"I be the Bonnie and you be my Clyde. We ride or die, Xs and Os."
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN — BACK TO THE FUTURE
I grinned wildly as the ice cream truck sped down the street.
The chime of the song 'Ride of the Valkyries' blared from our speakers as Klaus yelled happily. "I'm driving!"
"Go faster!" Diego shouted as Klaus stepped on the pedal even harder.
"Hey losers!" I waved at Hazel and Cha-Cha at the far end of the road.
Five stared at me in shock as I hopped off the vehicle, landing beside him and Luther with a thud, touching down with the balls of my feet.
"What are you doing here-"
"We need to talk later," I cut my husband off quickly, glancing at the briefcase in Luther's hand and stood up straight.
"Suck it, bitches!" Klaus screamed, putting up a middle finger at the Commission agents as he drove past them.
"This is a setup!" Cha-Cha shouted as the two agents raised their guns at us and started shooting.
The air warped as Five grabbed my hand and dragged me behind Luther.
Everything stilled.
"Five, what did you do?" I murmured, peeking out from behind Luther and glancing around at the silent non-moving landscape.
He walked out from behind Luther as well, approaching the Commission agents carefully. "I had them call her."
I pursed my lips and followed him out to the road. "Five-"
"Neat trick, isn't it?"
We whipped our heads to the side as the Handler pulled back the net over her eyes and took off her sunglasses.
We walked over, her eyes following our every movement.
"Hello, Five. Hello, Zero," her lips tugged into a Cheshire grin. "You look good, all things considered."
"It's good to see you again," I glanced quickly at Five sideways before looking back at the Handler.
"Feels like we met just yesterday," she drawled. "Course, you're a little bit older then. Congratulations, on the age regression, by the way. Very clever, threw us all off the scent."
"Ah, well, I wish I could take credit," Five replied. "I just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and, well, you know, here we are."
"You realize your efforts are futile," the Handler said, pursing her lips. "So why don't you tell me what you really want?"
"I want you to put a stop to it," Five pulled his arm to his back.
"You realize what you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me," she narrowed her eyes. "What's meant to be is meant to be. That's our raison d'etre."
Five and I pulled out our guns in unison. I cocked my head, "Yeah? Well, how about survival as a raison?"
"I'll just be replaced," she waved her hand dismissively. "I'm but a small cog in a machine. This fantasy you two have been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse is just that. A fantasy. I must say though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative, your stick-to-itiveness, really quite, quite something. Which is why we want to offer you both a new position back at the Commission, in management."
I rolled my eyes as Five scoffed, "Sorry, what's that now?"
"Come back to work for us again. You know it's where you belong," the Handler stepped forward.
"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time," he scowled.
"But you wouldn't be in the correction division any longer. I'm talking about the home office," she looked down at us. "You'd have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel."
"You're distinguished professionals in schoolboy shorts and biker jeans," she smiled at us, almost mockingly. "We have the technology to reverse the process, I mean, you-you can't be happy like this?"
"I'm happy as long as I'm with her," Five scowled at the Handler, stepping closer to me protectively.
"We can make that happen, we can make you... yourself again," she stepped closer, tugging at Five's collar.
"Don't touch him," I warned, my revolver clicking as I held it up to the Handler.
Five tugged me back. "And what about my family?" He sighed.
"What about them?" The Handler tilted her head.
"I want them to survive," Five scowled.
The Handler scoffed, looking towards Luther before turning to the ice cream truck. "All of them?"
"Yes, all of them," I replied, my gun still held up unmoving.
She sighed, pulling her sunglasses on once more. "Well, I'll see what I can do," she said. "Do we have a deal?"
"One thing," Five lowered his gun, walking towards Hazel and Cha-cha.
He grabbed the gun from the ground, pulling the magazine out and tossing it to one side and tossed the gun to the other.
I shoved my gun back into its holster. "I don't like this," I said to Five under my breath as he walked back and shifted the bullet away from Luther.
"I know what I'm doing," he muttered back, intertwining our fingers before dragging me towards the blonde lady.
And he shook her hand.