His Only Hope

Innocence

"What the hell are you doin' in here?" he asked as she glared at him.

"Shaving my nest, you little perv."

"Don't flatter yourself, Lila," he said with a fake smile, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I like my women a little less likely to kill me in my sleep."

"That doesn't explain your interest in (Y/N)," Lila said, sneakily reaching for a knife in her bag. "She seems to want to kill you often."

"That's what I came here to talk about," Five said just as Lila whipped the knife at him. He spatial jumped to the other side of the room without hesitation, and Lila turned to face him, smiling.

She spatial jumped behind him and smashed his head into a glass picture frame hanging on the wall, shattering it. Five grunted, wrenching himself away and readying himself for a fight. Lila kicked and punched him in the face repeatedly before he fell onto the floor, turning to look at her with loathing reflected in his pale green eyes.

He grabbed a towel from the corner of the bathtub, spinning around and getting punched in the face again. He fought back this time, however, and elbowed her in the nose, knocking her back. He spun around behind her, wrapping the towel around her neck and pressing his knee into her back to force her into it. He tried to avoid looking at anything but the back of her head, suddenly feeling guilty for doing this to (Y/N).

But he needed to make sure she was safe. He couldn't have her near Lila.

Lila began choking, but then spatial jumped away, grabbing the knife from where it was embedded into the wall. Five walked toward her, but she flashed in front of him, attempting to stab him with the knife as he dodged it.

She kicked him in the stomach, nearly causing him to fall, before punching him in the face once again. Five chopped under her chin with his hand, knocking her head back with a snapping noise. He grabbed the tray that held the towels, blocking her advances with the knife until it stabbed through the tray, only inches away from her face. He breathed heavily as he pushed against the tray, the moment seemingly taking hours to pass before he yelled and knocked it to the ground.

They resumed their struggle, punching and kicking each other repeatedly, until Five squirted shampoo in Lila's eyes. She made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat and began rubbing her eyes as Five spun and kicked her in the face. She shouted, leaning down and grabbing a towel as she spoke angrily.

"All right, enough." She wrapped the towel around herself, breathing heavily. "I forgot about how much I hate you, you puny little turd."

Five leaned back against the bath, catching his breath. 

"The feeling's mutual, Lila. And as much as I'd love to stand here shivving each other, I have bigger concerns than you."

"Yeah?" Lila asked, still wiping the shampoo out of her eyes. "Like what?"

"What do you know about the Grandfather Paradox?" he asked, striding closer.

"Well, I read the same training manuals as you did. Why?"

"Because it's happening." Five's tone turned dark as he looked at Lila, her eyebrows raising.

"Are you being stupid?"

"I need to use your briefcase to find Herb and figure out how to fix this."

"It's over there, with my name on it," Lila said, jerking her head in that direction. "It's a useless piece of shit. It doesn't work anymore."

Five walked over to the where she'd motioned, frowning and lifting two briefcases onto the rim of the bath.

"Lila, why is it you have two briefcases?"

"Mm," Lila replied dryly, inspecting her fingernails. "One's yours. Nicked it from the Sparrows. Go on, give it a go." Five opened it. "First we try yours." It flashed a red light before powering down, and Five's brow furrowed before he quickly reached for the next one. "And then we try mine!" The same thing happened, and Five's breathing hitched in his throat.

"This can't be happening. The odds of one of them failing, it's in the millions, but two of them-"

"Astronomical," Lila finished without interest. "Yeah. So, why are you so worked up about this, little man? We still have time to fix this." 

Five was pacing, running his hands through his messy hair in agitation.

"We might have time, but some people don't, all right?!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lila asked, suddenly interested. "Go on."

Five looked at her suspiciously before answering.

"For some reason, Eight is more affected by it than others. This could kill her, and I need to find out how to stop it before it does."

"You can say her name, you know," Lila said, but she frowned. "She's affected by what, exactly?"

"There are paradox waves that are causing animals to disappear," Five said quickly, shaking his head. "She feels them, though. Strongly. So we need to fix this fast."

"Well, shit," Lila said quietly, before clearing her throat and feigning disinterest. "I suppose this means we're going to have to work together."

They looked at each other in disgust.