𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 → 𝑭. 𝑯

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑: 𝒘𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒎𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍

𝙖𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙡 𝟲𝙩𝙝,𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟵

JULIETTE SAT ON THE FLOOR OF HER HOTEL ROOM, HER HUSBAND STANDING NEXT TO HER, AS THE OTHER ONE SAT ACROSS THE ROOM. She felt the need to itch her neck, but ignored it profusely. She noted the sweat beginning to drip down her forehead, but made no effort to move her hand.

All she did was stare.

The other Juliette stared too, but not at her other self. Other Juliette stared at her hands or the rug that she sat on. Other Juliette didn't have the guts to look at the other version of herself.

But Juliette took in all of Other Juliette – or Julie as Oliver called her. She was exactly how Juliette looked at thirty, although her hair was shorter as it fell a little past her shoulders in waves similar to hers. A part of it was pinned back with a clip and the rest of her hair fell down. She was in a t-shirt, XME's first album Losing The Light cover was on it, and jeans that cuffed at the bottom along with sneakers. She looked young, but not as young as Juliette did. Her face was not like Juliette's although she looked like hers – hers was more saddened and tired as the bags under her eyes were heavy. Juliette knew herself – Other Juliette was hiding in some kind of way that she couldn't put her finger on it and it was driving her nuts.

Juliette felt like she could start yelling, screaming, crying, and many more things all at once. She felt it itching in her hands and urging her in her mind, but she kept her composure as much as she could. She'd need it if she was gonna get through this. She needed to stay rational.

But it was hard to stay rational when it was Oliver Hayden who stood next to Other Juliette when the group finally turned around to where Juliette was staring. Betrayal stung her heart, but then again, what did she expect from Oliver?

After Other Juliette arrived, Luther, surprisingly, was quick to suggest the family meeting be pushed until the four of them solved whatever was going on. Luther was quick to remember how bad Five and Older Five were back in '63, so he could only assume how far Juliette would be pushed with her doppel actually being from the time. Five nearly had to toss Juliette over his shoulder in order to get her upstairs as all she did was stare daggers at the two.

She did the same now.

Oliver was the first to break.

The blond coughed to clear his throat, "Look...I–I'm sorry, but I couldn't...I couldn't forget about you even if you told me to. I tried to keep my promise, but..."

Five raised an eyebrow before glancing down at his Juliette.

Juliette responded without even looking in Five's direction, "When we first came, I went over to a club just around the corner. It was the one the band and I were going to play at before I disappeared. Turns out Oliver and the others were there. They spotted me. I ran, but Oliver found me somehow. I told him to forget about me in order to protect...her," Juliette gritted through her teeth, "but it seems like even new timelines don't change things." She sighed, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was...trying to keep these two worlds apart."

Five nodded, "Understandable, but now they're colliding. It was bound to happen."

Oliver was thankful that the boy, who he assumed was her friend, was able to keep the peace and violence to a minimum because "little Juliette", as he put it, looked as if she could have murdered him.

Other Juliette sighed, her hands in her hair, before scratching her throat, "You...you have my face." 

"And you have mine." Juliette said, unamused. 

"How...is this possible?" She looked up to Juliette, "I didn't think Oliver was telling the truth, but there was a magazine cover that...no amount of editing could make me that young."

"He was. He just can't keep secrets for long. Especially not about us." Juliette snickered for a moment before thinking. Five put his hand on her shoulder, signaling his approval, "It's time travel."

"Time travel?" She asked.

"Yeah." Juliette nodded. The itch on her neck grew stronger, "I'm from the original timeline and so are they, but the timeline ended up getting messed up when we stopped an event from happening and that resulted in your existence."

"Time travel is real." Older Juliette looked to Oliver and back to Juliette. "So...you're me? At fifteen?"

Rage built up in her and she spat out her next sentence, "No. I'm not fifteen. I look fifteen, but I'm actually sixty. Thank you very much."

"How?"

"When you time travel enough, this happens." She gestured to her body. "Same thing happened to him." She pointed to Five.

The doppel looked at Five, blinking as if she couldn't believe that he was there, as she asked, "How do you kno–"

"Do you ask so many damn questions?"

Another voice entered the conversation, "Well-"

"Shut up, Five." She snapped at her husband. 

Five almost seemed amused at her, "Just trying to lighten the tension, dear." He kept his hand on her shoulder and Oliver's eyes zeroed in on it.

"Who are you exactly?" Oliver asked, trying to understand why this other dude was touching Juliette. 

Juliette watched as Other Juliette kept looking at Five with widened eyes. She felt very comfortable with the idea of stopping both their suffering at the moment. She's trying to steal Five away from me. How dare she? But inside, her rational part, knew that in any reality she'd stare at him, so she couldn't blame her.

"Five Hargreeves. I'm her husband. Who are you?" Five put his other hand in his pocket, standing firm.

"No, I'm her husband." Juliette froze at Oliver's words. "I married Juliette Valendur. Julie," he gestured to Other Juliette, "is Juliette Luna Valendur. Juliette," gestured to Juliette, "is Juliette Luna Valendur, no? Am I also not married to her considering she's sixty?"

Married?

Five chuckled out of amusement, young men truly knew nothing, "Actually, no. Because she's not from your timeline. You're what? Twenty eight, twenty nine? Thirty, maybe? I'm fifty eight, dimwit. I've been married to Juliette for over thirty years. I think I would know who I married." He nodded his head to Julie, "She is not my wife. She may look like her and be another version of her, but she's not my wife. She," gestured to the woman beside him, "is my wife. Therefore, Juliette is not your wife, "Julie" is."

"But I thoug–"

"You thought wrong." Five smile sarcastically. "She's not your wife in every timeline. My wife is right next to me and yours is next to you. Keep it that way."

See it may have been cold considering how Juliette acted with every version of Five, but this was different. Julie was not supposed to exist and she lived a life out with other people as a different person so while Five may have had a soft spot for any version of her, this was entirely different from their interactions with other Fives. Five was always in love with Juliette and Juliette was always in love with Five – this Julie was just an anomaly.

And just like Juliette chose her Five back in '63, Five chose his Juliette. 

Juliette didn't hold back her smile. The psychosis was working alright as it heightened all of her senses and all she felt was pure pride in her Five. Five smirked back at her before turning back. Oliver clicked his tongue, keeping his anger in check. This "Five" dude was getting on his nerves.

"You're married?" Julie blinked in surprise. "But he's not Oliver."

"Nope." Juliette smirked. "I married Five Hargreeves, so I'm Juliette Hargreeves."

"Five?" Oliver raised his eyebrows. He heard him say it before, but he thought it was a nickname, "His name is a number?"

"Yeah and back off." Juliette felt like attacking Oliver as well. It wasn't truly her, but she felt like it was. "Look, there were some things that didn't go as planned in the timeline. "Julie" is supposed to be in an apocalyptic wasteland with Five right now, but you're clearly not. Things changed."

"Apoc-what now?" Julie scrunched up her face before paling. "Do you mean like a land filled with rubble and broken buildings? The sun etched out and only shone through dust clouds?"

Juliette and Five glanced at each other before nodding. It was an oddly specific description.

"Okay, so things didn't go as planned. What's the issue then? They both exist with each other, although rather...oddly. Don't you guys just have to go back to your time?"

"This is our time." Five explained. "And we could fix it, but our manner to go is well...toast." Literally. "So now we have to deal with the fallout here."

"Wait," Julie swallowed as she began to itch the same spot on her neck that Juliette had scratched, "so this time travel thing...did it have any repercussions? I would assume it is seeing how both of us are..."

"Psychosis. It's called paradox psychosis." Juliette grumbled. "Itching, sweating, paranoia, homicidal rage. The works. And yes, this time travel business did have consequences. Five, if you please." Her throat felt dry and talking became a difficult task.

"Gladly. Our existence here does not fit with the puzzle of the timeline. We're now experiencing the end of the world. Animals disappearing, people disappearing, who knows what's next." Five put it bluntly.

"Shit." Oliver closed his eyes. "Shit, this can't be happening."

"Oh my gosh." Julie began to cry.

Juliette rolled her eyes, completely forgetting that she had been crying about the same matter only an hour before, "What?"

"No, it's..." She took in a deep breath and reached for Oliver's hand, "Oh my gosh. Silas."

Juliette began to twitch, "What about Silas?"

"He...disappeared. Into thin air. In front of all of us." She sniffed, "It's because of you guys?"

Juliette swallowed whatever emotions were coming up her throat. It wasn't her Silas.

Julie continued, "Are they gonna come back?" Never coming back, never coming back, never coming back, never coming back, never coming back, never coming ba–

"We don't know." Five responded and Julie couldn't help but look at him with hope. "Hopefully if we figure this thing out, yes, they will." She looked like Juliette and that was enough for him to take it easy on her.

"How could you do this?" Julie spat out, finally feeling the rage that Juliette had felt, "How could you come here and and and mess up everything? You have no idea how it fee–"

"No idea?" Juliette asked, her tone weary. She slowly stood up, feeling herself become unstable and uncontrollable. "No idea? YOU have no idea what I've been through. Okay, so what? You lost your friend? I lost mine over forty years ago. I had Silas. And Patrick. And Adella and Oliver." She pointed to Oliver Hayden. "I had all of that, but I ended up being taken away from that when I was fifteen. You didn't go through that did you? No, you didn't."

Five grabbed her arm, keeping her from jumping her other self, "Juliette."

"You didn't go through what I had to on July 5th, did you? I had to say goodbye to the life I had and have everyone believe I was gone, dead or who knows what? I didn't even get to say goodbye or I'm sorry to my mom. You?" She scoffed, "You had it easy. Living the life as a super mega popstar? Lead singer of a band? The Papercuts, right? I had that too and I lost it. I never got to play at 15th and Blues, Prudential Center, Los Angeles, on television or wherever the hell you got to play." She laughed out loud, "And you know what? It was the luckiest thing I could ever go through when I think about it. I found my husband and a family who has never let me down when I needed them. Could you say that?"

"You're such a bitch!" Julie stood up, crossing the room, but Oliver was able to grab her before she made it across the room completely.

"Thank you so much. I've always known younger people were disrespectful now-a-days." Juliette struggled against Five's hold on her wrists. "But it seems like I have to teach you h–"

"What's happening to them?" Oliver asked in a panic stance, holding Julie by her waist. "Julie doesn't curse. At all."

"It's the psychosis. They'll literally kill each other if they're in a room together for too long." Five explained. "You stay here and calm down Julie and I'll take care of Juliette."

Five blinked them out of the room, leading to Julie and Oliver jumping back in fright. 

Five and Juliette landed on the roof. Juliette shoved Five away and went over to the ledge, gasping for air. The psychosis had dialed down by what seemed like one hundred, but it didn't go away all in a snap.

"Julie–"

"No!" She shouted. "Stop it! Stop acting like you're okay with this. You don't know, okay?" She buried her head into her hands, "I didn't mean to snap at her. I–I...I didn't mean what I said. I'm not..."

Five stood from afar, watching Juliette completely unravel herself. One thing about Juliette that Five never understood was how she could give pieces of herself over and over until there was nothing left – kindness, love, respect, endurance, strength, generosity, and so much more was run dry because she could not stop herself from giving it away. She gave so much that when something hit her, she fell apart. Usually she did it in private, but she didn't have that.

Five walked slowly to where Juliette had slumped herself over the ledge. He could see her shaking, inhaling and exhaling with all her might. He placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her tense up but didn't shake him off.

"She doesn't understand. She's had so much that I haven't." She choked out. "And she's acting like she's the only one who lost something. She got her life with Oliver and the others and I can't get one damn timeline with you and our family. The world is ending a third time and if we can't stop it...I'm losing you again."

"You're not losing me, Juliette."

"And what if we can't stop this?" She asked, looking out into New York city, the city she once welcomed wholeheartedly. "What if this is curtains closed? You heard what older you said. Is it all futile? Then what?"

Five's response was instant, "Then I will find you. In whatever afterlife there is. Juliette, I searched through timelines for you." He turned her around to face him, "Maybe the world is trying to fuck us over or test us or just plain hated us, but it has never been enough for us to be apart. If this is curtains closed, then I am glad to announce that I had lived the most amazing life out with you. I already had my lifetime and if I don't get another, then I am okay with that as long as you're going out with me."

Juliette teared up, "What if it's too late? What about our future? I wanted that."

"And I did too." He rubbed her shoulders with his thumbs, "And maybe we still can if we fix it. I don't give a flying hang of what that old geezer had to say," She laughed and he smiled, "If there's a chance, we take it."

She smiled, the psychosis wearing off as it turned into a frown, "I was mean to her. She's suffering too." Five tilted his head at her, "I know myself better than I know...well, me. She is younger than me and I don't think I changed a lot in this timeline compared to mine. She's suffering, in pain of some sort. Not friendship, but something else. Not to mention that Silas is now...gone. I didn't even get to see him."

Five nodded, recalling how she used to say that his sass reminded her of Silas back in the apocalypse. She used to tell him all about her friends – Adella, Patrick, Silas and Oliver – whenever she got homesick and just rambled on and on. He liked listening to her because it reminded him of his siblings and their weird adventures, however limited they were.

Five and Juliette were sitting on the ledge for a while when he spoke up again, "You married Oliver in this timeline." Juliette never implied that she and Oliver had a romantic connection when she used to talk about him, but he wasn't so trusting in her candor as a fifteen year old compared to her now.

She lifted her head from his shoulder, "Yeah." She put it back down. "It caught me by surprise."

This made him raise an eyebrow, "Why is that?"

"Oliver...was a dream to me when I was younger. He was a tad older, had kind of a bad boy persona and he always flirted with me, but even then, I never saw myself married to him or anything. Oliver had issues, but he always came back to me and I always opened the door for him. I always thought that he would wake up one day and see that I was the one who was always there for him. I cared for him deeply, but I never saw how much he hurt me until I got older. We never dated, never kissed or anything. I just really liked him and he...I don't know how he is in this timeline." She sighed. "Maybe things changed. I don't even know what happened between Julie and Oliver, but I can see something's wrong in that department. It wasn't healthy for me when I was younger and I don't think it is now."

"Do you think you would have...looked at me in the other timeline?" He asked out loud, staring forward. It wasn't out of doubt, in fact he was rather confident with her answer. He was thinking out loud.

"One hundred percent." She nodded. "The hair, the eyes. You would have been some serious eye candy for me. Your personality would have been the cherry on top as long as you weren't mean sarcastic with me. Even then I was too sensitive for that." She smiled, "I wonder what our life would have been like if we met in the original timeline if you never disappeared."

 Five never said it out loud, but he thought of it. Intensively. 

"Nothing normal, I suppose."

"Good." She nodded. "Normal would have been too bland for either of us."

He smiled with a shake of his head before sighing, "We have to go talk to the others what we figured out. Maybe then we can figure out what to do."

"Okay." She lifted her head up. "Can you go get Oliver and Julie in a different room or something? I have a feeling they're going to be sticking close for a while and I'd rather not have the urge to rip her hair out right now. It's not a pleasant feeling."

Five nodded, "Bar in ten." He blinked and he was gone. 

Juliette ran a hand through her hair before getting off the ledge.

She felt better now – so much more – but she felt bad. Julie was her and she was so hard on herself. It was just when Julie blamed her for everything that she snapped. Julie didn't know Juliette had come back to life two times, had her mind fried, and fought her hardest in order to make it out alive and with her family. At least Julie got something – Juliette didn't. She would have to talk to her civilly eventually. 

She heard the door open, the roof door that she and Five had ignored when they both blinked to the roof, and she turned to see the face of someone she never expected.

Sloane Hargreeves took a step back, unsure if she was welcomed.

Juliette smiled before turning back to the city that was beginning to go up in flame, "I'm not going to hurt you. I could care less what Diego and the others think about you guys. I have my own opinion." She watched as cars went by and people ran, "You're welcome to stay if you'd like."

Sloane rubbed her arm, walking forward, "I don't mean to disturb you."

"It's fine." She smiled again at the young woman. "At least you respect your elders."

Sloane tilted her head to the side.

"I'm over fifty, Sloane." She chuckled. "Time travel really messes with you. Mentally and physically."

"Luther told me about you." Sloane stopped at the ledge that Juliette was still sitting on. "He told all of us about you guys. He was surprised to figure out who you were here."

"I was too." She examined the woman. "Are you well? You seem upset."

Sloane sighed, "I am."

"There's a lot to be upset about today. Care to talk about it?"

So Sloane spoke. Juliette got a first hand account on the kidnapping of Luther, her budding romance with Luther, the Sparrow's attack on the Umbrellas, the death of her two siblings and her current captors.

By the end, Juliette saw red.

"Huh." She poked her cheek with her tongue. "This is what happens when you leave for a day. You leave behind a burning pile of children who are in severe need of therapy for their daddy issues. My husband included." She chuckled before frowning. "I'm sorry. I should have been there to stop them."

"No, no. I told Ben not to, but he's a firecracker. There's no putting him out."

"Sounds like a few people I know." Diego, Allison, Five. And on occasion, Viktor. "Including my dear husband. Five can be very...pressing at times. When his mind is on something, there's hardly any leeway to get him to redirect."

"Husband? I thought..." She tapped her fingers, alike to Juliette, "Right, you're not Juliette Valendur."

"No, I am. The woman who's here is who I probably would have become if I had stayed. Maybe not fully, but an echo of her, yes. I was born Juliette Luna Valendur on December 8th, 1990. I started a band called "The Papercuts" and we had two albums out before I disappeared. So, yes, I am Juliette Valendur, but I am also Juliette Hargreeves because I married Five Hargreeves. I chose his last name because it sounds more normal than Valendur. And Valendur isn't even my real last name – it's a fake to prevent any discrimination when someone looks at our name on a piece of paper"

"Wow." Sloane listened attentively.

Sloane Hargreeves had always been a fan of Juliette Valendur. She remembers quite distinctly the day she discovered an up-and-coming band called "The Papercuts". And while the main singer was younger than her, Sloane couldn't help but admire her growing up. She made it a point to dress like her, talk like her, walk like her, sing her music up until she was 19. Even after, she was always a huge fan. She saw them a few times with Christopher – also a huge fan; he was more of a fan of Silas and Juliette, compared to Sloane being Patrick and Juliette, but he did admit Juliette was the better lyricist.

"I love your music." She blurted out, "Your first album was inspiring. I know you said it was the band's album, but I always felt like it was more yours than anything."

"I loved that album. I wrote nearly the whole thing by myself." She remembered those days. All too well. "I just wanted to give the band some credit for making it come to life. I always had a thing for people walking all over me when I was kid. But I'm glad I was able to influence people." She turned her head to the woman next to her. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything." The child-like joy returned to her.

"What's the whole team Edward or Jacob thing about?"

Sloane's jaw dropped, "You never read Twilight? Or watched the movies?

"Nope. I read the first book when I found a copy of it in...my other time. I never finished the series. I've always wondered what the whole debate was about because Jacob didn't really pop up in the first book."

Sloane laughed, "When all this is over, you're reading the books and we are watching the movies together. I will convert you into Team Edward. If you're okay with that."

She held her hand out, "Sloane, I think we're going to be very good friends."

Sloane beamed, "I think so too, Juliette." She let go of her hand before biting her cheek, "So what's going on with all of you? You're up here for a reason."

"A lot." She admitted, tapping her fingers along the bricks of the building. "We have to fix this. We created something by accident and we need to stop it. We're going to need help."

"I can help and I know where we can get some."

"Good. They're going to call a family meeting and I have to get there." She took her hands into hers. "I will get you back to your family. I know all too well what it feels like to be stuck in a cage."

"Thank you."

"Of course, Sloane." She smiled, "Anything for family." 

novaspeaks: hello hello. it has been too long by darling dears. but school's starting back up and oh well. i decided that sloane and juliette need to be besties (including Lila) so that's that (one married to a hargreeves, one to-be-engaged to a hargreeves and another dating a hargreeves while pregnant with his child) but the next few chapters are gonna be HEAVY!

but be prepared for viktor and juliette content. maybe some allison bc they need to interact.

and julie...oooooo this one is gonna hurt. because there is definetly a few words to be said with julie and oliver vs juliette and five. i got a whole written playlist <3

fun fact - the first twilight book came out in sept. 7 of 2005 (she was already in the apocalpyse) but Juliette found only the first one in the rubble. 

thank you to everyone who has voted, commented and shared. love you lots my darlings and see you in the next one.

𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 - 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚