travel or teleportation."

"Oh, but you could." Five said, pulling open the door so Emery could actually see him. He was touching up the ends of his suit's sleeves; polishing away the wrinkles that formed most likely from when he was threatening Lila with all he had. "If this all goes to shit and we end up in the ice age and Lila just happens to end up dead-"

"Or if Five's pasty knees happen to get removed and he can't walk-" Lila added under her breath.

"Exactly. If one of us murders the other because they're simply being stupid then-"

"That goes two ways, pretty boy," Lila warned.

"Whatever, all right? The point I'm trying to make is that we need you as our fallback and our peacekeeper. Now, are you in or out?" Five asked.

Emery looked between the two at Lila's expectant face and Five's set frown and then up to his eyes that told a different story. He wanted Emery there. Emery sighed and pushed himself off the wall with his foot.

"Get out of the way." He said, brushing past a smirking Five and into the room. "And don't fry/maim/kill me or I will be personally haunting your asses for eternity."

"You Americans and your 'asses'." Lila snorted, rounding the perimeter of the room and settling herself down, knees bent and hands ready as she beckoned Five to do the same. "Ready?" She asked.

Five sighed as he copied Lila's actions. "Never. But screw it, let's do it anyway."

Oh, that sounded promising. Emery thought as he reluctantly joined hands and clenched his eyes shut when that familiar sensation washed over him and then his feet were lifted off the ground and they were gone.