EVERLASTING , five hargreeves

VI. | SIX

"How long do we have?" Luther asked honestly.

"At this rate of escalation, if you factor in—"

"How long, Five?"

"... Four, maybe five days before the rest of existence is blitzed."

There was a long pause as you could practically hear the sounds of everyone's hearts dropping. The group shared nervous glances with each other as Allison walked off for a few minutes. She leaned against a pillar where no one would see her with her hand on her chest as she heaved for air.

"We should've given them Harlan." Luther muttered after the group was uncannily silent for far too long, lost in their own thoughts.

"Luther." Viktor sighed, raking a hand through his hair.

"What about Harlan?"

"The Sparrows said if we turned him over, we could end the fighting, and then work together to save the world." Luther shrugged simply, "But if we didn't—"

Viktor cut him off, "We tried to make peace. Okay, and then the step-siblings from hell, attacked, kidnapped you, and they tried to kill us. I mean, come on. We can't trust them. Working together would be like trying to defuse a bomb by pouring gas on it. It's only gonna make things burn down faster."

Klaus's shook his head, waving his hands around as he spoke, "But don't we need the big bad glow-y thing in their basement?"

Everyone paused to stare at him before Five asked, "Klaus, do you know where the Kugelblitz is?"

"Oh, yeah. I saw it." He gasped dramatically with a hand on his chest, "When I went to visit Dad. It's in the old storage room where Mom used to keep all her luggage."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Y/n asked as everyone threw questions his way, taking the bottle of alcohol he had been pouring.

"I did! I told Diego!"

"You say stupid shit all the time!"

"Of course it appeared in the same place we did." Five sighed.

Viktor shook his head and got up to leave as they all started pointlessly arguing, clamoring unproductive lines over each other. Luther was quick to back out from the quarrel and follow after him, and then the rest of the group.

"Covering what?" Five inquired as everyone came up behind Luther. He shoved his hands in his pockets, "What's going on?"

"... He didn't mean to hurt anyone." Is all Viktor responded with, referring to Harlan.

"Really? You mean, when he did this?" Luther nodded to the nasty cut on Viktors cheek.

"Ow!" Stan winced as he hopped up on the reception counter.

"Wait, Harlan did that?" Y/n checked, standing next to Five.

"Look, I know how it looks, but Harlan didn't ask for this." Viktor tried reasoning, "If we hadn't gone back to 1963, if I hadn't have saved him—"

"He killed Jayme and Alphonso," Luther cut in, "Not you. He's the reason we're in this mess, and he's our only way out of it."

"Luther's right." Five chimed in. "If we're gonna have an iota of a chance getting out of this alive, we need access to the Kugelblitz."

"There's only five of them left. We can just over power them." Viktor shrugged.

"What, and risk losing some of us in the process?" Five inquired, "Harlan is insignificant."

"You told me once that no one is insignificant." Viktor sighed, "... They'll kill him."

"Uh, so?" Lila shook her head, "We are talking about one person versus saving billions of lives here. I mean, is this really a debate for you people?"

"Hey, little Britain? You don't get a vote."

"Lila lives in this universe too." Klaus shrugged, "Besides, she's family now. Kinda, sorta."

"I don't give a shit about the Sparrows, but I'm not gonna let scary-ass Grandpa finish you off." Diego spoke up.

"Five days ago, he was just a little kid." He reminded them, "And what? Now I'm supposed to just decide whether he lives or dies?"

"Viktor, we're down to ethical triage here, all right? We can't save everyone. The kindest cut wins." Five sighed, crossing his arms as Luther took a few steps forward.

"You always wanted to be apart of the team. This is what it is. Saving the world means making the hard calls."

"... I hate this."

"Yeah, I know." Luther paused. "I'll go get him."

"Wait, no." Viktor stopped him as he reached the staircase, "Let me do it. He trusts me. I can convince him to come quietly."

He left rushing up the steps as the rest of the group dispersed across the first level of the hotel to wait.

Y/n and Five sat on a secluded loveseat in the lobby, her resting her head on his shoulder as they waited patiently. They didn't speak. They just sat in a mutually comfortable silence, basking in each other's presence for the first time in awhile.

"... The world is ending again." She mumbled, the realization washing over her.

She heard him sigh, "Eh, we've figured it out the last two times."

"Yeah, but if stuff doesn't work out in our favor," She sat up to face him, "I mean... I wanted to make this... you know what I'm trying to say."

He shrugged, "Not really, no."

"Five, don't be an asshat." She sighed, "I'm trying to be sincere."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He bit back a coy smile, "You could just clarify, unless it's not important, of course."

"... I just wanted to tell you that our plan might not work. So if it doesn't, and we only have four or five days left, I wanna spend whatever time I have left with you."

"So... what? You just wanted to make this official?"

"Yeah, so if I piss you off, you can't run back to Delores for comfort."

Five rolled his eyes as he smiled softly at Y/n's joke, throwing an arm around her shoulders. He waited a few beats until the sweet sound of her laughter ringing out ceased. A small smile remained on her face as she sat messing with her ring nervously.

"Okay." Is all he uttered.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay." He settled into the couch a bit more. "We're official. No running off to Delores or anything. I promise, love."