As Five and Elaina turned the corner of the stairs to meet their father at the bar, their siblings shortly followed, leaving through the elevators they came in. Reginald sat at the bar, his posture was unervely upright and proper as his eyes drifted over to the teens, his monocle briefly catching the light.
Elaina felt sick again.
Five took the seat besides the old man while Elaina sat on the other side of Five, gaining as much distance as she could from her future father.
"You seem to be the sensible one of the bunch," commented Reginald to Five.
"That's because I'm the oldest," explained Five, making Reginald raise a brow. "You know, technically, I'm older than you right now,"
Reginald gave an impressed nod as he leaned forward to look over Five. "And you, you certainly seem the most interesting," he said to Elaina, making the girl look at him blankly.
"Am I now?" she questioned tightly. "What about me seems so interesting?"
"Besides that show with the fruit, your comment about not aging and how it wasn't naturally acquired,"
"Yeah, well, I have you to thank for that, Reggie," Elaina answered snidely, sporting a tight smile, making the old man look at her in unamusement.
"Elaina," warned Five as he gave her a look.
The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to disassociate, okay? He's not technically 'Dad' yet," she explained before seeing the bartender place a pricey bottle of cognac in front of her father. "While we're here, we should at least have a drink, right?" she commented, jerking her chin in it's direction.
Reginald noticed the bottle. "Cognac?" he offered both Five and Elaina.
Five smiled. "Just a smidge,"
"Make mine a double," nodded Elaina.
The bartender nodded in understanding as he began pouring their drinks.
"The other night you quoted Homer at me," directed Reginald the question to Five. "Why?"
"You forced us all to learn it as kids," responded Five.
"Practically drilled it in our heads," added Elaina. "In the original Greek, no less,"
The bartender then placed their glasses of cognac in front of each of them. Reginald held his up slightly in a small toast, Five and Elaina following suit as everyone drank from their respected cups.
"The world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline," said Five, getting to the real topic he wished to discuss with their father.
"Words end," stated Reginald with a shrug. "Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on,"
"We can do something about this one," stressed the boy.
"Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control,"
"I need your help. Alright? You're my last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make,"
"It's legit a matter of life and death," tacked in Elaina before she made a face at her own comment. "Well, not ours, a group of random strangers, that is," she said, sipping on her cognac.
Five continued on. "What do you know about time travel?" he asked.
"In theory?" questioned the old man.
"In practice," corrected Five.
"I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing--"
"As an acorn," responded both Five and Elaina, both all too familiar with the sentence that tempted Five in jumping in the first place.
"Yeah," nodded Five a sigh.
This made Reginald curious. "What transpired when you tried traveling before?" he asked, fully grasping this was something Five had done before.
Five looked down at his lap. "I botched it,"
"How?" asked Reginald.
"I jumped too far forward, got stuck in the future for 42 years in an apocalypse," bitterly remembered the boy. "Then I jumped too far backwards... except this time I brought my entire family with me,"
"Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities," rationalized the old man. "Start small. Seconds, not decades."
"Seconds?" repeated Five in disbelief.
"Mmm."
"Look, no offense, but I need a bit more time for what I'm trying to accomplish."
"So much can change in a matter of seconds," explained Reginald. "One could overthrow an empire. One could fall in love," Five looked back at Elaina, their eyes catching one anothers as she gave him a small smile, Reginald looked between the two before continuing. "An acorn doesn't become an oak overnight."
"I was really hoping you had more than that," sighed Five as he looked back to this father.
"I'm sorry I can't be of more help," apologized the old man, a sentiment that made Elaina choke slightly on the remainder of her cognac.
Five slightly shook his head as his gaze drifted downwards. "I'm sorry too," he sighed. "I gave you such a hard time as a kid. I didn't know any better."
Reginald hummed as he took in the boys words, he then lifted his glass. "No skin off my teeth, old man," he toasted to Five before finishing his glass.
Five tilted his glass towards his father too before chugging back the remainder of his cognac as well. Elaina watched the duo and scoffed to herself from her seat, balancing her empty glass on it's side .
This earned the attention of Reginald as he looked at her. "I get the inkling that you don't hold me in the highest regards," he stated, making look at him with narrowed eyes. He placed his glass on the counter as he folded his hands. "Would you give me some insight into what it was that I did?"
Elaina scoffed once again, making the glass stand normally. "What you did was inject me with an experimental cell regeneration serum at 16 after a failed mission and forgot to mention the side effects," she got up from her chair. "I haven't aged since then, and that was well over 14 years at this point. So, sorry, I don't share the same feelings as my better half here,"
"A serum, you say?" questioned Reginald as he held his chin between his pointer finger and thumb.
"Yes. A serum," snapped Elaina as she placed her hands on her hip.
"Funny that you should mention that," said Reginald as he kept eye contact with the girl. "For about a year now, I've been testing out a formula similar to the attributes you're describing. However, right off the bat, I could tell there is a key difference between the two."
Five narrowed his eyes. "And what is that?"
Reginald looked over to the bartender and nodded towards his glass, the man immediately understood and began to refill it. "Potency," he stated. "If what you're telling me is true, whatever it is you were injected with was far stronger than the current specimen I have in my possession," the bartender pushed the glass towards Reginald as he grabbed it and lifted it up to his lips for a quick taste. "I need you to tell me what it is you know or recalled about this serum,"
Elaina looked at the man before looking to the side in thought. "From what you told me, it was used to heal my injuries and that was it. You had me train harder after that and after every mission, you'd draw my blood, especially if I got hurt. It wasn't until years later that I realized something was wrong when my menstruation stopped. When I questioned you about it, you told me you 'theorized' that this would happen, but said nothing more,"
"Hon," intervened Five, making Elaina and Reginald look at him. "You should tell him about what's been going on recently,"
Elaina tightened her lips for a second before sighing and turning to her father. "Ever since the serum, I would always recover instantly from basic injuries: cuts, stabs, gunshots, I would heal in no time. But lately... lately there's been some sort of delay," she crossed her arms, her hand subconsciously stroking the inner bicep she cut. "And I don't understand why it's happening now,"
Reginald's lip twisted as he mulled over the information presented to him. "After each injury, I would draw your blood, you say?" he questioned, mostly to himself before he cleared his throat. "Have you gotten hurt recently? I'm not talking about minor afflictions, I mean something significant,"
"I..." she thought it over. "I was shot-gunned in the stomach nearly a month ago. Point blank shot. I lost a bit of blood, but recovered like normal, though."
"Did these 'delays', by chance, start to occur after this shooting incident?"
Elaina's breath caught in her throat as her eyes grew. "Holy shit... Yes, yes they did," she realized, her features turning to one of confusion. "But why?"
"That's not all," stated Five, gaining their attention once again. "About a year ago she was stabbed in the chest near her heart. She needed a blood transfusion. She was given my blood,"
"I believe I am starting to understand," nodded Reginald, looking down at his glass before taking another sip. "Not too long ago, my chimpanzee had an accident which forced my hand and injected him with the experimental batch I created. It healed his critical injuries in a matter of mere minutes as well as heightening his already superb intellect. From what I gathered from his charts, his growth continues on track, hence, why I believe potency and a slight alteration to the formula to be the culprits here,"
"Culprits? Wait, are you saying that I basically was given an updated version of the serum you injected into Pogo?" concluded Elaina, earning a nod from Reginald.
"It would explain a lot of things, specifically, why I would want to draw your blood after each injury. I was most likely monitoring the levels within your blood to see if they ever dropped."
This made the girl's forehead crease further as she looked over to Five, seeing the same puzzled look on his face. "Why would they drop? You told me I would remain like this forever,"
The old man hummed, tapping his fingers on the counter. "In the future, I don't like you very much, do I?" mused the old man suddenly, making the girl jerk back at the sudden question.
She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "I don't think you liked any of us, so no, you didn't. But to be fair, I wasn't a huge fan of yours either," she shot back.
Oddly, this made the old man smirk slightly. "I see. The only reason I ask is that, when I had this serum in mind, I never had the intention to create it to be long-term, only for one solitary use," he started to explain. "If I'm constantly checking to see if there was an influx in the levels within your blood, I'm under the assumption I was waiting for the day it started to run its course through your body and began to lose its effectiveness. The fact that you had, not just one, but two relatively recent critical injuries and lost a significant amount of blood could mean that those levels are finally beginning to drop and will continue until there is none left."
"So... What you're saying is that one day, I'll get shot or stabbed, and I'm just not... going to heal anymore?" softly asked Elaina, her mind working in overdrive trying to process the man's words.
Reginald eyed her. "No. You will not, at least, not in a super way. All cell regeneration will go back to normal,"
"All cell regeneration?" repeated Five, in the same awe as the girl. "Even the ones that prevent her from aging?"
The thought completely slipped Elaina's mind before she heard Five ask the question, making her look at Reginald with anxious eyes as he answered.
"Yes, even those," confirmed Reginald, making the girl's arms go slack. "If it hasn't already begun, she will soon begin her metamorphosis and will begin to age as she would've before the injection."
Elaina's mouth opened, but no words came out. She didn't know what to say, how to say it, nothing. Her mind was nothing but jelly right now as she looked at Reginald stupidly, that angry and bitter aura that surrounded her was gone, and the only thing that circled the girl was a confusing denial.
"Then why?" she frantically asked the old man. "If you knew all of this, why would you have me believe I was forever stuck as a 16-year-old?"
"A simple reason. I suppose, I just didn't like you," shrugged the old man.
Elaina scoffed in disbelief, a crazed chuckle escaping her lips, making Five stand slowly in apprehension. "You son of a bitch. See, reasons like that are why I almost killed you, Reggie," laughed Elaina.
"I beg your pardon?" said Reginald, his face contouring into one of bewilderment.
"It's okay," snickered Elaina. "Luther saved you,"
Five held his hand out in front of Elaina and gave his father a forced smile. "She didn't mean that," he said in an apologetic tone, though Elaina mouthed 'I do', over the boy's shoulder as she nodded her head. "Thank you for your time and insights. They truly put things in perspective." thanked Five as he shook his father's hand.
Reginald eyed Elaina tentatively. "Yes, but of course," he mumbled.
Five gave a polite nod as he turned towards the stairs, pulling along the giggling Elaina as she looked back at her father, her conflicting feelings towards him ever-the-more confusing, but surprisingly, not as negative. Five pressed the button of the elevator as they waited as a few seconds passed before the ding announced its arrival. Elaina walked in and stood beside Five, looking at her father, the old man simply just offered her a small nod, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips. Elaina stared back, her laughing fit ceasing as she inclined her head in a nod as well, the elevator close shutting shortly after.
The ride to the bottom floor was quiet before Elaina broke it. "I'll eventually grow up, I can't believe it..." she whispered, staring at herself in the obscured metal doors of the elevators. "One day I won't look like this, Five,"
"That's what you wanted, right?" he asked softly, staring at her. "To age?"
Elaina nodded slowly. "More than anything, but it all seems so surreal. How do we know if he's even right? After all, it's all speculation from this version of Dad. What if he's wrong, or worse, pulling my chain again?"
"I don't think this version of Dad has any reason to lie to you, Laney," stated Five as they got off of the elevator.
Elaina looked at him conflictingly. "I don't think so either," sighed Elaina. "The only thing that sucks about all of this is the healing... I'm going to have to start being more careful,"
"You do," agreed Five with a nod. "Which is making me question bringing you along for this deal with The Handler," murmured Five, making Elaina grab his arm, halting them as they got out of the building.
"Oh no, don't think just because I don't have my super healing to full capacity that I'm not coming with you. Are you forgetting that you didn't learn about it until the second time we got attacked at the Gimble Brother's? You didn't seem so concerned if I got hurt when I helped you kill a shop full of people at Griddy's. Plus, I was less prepared for that too." Elaina crossed her arms as she stared Five down. "I'm going, Five,"
Five let out a frustrated sigh but knew she was speaking the truth so he begrudgingly agreed. "Okay, you got a point. Fine, let's hurry up and get to this woman," he said, holding his hand out as she took it, both of them disappearing in a flash of blue.
~.~
Five and Elaina stood in front of a double green door as Five leaned forward and knocked on it. Not even a second passed as The Handler opened the door, her previously silver-blonde hair now a dark brown.
"Ah!" she exclaimed as she looked between the two. "I see you brought the infamous Number Eight with you! So pleased to make your acquaintance," she greeted with a smile way too big and excited for it to be genuine.
"It's Elaina," corrected the girl dryly, as she gave The Handler a glare. "I thought Five killed you,"
The Handler's lips pressed together in a tight smile. "It's not so easy to get rid of me," she winked.
"Such a pity," snarked Elaina, flashing a brief sarcastic smile before dropping it just as quickly.
"For some, it is," the woman gave a light chuckle, opening the door wider. "You two made it just in time for a nightcap."
She walked away to prepare the drinks while the two teens walked in. Elaina was scanning the room as Five shut the double doors behind them.
"To be clear," started off the boy, The Handler popped in her cigarette with the extender in her mouth as she handed the two the prepared drinks. "We take out the board... you get us and our family home," confirmed Five.
Elaina opted out of the handmade alcoholic drink from The Handler and placed it on a nearby counter. "No more doomsday, no more apocalypse. Nada," tacked on Elaina as she and Five eyed the woman carefully.
"Is that correct?" asked Five as the woman sat down on her bed, pulling out a white folded up piece of paper.
The Handler laid down on her side, her legs crossing almost suggestively as she looked up to the two. "That's the deal," she nodded.
Five nodded too as he looked over to Elaina for confirmation, she gave him a resolute stare, nodding her head once in agreement.
"Then we're in," agreed Five.
The Handler cracked a pleased smirk as she held her drink in one hand and the paper in the other. She toyed with the paper slightly before handing over to Five. The boy unfolded it as Elaina looked down beside him at the location and date written inside.
The Lonely Lodger Inn
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1982
Five and Elaina gave each other a look before bringing their gaze over to The Handler.
~.~
OMG the big reveal! Lol it took some time to get the descriptions just right, might still need to tweak it a little, but I hope you guys understand what has been going on with Elaina.
I'm not going to lie, I've been looking forward to the assassination scene FOREVERRRR so I'm super excited to finally get to it.
Thank you everyone for your feedback~ :D
Special thanks to:
Thanks for the comments and likes, you guys truly make my day each time I post! I might be missing one or two people, sorry if I did! These are the most frequent/most recent, but if I find out I missed anyone I'll be sure to include them in the next chapter.
Til then, thank you everyone!
P.S Happy Birthday Hargreeves! (It's Oct 1 ☺)