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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ . . . ᴍᴀᴋᴇs ᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴇᴀᴋ ꒱
❝ WHAT'S THE VEDICT, DOC? ❞
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"You're still alive?" Five's voice cut through the silence, causing the girl to jump up and turn to face him. Great.
"Of course I am. I'm surprised you are," she shot back as her voice became immediately defensive.
He scoffed, "why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe because you suffocated under your enormously large ego. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe because you did something dumb, like trip and fall on your stupid face."
Lola rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you too, you asshole."
"Talking in the third person is a sure sign of insanity. How've you been coping with that, by the way? Crying at night are you? Scared of the dark?" he taunted her.
She glared at him and tried to ignore the prickle of hurt. "Better than when I'm with you anyway. I don't see how your siblings put up with you before you left—"
"—don't bring them into this," he interrupted her as his tone grew darker.
"Whatever. Look, I'm only stopping by, not staying. We clearly don't need each other."
"Then why'd you come this way? You were obviously looking for me."
"You wish. I'm surprised you haven't left yet."
"Believe me, I'm trying to. I was hoping not to see you."
"Well, that makes two of us."
They fell into a tense silence as both of them were in a stalemate for who would leave first. It was almost ironic, really, Lola thought. This is exactly like those boyfriend/girlfriend conversations "no, you hang up first," "no, you!" except it's the opposite.
Five was the first to turn away and he sneered slightly at their ridiculousness. During whatever amount of time they'd been apart— he couldn't keep track of the days like she could— he'd thought more of the girl than he cared to let on and had almost missed her irritating behavior. He'd say that almost anything was better than being alone, but he sucked it up and doubled his efforts to get home. Now, standing in front of her again, he was reminded of exactly how annoying she was. As he moved carefully away from her, he tried not to favor either of his legs too much. Unfortunately, she was far more observant than he gave her credit for.
"Why're you limping?" Lola asked, unwillingly concerned for the boy. Some part of her cursed at the fact that she hadn't kept her mouth shut.
"None of your business," he called back as he slowly made his way down the road. She rolled her eyes and with only a slight jog, she was able to catch up to him.
"Yeah, 'cause you're a big, strong man and who doesn't need any help, right? How're you gonna get back to your family if you die first?"
"It's not going to kill me."
"If it gets infected it might or if there's internal bleeding."
"What's it to you? I'm just going to leave you behind anyway."
"If I help you you could repay me by taking my with you," she bargained.
"No deal. I can handle this on my own."
"Have fun being dead then."
"Thanks, I won't."
Lola sighed, "you're impossible, you know that right? I can't in very good conscience leave you to die."
"No one's asking you to help," Five shot back, "I'm not gonna undo months of work just to add another person to my travel."
"Work? What work? You literally just said nothing's worked."
"Just because it hasn't worked yet doesn't mean it won't. Besides, I can repurpose the equations."
"You need me," she insisted, "even I can admit that this last week was nearly impossible alone. How're you gonna solve your equations if you go insane?"
"I don't need you," the boy scoffed, "and it's not helping your case that you sound like my father. I already hear him— I don't need your nagging as well."
She paused. "What d'you mean you already hear him?" Was he going crazy already?
"It doesn't matter," he tried to brush it off, "clearly our partnership isn't going to work so you don't need to stay."
Lola frowned, not willing to give up on him that easily. Even if he was the most irritating person she'd ever met, he was all she had left of humanity and he was injured. "How'd you hurt your leg?" she decided on asking again.
He huffed, "you don't give up easily, do you? Fine, I was surprised by a piece of metal—"
"Metal?" she asked, and her voice pitched higher, "that means you're probably bleeding—"
"—and there's nothing we can do about it. I don't see a doctor's office anywhere and the rudimentary doctor skills I have aren't going to help, either."
Was there anything he couldn't do? she smirked slightly, oh yeah, time travel back. Lola shook off the thought. "Well, you're in luck 'cause I have a bit more experience than you do."
Five's voice held visible surprise when he said, "you do?"
"Not in practice, but I've read quite a few survival books—"
He rolled his eyes. "I knew it. You can't trust them, you know—"
"Not fictional ones, you idiot. Actual guides, out of interest," she turned and pointed to a relatively large piece of rubble. "Sit."
"You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope. Even if you don't accept my deal I'd rather one of us gets back alive."
With another exaggerated breath, Five made his way to the indicated place. He sat down and crossed his arms while he avoided her gaze. Lola knelt next to his leg and carefully pulled the cloth of the torn sock away to reveal a slightly bloody, not-too-comfortable looking gash. She sucked in a breath.
"What's the verdict, doc? Am I going to live?"
Out of all the times he tries to be funny.
"You'll live, I think. Hold on." Remembering what she'd read, Lola wiped her hands as best she could on her clothes— not that it did much good as they were as filthy as the rest of her— in an effort to clean her hands since she didn't want to waste precious water.
"Have you applied pressure?"
"What do you think, that I'm an idiot?"
"Well, you are the injured one."
"Of course I applied pressure."
The brunette rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the injury, gently poking at it with her fingers. To his credit, the boy didn't so much as wince, although it surely couldn't have been painless.
"You're in luck, it's not too deep and the bleeding's mostly stopped. I think you'll be able to walk normally in a few days."
"What a relief."
Lola ignored him and opened her water canteen to carefully pour it over the wound.
"You are stupid," came the boy's rebuke. "Wasting water like that?"
"I don't need your commentary, thanks," she answered, "and what, d'you want it to get infected? Look, it already looks better."
Once she'd cleaned away the dried blood and grime, he had to admit that the original (hidden) worry he'd had over it eased.
"You got anything to wrap it?"
"Oh yeah, let me head over to the pharmacy down the street."
She sighed, "I'm only trying to help, y'know. Do you really have to be such a prick all the time?"
"I don't want to get attached," the boy said bluntly.
"Yes, because basic decency means we'll be joined at the hip in two seconds."
"Well, that's the next step isn't it? I'm nice to you, you're nice to me, we become friends and then I have to take you with me. It's best if none of that happens. Who knows how we'll mess up the timeline if there's two of you in the past."
He had a point, Lola realized. She hadn't actually thought of that— she'd never admit it to his face, though.
"I don't see what you're worried about. You seem like the type of person who could drop a friend in less time than it takes to make one."
"You don't know anything about me."
"You're an open book, Five. Literally. I've read your entire story in your sister's autobiography. You've always been secretive and held yourself above your siblings." She was blunt, like him. He had to give her credit for that at least.
"That's only from one person's perspective, not from the source itself," he pointed out.
Lola stood since there was really nothing left to do for his leg but keep it clean and hope for the best. She pulled herself up on the boulder beside him. "Alright, then what does the source say?"
"Vanya always did know me best out of all our siblings," he admitted.
The brunette nodded in acceptance. She hesitated for a moment, then asked: "what did you mean by you hear your father's voice?"
Five almost visibly slumped. "Have you ever had an idea that you knew you could achieve but maybe just weren't ready for it yet? And when you talked about it with your parents they said no but you did it anyway?"
Lola frowned in thought as she tried to think of a situation.
"Maybe?" she said doubtfully, "I mean, this one time when I was ten I wanted to try some of my dad's liquor since he and my uncle always drank it. I knew I'd be fine if I tried it but then when I asked, my dad said to wait 'til I was older. Then, when my uncle was home with me and my parents were out, he let me try some and it was actually pretty gross. I think that's the only thing close to what you said."
Behind his mask, Five's lips quirked up in an amused smile at her story. He really hadn't expected anything less from her in the little that he knew about her tendencies. He sobered quickly as he resumed talking, "did he say 'I told you so?'"
The brunette shook her head. "He laughed at my reaction and then made me promise to never tell my parents."
"You got off lucky," he sighed, "well, for me, it was time travel. I knew I could do it and I had all the math, but my father refused to let me try it. He always had these ridiculous excuses for why we couldn't do things so I just assumed this was another. Well, it turns out he was right. I wasn't ready and look where we are now. As for what I hear, it's him saying I told you so."
"He was a pretty terrible father, huh?" Lola asked, then added hurriedly, "I'm not trying to poke fun at your family, it's just what I've read from your sister's book— especially since Vanya was always told she was ordinary."
"He certainly wasn't an A-plus parent," Five admitted, "but I wouldn't say he was a terrible father. I think I gave him such a hard time without ever understanding why. He was always going on about how we'd save the world from an apocalypse someday and I suppose he was right."
"D'you think your siblings tried to save the world?"
"They did," his voice was quiet when he spoke. "They tried to save it together. I— well, their bodies—"
Oh. Her heart suddenly went out to him. He wasn't one to express emotion or to share information, so this was a lot coming from him. To have found his siblings— she was lucky, really, to not have found her family. She couldn't imagine how much more her grief would've hit her had she seen them.
"I'm sorry, for what it's worth," she told him softly, "at least they put in the effort and now you can go back and save them."
Five tried to find a prickle of anger at her pity but there was none. Maybe it was because he knew it wasn't pity, but sympathy. He gave a sort of self-mocking laugh. "I can't even do that right."
"You haven't done it yet but that doesn't matter," Lola said immediately, "you can take as long as you want in the future to go back and fix the past."
"How am I supposed to fix it if I'm an old man?"
"Well, don't take that long."
He almost wasn't surprised at how quickly their conversation had turned back to it's usual banter, although it seemed more— lighthearted now. He wasn't quite sure why he'd told her all of that; it was quite unlike him to overshare but maybe these past seven days (according to the girl, anyway), had made him weaker than he cared to admit.
"I'll be sure to leave tomorrow, then."
"Yeah, yeah."
Lola paused suddenly and remembered the artifact she'd found in the rubble of the old theater. As soon as she'd seen the boy, her meager belongings had been quickly forgotten, now lying at her feet. She was surprised he hadn't noticed the violin. A part of her wondered if she should tell him, but another part that spoke louder reminded her that he'd just shared more than he ever had before. She jumped down and bent to pick up her items.
"What are you doing?" Five asked from above.
Was it just her or was that a slight note of hurt in his voice? Lola shook off the thought. Probably just her.
"I'm showing you something, idiot."
Standing, she lifted the white violin to him and the boy reached for it only to yank his hands back. "What the hell?"
"I found this downtown in the old theater. It's the only intact thing in this entire world so I figured it was important. If you wanna stop the apocalypse then here's a clue."
The boy stared at the instrument, then at his hands. Where had that power come from? It was faint, but definitely not something he imagined. He took the item from her carefully, and he was half surprised it didn't burn him or explode in his hands. The brunette climbed back up onto the boulder.
"This isn't the only intact thing," he said suddenly.
"What?"
Handing the instrument back to her, he pulled out the still slightly-bloody eyeball from his pocket. "I found this in Luther's hand," he explained flatly.
Lola's own eyes widened at the glass eye, slightly creeped out by the dead, brown iris. She placed the violin in her lap and took it from him carefully before she turned the sphere over in her hands. On the back, there was a word: Meritech, along with a series of numbers.
"Are those—"
"Serial numbers? Yeah," Five said, "I'm thinking whoever lost the eye causes the apocalypse since it was in my brother's hand when he died."
"What about the violin, then?" the brunette asked as she held the two items up together.
He frowned, "you said you found that in the theater?"
"Yeah, why?"
"That's nowhere near the Academy. I'm thinking that's the place where the world ends since my siblings were there."
"Well, I've already started a chart— here, hold these," the girl handed the two items to him and pulled out her notebook to flip it open. "Read what I have."
The boy did as instructed and his brow furrowed at the information. "You think it's superpowers?"
"Did you feel the same thing I did with the violin?"
"Well yeah, but amplified sound waves? None of my siblings have that ability."
"What if there's more of you? There can't only be seven."
"I'm sure my father would've gotten them if he could—"
"But what if he couldn't? He's a billionaire with resources, yeah, but not even he has access to the entire world, surely. Your siblings are from all different countries, there's a good bet he missed some."
"But what does the eye have to do with it, then? And my siblings, they weren't at the theater—"
"Maybe the theater is the second location? The threat could've moved origin areas, like a hurricane moving up the coast," Lola pointed out, "the Academy doesn't necessarily have to be the end-all-be-all of the world even if it is for you."
He shook his head. "It was probably a single blast that ended everyone's life, and whoever caused it had one fake eye."
"Well, we'll keep both theories until we know for certain," Lola allowed, knowing they were both too stubborn to let something like this go. "I'll write it down."
Under Clues, she added glass eye along with the location it was made and serial number. Then on the other side of the page, two separate threats?, the next line: one-eyed person? (brown eyes.)
"Well, that narrows it down to about ninety percent of the world," she said with false cheerfulness.
"At least we know it's not us."
"I'm not Helen of Troy, Five. My face could never launch a thousand ships and end the world."
"I don't even remember what you look like."
"Ouch."