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.
"It's glass." He told me. I looked over the rubble and saw the corpse's face. It was the guy. Five stood up and ran a few feet away. I followed him, seeing the girl, covered in bits of concrete, with dirt caking her face.
"Do you know them?" I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know." He said simply. "I think...I think they're my siblings."
He found another guy, shaking his shoulder and trying to get him to move. He didn't. There was another one not far away lying face down, his sleeve pushed up to reveal a tattoo of an umbrella on his wrist.
"Mary..." He said. "Mary? Mary, are you ok?"
I shook my head, realizing that five was actually calling my name. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me up another set of stairs until we reached a bedroom. It was clear that no one had lived in here since they were a kid. He shut the door behind him.
"What did you see?" He asked, coming over and standing directly in front of me.
"Your siblings...when you found them." I answered, tucking my hair behind my ear. "So...that's going to happen to them in a few days?"
"Unless I can figure out a way to stop it." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the glass eye. "So far, this is my only lead, and according to the guy at the lab, it hasn't even been manufactured yet. I plan to do some surveillance on him tomorrow, see what I can find out. I could use your help." I nodded.
"Ok." I looked down at the dark stain again, before reaching up and gently pushing his jacket off of his shoulders. I gently lifted the sleeve of his dress shirt, revealing a deep gash, probably a bullet that nicked him, if I had to guess. "You have a first aid kit?"
"Yeah, I'll go get it." He left the room, and I took a minute to just take a deep breath and really think about what was happening. This is all so crazy...it's all happening so fast, I haven't really had time to properly process it.
He came back a few moments later with a plastic white box. I took it, sitting down on the bed with on leg folded in front of me. He took off his tie, sweater vest, and dress shirt, leaving him in a white undershirt, and sat down in front of me, facing the door. I grabbed some peroxide, pouring some on a cloth and dabbing the wound, wiping the blood away.
"Do I do this a lot int he future?" I asked, grabbing a needle and dipping in in the bottle of peroxide.
"A fair amount. You always tell me that I should be more careful."
"What do you say to that?" I asked, threading the needle.
"I usually tell you that in our line of work, being alive is being careful." I nodded.
"That sounds terrifying."
"You stabbed an assassin in the foot with a pocket knife tonight. I think you can handle it." I nodded.
"Who were they, anyway?"
"Hazel and Cha-Cha." He answered. "Hit men our old employers sent to kill us."
"Us?" I asked. "Before tonight I didn't do anything, why are they after me?"
"Because they knew, one way or another, that you'd end up helping me. We're something of a dynamic duo. The best in the business."
"This is gonna hurt a little. I'm sorry, in advance." I told him, piercing the needle through his skin. He winced a little, but not much.
"I'm used to it by now." He said.
"So, what is the business, if we're used to injuries and have ex-employers that want to kill us?"
"Just like Hazel and Cha-Cha, we're time-traveling assassins." I nodded.
"Ok...just not gonna question that...totally not weird at all."
"I do most of the killing part, if that makes you feel any better. Your specialty is more medical care and maiming anyone who gets in the way."
"Lovely." I finished up the stitch, cutting off the excess and cleaning the outside one last time before gently placing a band-aid over it. "There. Should be ok now."
"Thanks." I nodded, looking down at my hands as I absently played with my fingers. "You must be exhausted."
"Me? I didn't really do anything. You're the one that's been doing all the killing the past couple of days."
"Well then, we're both exhausted." I chuckled breathily. "We really need to find a way to spark a Max vision. You said sense memory and emotional connection?" I nodded.
"Firsts are especially good. I have some of my most powerful visions with those, so maybe we can trigger a vision that will give me, at least, most of the information I need."
"I have an idea...but it might get a little uncomfortable for you." He said. "Do you still trust me?"
"I don't distrust you." He stood up, holding out his hand to me. I furrowed my eyebrows, but took it and stood up. He pulled me towards him, and my eyes widened as his arm wrapped around my waist. He still held onto my hand, his fingers folded over mine and he pressed me against him and began to sway.
"You're right. This is definitely uncomfortable."
"Just focus, Mary. Get past the discomfort. How does it feel?" I sighed, closing my eyes so that I could focus. His hand moved lightly on my back, causing a wave of electricity to go through my stomach.
"I...I don't know how to describe it."
"Try your best." He said, his mouth directly next to my ear, causing me to shiver.
"Its almost like...electricity. Every time you move your hand, or talk into my ear, its like another surge of electricity." He moved his hand, causing another one to wash over me.
"Focus on that feeling. Think about another instance when you might have felt this way." His breath fanned my neck, and the vision started.
We looked older, though I couldn't tell how much older. We were sitting in lawn chairs around a camp fire, and we had managed to find a CD player that worked. Some old song was playing and I was standing up, dancing to it.
"I love this song." I said, twirling around slowly. "Never heard it in my life, but I love this song."
I walked over to five, who was sitting in his chair still and offered my hand to him.
"What?" He asked.
"Dance with me." I said.
"I don't even know how to do that."
"It's not hard." I grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the chair and wrapping an arm around his neck while grabbing his other hand. He just stood there, his free hand hanging limply at his side. "This hand goes here." I put his hand on my waist, stepping closer to him so that it curved around my back. He swallowed. "Do I make you nervous, Five?"
"No, don't be ridiculous." He said, clearly lying. "Why would you make me nervous?"
"I don't know...you tell me." He looked into my eyes, and I could see the nervous expression behind them. But it wasn't just nervousness, it was almost like...nervous excitement. I started leaning in, and his eyes widened...
And then the vision changed.