The Burden of Knowledge (An Umbrella Academy/Number Five Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Four: Always

I left my car at Gimbles Brothers, seeing as it was surrounded by squad cars by the time we got outside, and instead got into the vehicle that Five had driven there.

"Are you ok?" He asked, as we drove down the road. "I get that this is a lot to take in."

"I think so," I said quietly, "I had another vision in the middle of the shootout."

"Of what?"

"It was us, only we were older...I think, I can never tell with me, but we were in some gun fight with these guys in red gas masks." He nodded. "In it, we both asked each other if we had their back."

"Always." He responded, without a hitch. I nodded.

"That...doesn't happen a lot, to me. It never has. So, the fact that in the vision, you said that with one hundred percent confidence and I believed you...well...that says something I guess. I'm not the kind of person that trusts people easily. Or ever, so-"

"You needed to hear it from your own mouth." He finished. I nodded again. "There's still so much more I need to fill you in on. Is there any way to trigger some sort of Maximum vision that allows you to see more than just one moment?"

"If there is, I haven't figured it out." I answered. "If I had to guess, I'd say it'd have to be a trigger that effected a lot of sense memory, emotional connection, that kind of thing."

"I've got a few ideas." I narrowed my eyes at him. "That's not what I meant. Get your mind out of the gutter, Mary."

"Well, here's an idea, if you don't want me to make gross assumptions, don't say that in such a creepy way." I shot back. He smiled. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just noticing that you were always like this."

"Like what?"

"Sassy. Sarcastic. Insufferable."

"Hey, you stalked me remember? You literally signed up for this."

"Fair enough." I glanced over at him, seeing a dark stain on the sleeve of his blazer.

"Five, you're bleeding."

"Yeah, I know. Figured you'd take care of it. You were good at that stuff in the future. Your street knowledge saved my life more times than I can count." My eyes widened slightly.

"I...I've never told anyone that." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

"You told me.  We tell each other everything." He pulled the van into an alleyway and parked, getting out. I followed him through a side door of the building on the left to find myself in the foyer of easily the fanciest place I had ever seen.

"Nice place." I said, looking around.

"Not exactly the words I would use. Come on, upstairs." I followed him up the center stairs. When we got to the top, I found a very muscular blonde guy and a black girl standing there.

"Five?" The girl asked. "What the heck happened to you? And who is she?"

"Mary." I said quietly from behind him.

"Are you ok? Can we help?" The guy asekd, lifting a gloved hand to wipe some blood off of Five's lip. Five grabbed his wrist.

"There's nothing you can do. There's nothing any of you can do." I looked at the guy's fist, triggering a vision. It was that same gloved hand, poking out of a pile of rubble. Five made his way over to it, crouching down. There was a blood-drenched eye clutched in the hands fingers. He took it out, rubbing the blood off with hist thumb.