𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 → 𝑭. 𝑯

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎: 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕

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

"Maybe actual therapy could help that sadistic mind of yours." Juliette muttered under her breath as she leaned on the wall outside of the room.

"Well, regardless," Five came out of the room, closing the door. "We are down to one half-dead briefcase and my jumps are only accurate up to a couple minutes. So essentially, we're screwed."

"Maybe..." Juliette put a hand to her head and pulled her hair slightly. Five noticed and quickly pulled her hand away from her head, rubbing it softly. They were all stressed, but even then, the sight of Juliette pulling on her hair just made him ache. Juliette leaned her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Maybe not." Lila sent the both of them a teasing yet menacing smile.

"Oh I hate that smile." Five groaned, letting Juliette lean into him.

Lila began to explain, "Listen, on your own, your little jumps are rather pathetic." Five scoffed. "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-start the case."

Juliette lifted her head and turned towards Lila. The woman almost jumped as it was the first true time that the sixty year old woman even looked directly at her on purpose.

"Wait, that could work." She snapped her fingers, standing up from leaning on her husband. "But you would need a barrier. The briefcases work as a barrier between times and if you jump start it with both your powers, it would probably hurt like hell. But if you have a barrier, then you could jump more effectively and without any issues of landing in the correct time. Would still hurt like hell, but it'd be more accurate."

"What kind of barrier would work?" Five thoughts for a moment.

"Maybe someone who has already had issues with the case." Lila nodded to Juliette.

Five shook his head, "No, no. That's not–"

"Think about it. She's right." Juliette said. "I already had two instances with cases that messed me up. It has sent me back in time, changed my physical being and erased my memory. It's possible it could have made me immune or something. Maybe it'll be useful for this."

"Juliet-"

"We have no time. We don't know when this thing is going to take people, so save the protective husband act, which I thank you for, and let's get to it!" She held his shoulders. 

Five finally sighed. He was not getting out of this one and neither was she.

"That means all of us have to work together. The three of us." Five looked to Lila.

Lila hummed, "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 and the last one trying to kill my wife."

"Well you killed my birth parents." She hopped off the desk.

You were the reason why I ended up in '63 and tried to kill me for defending my husband, Juliette said internally, folding her arms.

"Fair enough."

"And even if you had tried to save me, Juliette," Lila turned to Juliette and Five, "your entire family stood by while that greasy Swede put a cap in the woman who raised me."

"That woman," Juliette sneered, "was the reason why I ended up in the 1960s with my memory erased and in a hospital that fried my mind. She was using you and tried to kill me for going after you. Took me away from the only family I had for the last forty years."