Chapter Text
Despite Five’s protests, Diego ordered him and Viktor to take the bed, while he and Lila fetched a cot that seemed way too small for the two of them. While he insisted that the chair would be fine for him, he had to admit that the bed was comfortable, and with the security that came with the locked door, two siblings, and one other woman that his siblings obviously trusted, he fell asleep rather quickly.
He woke up much too soon to the sound of soft voices. His eyes slowly blinked open, and he pushed himself into a sitting position, finding himself looking at Diego and Lila sitting at the small table with a grocery bag in front of them.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” Lila said with a grin. She still seemed much too happy about Five’s lack of memories, and he could not figure out why that was, “Diego and I went out and got some breakfast for you two.”
He glanced over at Viktor, who was also slowly blinking awake.
Five slowly pushed himself out of the bed and shuffled over to the table, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Diego dug into the bag in front of him and pulled out a granola bar, tossing it to him, and he was quick to tear into it.
“How early did you guys get up?” Viktor mumbled, swinging his legs over the bed. Diego tossed him a granola bar as well, but it bounced off his chest before Viktor even comprehended that something was being thrown at him.
“A few hours ago. I wanted to do a supply run,” Diego answered. He rummaged around in the bag and pulled out a few things, “Got a bit of food, and Lila insisted on getting a toothbrush.”
“And deodorant,” Lila added. She grabbed a stick and tossed it at Five, “Especially you. I’m not living with a smelly teenager.”
He scowled at her, but she only grinned.
“Alright, so we need a plan,” Diego said before Five could make a comment, “We already booked for one more night here, but now we only have about twenty dollars left. We’ve got to figure out a way to make some money.”
“We also need to find everyone else,” Viktor said after finishing chewing a bite of his granola bar, “We need to stick together, especially if we’re going to figure out how to get Five’s memories back.”
“Oh, do we have to?” Lila complained.
“Yes, we do,” Five said firmly, scowling at her once more, “I want to know what happened.”
An odd look flashed across their faces, almost wariness or hesitation, but Five couldn’t comprehend it exactly.
Instead of questioning it, he sat back and listened as they began debating their next course of action.
It was quickly decided that there were two pressing matters contending with each other: money and their missing siblings. The best way to solve the money problem was through jobs, so Diego and Lila stayed behind to try and figure out how to get an occupation without any type of reasonable identification while Five and Viktor went out in search of their siblings.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Five asked Viktor for probably the seventh time since they headed out. His brother looked a little pale and dizzy at times, but he had insisted that he felt fine.
“Of course. Besides, we’re just walking around,” Viktor said, “Don’t worry about me.”
He couldn’t help it, though. He was used to little Number Seven being the helpless one, the one he had to protect and watch over and cheer up. They had been the same age, but Five had always felt like the older brother, always protecting.
But now Viktor was nearly thirty and could take care of himself, and Five wasn’t sure what to think about that.
They spent the morning walking around town, calling out for their siblings. A few times, someone had asked if they could help, but Viktor’s attempts at describing the missing members of their team had only resulted in blank, uncomprehending looks, or occasionally they were sent on a wild goose chase to a nearby store or restaurant when someone said they recalled seeing someone that looked like that, only to come up empty handed once more.
By lunchtime, Five was hungry, but since Diego and Lila had the cash, there was no point in bringing it up.
Instead, they made their way back to the park.
“This place is just weird,” Viktor said as they approached it, shaking his head, “Like Obsidian Memorial? What happened to the hotel in this timeline?”
“It was a hotel?” Five asked.
“Hotel Obsidian. We were staying there for a little while,” Viktor answered, “Dad owned it, apparently. There was this portal that took us into another dimension that had these guardians that we had to fight. It’s, uh, complicated.”
Five frowned lightly, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to make sense of that.
What happened to the hardest thing in his life being mastering time travel?
When they were close enough to the park to see in it, Five was disappointed not to recognize anyone. It was mostly empty, with a few lingering people walking around, and none of them were the Klaus, Luther, or Ben that he had seen the night before. There was also no one that looked like Allison, which he still had yet to figure out where she was.
However, Viktor seemed to recognize someone.
“Sloane!” he shouted, taking off at a job into the park, towards where a young woman was sitting on a bench and staring at a newspaper.
The woman glanced up sharply at Viktor’s voice, and her voice suddenly relaxed into a relieved smile. She was up off the bench before Viktor made it to her, and her arms flew around the smaller man.
“Thank goodness! I thought I was alone,” Sloane gasped, burying her face into Viktor’s hair, “I came out of that thing and no one else was there. I thought… I didn’t know what happened.”
Five frowned lightly at the sight, trying to comprehend who this woman was, before he settled on it. Right, Luther had been looking for a woman named Sloane. This was Luther’s wife.
Gross. That statement did not sound right.
“We all came out together. We couldn’t find you,” Viktor said, smiling at her, “When did you get here?”
“A few hours ago,” Sloane answered. She looked over Viktor’s shoulder at Five and smiled at him, but then concern spread across her face, “Where is everyone else?”
“Diego and Lila are trying to get jobs. We’re trying to find everyone else. They all ran off when we first got here. Oh!” Viktor’s face brightened even more, “Sloane, Luther’s alive! Whatever Dad did, he’s alive. He ran off looking for you.”
“Luther’s alive?” Sloane jerked up, eyes wide with surprise and relief. Five was surprised to see tears blossoming in her eyes, and she let out a watering laugh, “Am I dreaming?”
Honestly, Five had been wondering the same thing since he showed up there.
“No, he’s alive. He’s really alive. We just have to find him,” Viktor assured her.
Much to Five’s alarm, Sloane burst into tears. When he hurried forward, trying to figure out what was wrong, Viktor sent him a minute shake of his head and mouthed the words ‘give her a minute.’
So, he did.
Once Sloane had calmed down enough for Five to realize that she was not upset but overjoyed, Viktor suggested that they head back to the hotel, but Sloane was adamant that they kept looking. She seemed just as intent on finding Luther as Luther had been on finding her, which Five supposed was probably a good thing if they were married.
He wouldn’t know, though. He never knew any married couples. His parents didn’t count. His mother was a robot.
They kept walking, wandering around the city until his feet felt like they were going to fall off. Five trailed slightly behind the two adults, occasionally calling out for his other four siblings. He could hear the two whispering ahead of him, but he was too tired to interject and figure out what they were talking about.
“…memories…thirteen.”
“I thought… kid… didn’t know…”
He knew they were talking about hm, about his amnesia. Sloane seemed to be confused about it, and he wondered how long he had known her.
How long had he even been in the future to begin with? He didn’t feel much older. He’d gotten a glimpse of himself in the mirror in the bathroom and besides his hair being slightly longer, he looked the same as he remembered, so it couldn’t have been long.
He would have to ask about it once they found everyone.
By the time the sun started to go down, he could tell that the adults were starting to grow tired, too. He could tell that they were about to give up. Viktor’s mouth opened, and Five just knew that he was going to suggest that they head back to the hotel.
But Sloane spoke up before he could.
“Do you hear that?” she said suddenly, her hand coming out to grab Viktor’s arm as they came to a sharp stop. Her eyes were wide.
“Hear what?” Five asked.
Sloane shushed him and turned her head, eagerly searching around her.
“Luther!?” She called out, practically shouting over the crowd of people around them on the street, “Luther!?”
In the distance, Five heard it.
“Sloane!”
Sloane obviously had heard it too, because she took off at a run, a wide grin on her face as she shoved past people. Viktor cursed under his breath, grabbed Five’s hand, and followed at a quick pace.
“Luther!”
“Sloane! Sloane!”
The voice was getting louder, and Five suddenly saw him through the crowd, standing a good few inches above everyone else. The crowd around him parted, hurrying out of his way as he came towards them. His eyes were wide and relieved as he caught sight of Sloane.
Five really hoped he didn’t start crying, too.
They met in the middle, slamming into each other hard enough that he was sure it must have hurt. Luther lifted Sloane into the air as they hugged, and then they were kissing.
“Gross,” Five grumbled as they came to a stop, making Viktor playfully shove his shoulder.
He tore his eyes away, and saw Klaus running through the crowd, obviously trying to catch up with Luther. He looked absolutely delighted to see them.
“Oh, it is good to see you guys!” Klaus exclaimed. He threw his arms around Viktor, and then Five was grabbed by the suit jacket and pulled into the hug, “We’ve been looking everywhere for you guys.
“For us, or for Sloane?” Viktor commented with a grin.
“Okay, the big guy was looking for his wife, but I know he would have started searching for you guys, soon,” Klaus said with a grin as he pulled out of the hug, “I kept telling him that we should circle back around and find you guys and make sure there’s not another apocalypse in the works. I mean, three times a pattern, right? Who knows what’s waiting around the corner?”
Five blinked at that. Three times? What did that mean?
“I think we might be in the clear on that,” Viktor said with a light shrug, “We can’t be too careful, but whatever dad did reset things, right? It fixed everything… it fixed everything too much.”
“Oh yeah. The power thing,” Klaus said with a solemn nod.
“Not just that,” Viktor added. Five saw him glance over at Sloane and Luther, making sure that they were paying attention, before continuing, “Five’s memories got… messed with. He doesn’t remember anything that happened since before he time travelled that first time.”
“First time?” Five found himself asking, but he was ignored.
“What, like amnesia?” Luther said, his arm still wrapped around Sloane, “Like what you had?”
“Maybe,” Viktor said, “Something like that. I mean, I didn’t remember anything, but he remembers when we were young. His memories just stop before he left. Almost like…”
“He was reset,” Klaus said, eyes wide as he stared at Five. He stepped forward and slowly brought a hand out, poking Five in the shoulder gentle, as if he were fragile, “Whoa, so what’s the last thing you remember?”
Five scowled lightly and pulled away from Klaus’ touch before answering.
“Training with Diego,” he said shortly, “Diego was throwing knives at me, and then I was in that elevator.”
Luther grimaced at the mention of those training exercises, which was odd, since Luther always enjoyed them the most.
“Oh, you know what this means?” Klaus suddenly looked delighted, “I’m officially the oldest!”
Once it became obvious that Luther and Klaus had been on the streets since they showed up there, they all made the long trek back to the hotel. Klaus continued barraging him with questions, picking apart everything that he remembered and didn’t remember in a serious of inquiries that left Five with more questions than he had previous, but he was much too tired to even voice them.
Luther seemed to realize this, since once they were about halfway there, he glanced at Five and asked if he wanted him to carry him.
“Of course not. I’m thirteen, not a child,” Five glowered at him.
“Uh, you kind of are,” Klaus said, causing him to turn his glare onto him.
“I didn’t mean that!” Luther was quick to defend, “But I don’t mind if you’re tired.”
Five was tired. They had been walking all day, and it wasn’t like he had gotten much sleep the night before. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t had anything since that singular granola bar that morning.
But he was not about to let his siblings, whom had been his age not even twenty-four hours ago, treat him like a child.
“I’m fine,” he said, crossing his arms defensively over his chest.
By the time they arrived at the hotel, Five was starting to regret his decision, though. He barely even listened as Luther, Klaus, and Sloane expressed their surprise over the Academy having been turned into a hotel, and simply followed behind them as they made their way in, feeling like a zombie.
Diego and Lila were already back when they walked in, and while they reunited with their found siblings, Five kicked off his shoes and curled up into one of the chairs, sighing softly as he felt the ache in his feet ebb.
“Well, this is going to be fun,” he dimly heard Lila comment at the number of people in their tiny room, “This is definitely against fire code.”
“You’re missing Hotel Obsidian, aren’t you?” Klaus grinned, “So much roomier.”
“That place was a nightmare,” Diego said.
“You take that back!”
Five huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his hair.
He hated this. He hated not understanding what was going on. He hated not knowing these people, despite them being his siblings. He hated knowing that these were all things that he should know.
“Lila, did you find anything?” Viktor asked, and Five tuned into their conversation instead of Diego and Klaus’.
“There’s a little restaurant downtown willing to pay us under the table,” Lila said, “Even let us work a few hours earlier. It’s not a lot, though. Less than minimum wage, since they aren’t reporting it.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Viktor said, sighing, “If I can get my hands on a violin, I could probably play for tips in the park. That could help, too.”
“You still play the violin?” Five found himself interjecting, a bit of relief flooding through his shoulder at the familiarity of that.
Viktor looked surprised at the question.
“Yeah, of course. I mean, I haven’t played it for a while, since everything’s been crazy, and the last time I played it I… well, regardless, I still play.”
It was small, it was so small, but Five found himself clinging to that tiny fact. He always listened to Seven play the violin. He would lay on his bed and listen, occasionally making comments or giving feedback or talking about how one day, Seven would be famous and leave them all behind. He loved that violin.
It was a constant in a sea of change.
Maybe not everything was different.
Maybe he still knew his siblings.