CHAPTER FIVE: DELORES' SISTER

They all remained in the screening room, or the closet that Elliott and changed into one. Five paced in small circles, very obviously not sure what to do with this new information.

"Of course Dad would be involved in the assassination. I should've known." Diego grumbled, staring at the floor.

Lotus raised a brow, "How should you have known if this all happened before any of us were born?"

"Born?" Lila questioned.

Five shook his head, "No, you're jumping to conclusions."

"Then what the hell else is he doing standing on the grassy knoll holding an open black umbrella on a sunny day in Dallas?" Diego jumped up, anger flashing. "And at the exact same time the president was shot?"

Five stared up at his brother, a sarcastic tone coming out of his mouth. "It doesn't look good, I admit."

"No, he's the sign man for the whole goddamn thing."

"Easy, Diego. Seriously." Five shook his head.

"No, it makes sense."

"Not really." Lotus said, sitting back down. Diego's crazy side was really starting to show.

"This is what Hazel was obviously trying to tell you. We have to stop Dad from killing the president."

Lotus laughed, a raspy sound, not having really done it in what felt like forever. They all stared at her as she doubled over, when she came up and met Diego's glare she stifled it. "What? You sound insane."

"You need to calm down, Diego." Five nodded. "Dad was no Boy Scout, but a presidential assassination? It's never been his thing."

"How would you know? You skipped out on his golden years."

Five's lips formed a hard line, "Skipped out? You think I had it easy, Diego? I was alone for forty-five years—" he paused, shaking his head. "You know what. We don't have time for this right now."

Lotus wondered if she was the only person he told about his time gone, even if it wasn't in much detail. Did any of his siblings know what happened to him, did they think he was out lounging in the future with nothing to worry about while they all suffered back home?

"Dad's clearly in Dallas right? So, let's go talk to him. Maybe he can help us fix the timeline."

"Dallas is a big place."

Lotus snickered, "And also, a grown man and a teenager approaching someone who firstly, has no children or even remotely knows of any superhuman kids, and telling him that you're his adopted children? Two of seven, at that. He's gonna send both of you back to where Diego came from. And we need to find him, first."

Five shoved his hands in his pockets, "Geez, if only we had some magical old-timey way of finding people and their addresses."

Lotus sighed, pulling herself up again as she stepped in front of Elliott. "Where's your phone book?"

He shook his head, suddenly falling silent. She glared, "Do you want to be taken to the mothership?"

The man's eyes widened and she suppressed another laugh, he really thought aliens were real. "Kitchen." His voice was muffled with the rag tied around his mouth, courtesy of Diego.

"Lila, you watch him."

They all shuffled out of the room, leaving the door open as they made it to the kitchen. Lotus dug through a few drawers before Five called out that he found it, dumping it on the counter. Lotus and Diego huddled around before he took charge, nudging her and Five out of the way.

"Hargreeves." Diego muttered repeatedly as he flipped to the H page and searched. "Shit, nothing here."

"Try his company, D.S Umbrella Manufacturing Co."

Diego sent a look to his brother, "Yeah. I know the name. Thanks."

"Maybe he's not using any names directly linked to him?" Lotus questioned, "I mean, if he's actually involved with killing the president, it's not smart—"

"Holy shit, found it."

She sighed, watching as Diego quickly left the table. "82 Olive. Let's go."

Elliott's muffled cries were louder than ever as they walked to the front door. Diego pursed his lips, "You okay leaving him like this?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Five said, "What about the girl."

Lotus turned first, eyes landing on Delilah's empty seat. "She's gone."

"Shit."

Elliott kept moving his head towards his dark room, Diego shook his head as he went. Elliott kept on rambling until Five sent one of his famous glares. If looks could kill, that one certainly would.

"What happened to the plan of finding everyone?"

"This is a good lead, a new break in the case. We have to find my Dad." Five nodded to himself, "He should know what to do."

"Don't get your hopes up."

"What?"

Lotus shrugged, making her own way to the front door. "Every time you get your hopes up, we almost get killed."

She swung open the front door and took the stairs two at time until she was outside in the dark? Had the day gone by already— time was moving ridiculous fast. Lotus frowned, breathing in the crisp cool air of the night.

Diego's car was parked in front of the building, she strolled over and opened up the back seat before flopping in. The door slammed shut, she jumped at the sudden noise.

There was no way they could fix this. This problem was to big, way to catastrophic for a group of people who shouldn't exist. Humans weren't supposed to have powers or gifts, they weren't meant to be able to time travel or speak to the dead or shape shift.

"You okay?" The other side door creaked open and Five slipped in, "Are you—"

"Yeah." She nodded.

He raised a dark brow, "Lotus."

"What if we can't fix this?" She turned to him, "What if we can't get back home?"

He paused, leaning back against the seat. "Then we don't. We die with the rest of humanity. Together."

Diego came pounding down the pavement and into the drivers seat, he wasted no time getting the car running before driving off. Lotus remained quiet the entire ride, contemplating all her life choices.

When they pulled up to another dark building, it was nearly midnight. Diego parked the car and they all filed out.

It looked like any other office building, a circle with a black umbrella in the centre was placed by the front door. Lotus squinted at it, she reached over to Five who walked beside her and grabbed his arm, lifting up his sleeve to reveal the umbrella tattoo all the Hargreeves children shared.

Five froze by the doors, staring in as she let his hand fall. Diego glanced at him, "You good?"

He sighed, marching up to the doors as Diego slipped a knife from god knows where and began picking the lock. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"How long's it been since you've seen the old man?"

"Forty-Five years." He peered into the empty building before leaning up against the glass.

"That's unfortunate." Lotus quipped.

"No kidding." He took a deep breath, "You know, when I was stuck in the apocalypse there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't hear his voice in my head."

"What was he saying?"

"I told you so."

Lotus hated those words, especially when they came from an older figure, someone you looked up too. Kids were supposed to make mistakes, they were supposed to be kids. But they never were, not the seven of them at least. She had a small stint of it, before her mother decided to take all her anger out on her.

"Well Dad's never met you before so he can't say that."

"I'm sure he'll find a way."

Lotus clicked her tongue, "This was a fun conversation. Um, anyways, we're in the middle of breaking into a business which is highly illegal and we're just taking our time so if we could speed this up please."

Five blinked out and reappeared on the other side of the door, he unlocked it and swung it open.

"Oh yah. I got to remember that." Diego bounced up from his crouch and wandered in. Lotus trailed after him, glancing behind at Five who lingered at the end.

The space was bare expect for a few pieces of expensive looking furniture placed around the small entrance. Five stopped at the first table and clicked on the lamp, after taking a few steps away the bulb flickered and went out.

"Great, 'cause that's not creepy at all." Lotus muttered, taking a look around. "This doesn't really seem like a good business, I'm gonna be honest."

It felt cold and empty, not like it had seen hundreds of people before. Five pursed his lips, leaning by a chair and punching a throw pillow. "It feels like a front."

"How?"

"I don't know."

Diego wandered over to one side, where two doors were placed identically on each side of the room. "I'll take the left. Yell, if you get into trouble."

Lotus shook her head, following Five to the right side. If they were walking into a trap, at least he could zap them out of there. Five held the door open as she ducked under his arm, sighing at the sight of the long dark hallway.

"I hate this." She said, stopping.

Five grabbed her arm and pulled her along, "What, are you scared?"

They tried the first door they approached, but it was locked. Just like the second one, and the third— well, that one creaked open. Lotus peaked around Five's shoulder, stepping on her tippy toes as he flicked the light one. Whatever she had been expecting, this was not it.

Furniture had been set up as if it was a living room, mannequins were positioned in a casual manner all dressed up. A screen stretched on the walls behind, showing a suburban Neighbourhood with an explosion in the distance. "What are you up too?"

"Yup, I really hate this." She muttered, eyes landing on the younger mannequin. "Do you think that's Delores' sister?"

The light went out, Lotus tensed up from behind him. "That's what you get for making terrible jokes." He told her, pulling her back into the hallway. They made it almost half way down before another door opened, revealing another horrors esc scene. This time Five didn't bother turning the light on, as soon as he spotted a desk against the back wall he went right for it. Lotus on the other hand slowly approached the round table with four other mannequins. Plates were set up with forks and knives, even napkins decorated the table.

"This is getting extremely worse." She whispered walking over to Five who held an open envelope in his hand, "What's that?"

"An invite." He shoved it in his pocket, just as a metal ringing echoed from the other side of the room.

"Did I mention I hate this?" She grumbled, the clattering continuing off in the corner. Five slowly made his way over, she huffed following him.

Another noise echoed, this time sounding like an animal. She wondered if a raccoon had managed to get in, or one hundred mice where all planning to eat them right then and there.

"Pogo?" Five whispered.

Lotus walked around him, eyes widening at the chimpanzee in pyjama shorts who slowly approached them.

"Holy shit." She muttered.

Five took another step, kneeling down on the floor. "It's ok little buddy."

Pogo crawled over, staring up at the figure in front of him.

"Pogo, it's good to see you."

Lotus sank to the floor beside him, sneaking a glance at Five. A small smile sat on his face, eyes lit up with warmth—

Her eyes widened as Pogo screeched, swiping at Five's exposed neck before throwing himself out the window. He fell to the side with a yell, calling for Diego's help.

"Five!" She shouted, scrambling over to him. He pulled himself to his knees, holding his neck. "Oh my god— are you— oh my god."

She helped him up, trying to swat his hand away. "Let me see how bad it is."

"No, it's not important." He grinned his teeth, stomping towards the door. "We need to find Diego."

He rushed down the hallway, leaning against the wall as he pushed himself along. Lotus quickly caught up and jumped in front of him, "Hey, stop for a second."

He did, staring down at her. "Let me see." She mumbled, carefully taking his hand away. She tried not to make a face at the deep scratches on his neck, blood trickling down. She slowly wiped the flow that had made it way down onto his shirt collar, a frown on her face. "He probably knew we were here, right?"

"That's not possible."

"He's a smart man." Lotus said, flicking her attention back to him. "Look how he made all of you turn out."

Five blinked, "Is it bad?"

"You'll be fine."

Her eyes scanned his face, the confusion that flashed in his eyes for a second before they softened, how pale and tired he looked in this light—

His hand went back to his neck as he nodded, she swore he had been staring at her lips.

"W-we should go." He said, "Diego's probably looking for us."

Lotus watched as he left the room first, she took a deep breath as soon as he disappeared. Her heart raced in her chest, did she just imagine that whole thing? Was her mind just playing tricks on her?"

Probably, she thought.

She didn't bother to dive any deeper, Lotus raced out of the room and after Five, praying she wouldn't get lost in this hellhole.