Word count: 2609

𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 eyes as she came to a stop, her feet scraping against the pavement. Had she done it?

She seemed to be in some sort of alleyway that she didn't recognize, the buildings around her having fading wallpaper and grime creeping on the edges. She was facing what seemed to be an apartment, with a window that was half-open, although the inside was hidden by curtains.

She groaned as she felt pain in her side, and lifted her shirt to see that the wound had barely healed. She supposed doing a whole lot of running, almost exploding, and then time-travelling didn't really go well with her accelerated healing.

Suddenly, electricity crackled from above, and a gigantic, bright blue cloud formed just above her. The wind grew stronger as it whipped her hair back, it becoming strong enough to force Valerie to stumble back a couple of steps.

Just then, someone fell out of the cloud, their bowling shoes barely brushing against the edge of a puddle as they landed face-forward, propped on their elbows. There was only one person who still wore the uniform this person was wearing, and Valerie felt a wave of relief wash over her as she got a good look at his face.

"Five!" Valerie rushed over to him, helping him up as the cloud disappeared from the sky.

"Val?" Five groaned as he got up before looking around.

Her eyebrows furrowed upon realizing that they were the only ones there. "Where's everyone else?" 

Just then, the sound of gunshots rang through the air, and a few shouts could be heard. They turned around in the opposite direction to see something that made Valerie's heart drop.

It seemed as though there was a movie theatre in front of them, but judging by the way it looked now, you wouldn't be able to tell; half of the letters of the theatre name had fallen off, the remaining letters burnt, along with the board that presented the movies just under it.

A broken car sat in front of it, the trunk popped open, and the shattered glass from the windows scattered around it.

The building beside it had a chunk missing from the right edge, with fire and a cloud of deep grey smoke billowing out from inside.

The two of them walked closer as a tank appeared, rumbling as it drove across the street, with soldiers sprinting and shooting from beside. Above them, two fighter jets flew through the air, leaving lines of grey in the air.

Upon leaving the alleyway, they then got a good look at the scene on the street: All of the stores that lined the streets seemed to be in the same condition as the movie theatre and the building beside, all of them either on fire or on the brink of collapsing. Rubble was piled all over the dusty ground, where soldiers crouched behind, preparing to fight.

Five ran out to the pile of stones nearest to them, and peered at the newspaper that was wedged in between two rocks, where he read out the heading, "'Soviets attack US'?"

"In 1963?" Valerie questioned, her eyebrows furrowed. She definitely did not remember this from any of her history lessons.

Five clambered over the rubble to stare at the scene in front of him, and he shook his head as he muttered, "No, this can't be right."

Shouts of Russian spilled through the air along with gunfire, the constant scrape of boots against dust, and the yells for a medic.

"Hey, you kids! Get down!" one of the US soldiers shouted at them before charging toward the Russians, only to get shot a moment later.

"What the hell did we do now?" Five groaned.

Suddenly, the tank launched a missile, the force and fire coming from it knocking Five and Valerie to the ground.

It shot straight ahead, only to be met by Vanya, who was floating in mid-air and had the same glow to her as she did in the concert hall. She pushed her hands in front of her, soundwaves bursting from them as they destroyed the missile.

To her right, although on the ground, Klaus stood in front of a group of Russian soldiers, his face adorned with blood. He raised his hands and pushed them in front of him with a yell, conjuring the blue ghosts of dead soldiers. They all charged toward the Russians, who turned around and attempted to run away, but were caught only moments later.

Then, someone soared through the sky, landing next to Klaus so strongly that the ground shook. It was Luther, his shirt off to expose his ape-like torso. His face was covered in dirt, and the left side of his neck was covered in blood. A small missile hit him in the back, causing him to let out a roar as the fire danced across his body, but didn't seem to hurt him too much as it ceased.

From the top of one of the clothing shops stood the ghost of Ben, his tentacles picking up one screaming Russian soldier at a time before launching them through the air. He picked one up and dropped him only a few meters away, where a group of three Russian soldiers stopped to look at the body.

The three soldiers then turned to see Allison, her hair now straight, with bangs that covered her sweaty forehead. Her face with covered in dirt, the colour of the grime almost matching the black shawl-like coat she was wearing. A smirk played on her face as she reached her hands out and spoke to the three, "I heard a rumour . . . that I blew your minds."

Almost immediately, the soldiers dropped their guns, and blood squirted out as their heads exploded, leaving three headless corpses on the ground.

Valerie and Five's eyes then moved over to Diego, who stood on top of an overturned police car as Russian soldiers gathered around him. He now had a moustache and a bit of a goatee, and his hair flowed down to his shoulders, a look Valerie never expected to see on him.

He jumped and twisted through the air as the soldiers began shooting at him, all of their bullets missing him and hitting each other. They all collapsed to the ground as Diego shouted, "Val! Five! You sick sons of bitches, where the hell have you been?"

The two of them were about to head over to Diego before a hand rested on Five's shoulder, causing him to stop. 

"If you guys wanna live, come with me."

It was Hazel, although significantly older than when they had last seen him. His hair and beard were now a little longer than before and had grown to become white. He wore glasses, which he stared at them through seriously as he gripped the briefcase in his left hand.

"Hazel," Five murmured as he turned to him, his eyebrows raised and his eyes a little wide. "What the hell's going on here?"

"There's no time to explain," Hazel said grimly before pointing up toward the sky. "Those are nukes, old-timer."

Missiles that looked the size of a pea from where they stood showered down from the sky, a bright glow of fire accompanying them.

"What about our family?" Valerie asked, slightly out of breath from all the panic.

Hazel offered his hand towards them and slightly tilted his head. "You can't save 'em if you're dead."

Valerie and Five exchanged a look before simultaneously grabbing Hazel's hand, immediately being transported somewhere, or rather, sometime else.

It seemed as though they were on the same street, except this time, everything was intact, and people walked happily along the sidewalk. Five and Valerie looked around at the brightly coloured shops before turning to Hazel.

Five returned his gaze to Hazel and he incredulously questioned, "What the hell was that?"

Hazel sighed. "The end of the world, November 25th, 1963."

"You know, Hazel, I'm no history buff, but I don't recall there being a nuclear holocaust," Five said impatiently as he looked around.

"No shit."

Five pressed his lips together before asking, "What about our family?"

"Dead," Hazel answered with a sigh, "like everyone else."

"And where are we now?"

"Dallas. Same street. Ten days earlier," Hazel explained as he sat down on the bench that was in front of him. "Plenty of time to restore the timeline and save them."

"Okay." Five nodded as he and Valerie sat down on the empty spots. "So where do we start?"

"'We'?" Hazel repeated as he let out an unhumorous chuckle and shook his head. "You two are on your own. I'm just here to keep a promise to Agnes."

Five's eyes grew concerned as he tilted his head and slowly asked, "Is she . . . ?"

"Dead?" Hazel raised an eyebrow as he rested his arm on the briefcase next to him. "Yeah. Cancer. Took her quick. But we had twenty good years together. I guess forever just wasn't in the cards."

"I'm sorry, Hazel," Valerie murmured, her lips now formed into a small frown.

Five's eyebrows furrowed as he inquired, "What about the Commission?"

"I quit those assholes, remember?" Hazel scoffed. "I don't owe 'em the fuzz off my peaches."

Five nodded slowly before furrowing his eyebrows as he stared ahead of him. His eyes widened slightly, causing alarms to go off inside Valerie's head.

She followed his gaze to see three tall men, all with white hair and smirks on their faces, walking towards them with loaded guns in their hands.

"Well then, who the hell are those guys?" Five asked incredulously as he stood up.

"Shit." Hazel shoved something into Five's pocket before pushing the briefcase into Five's hands just as the men began to open fire. "Run!"

Five grabbed Valerie's hand and spatial-jumped both of them behind a bright blue car that wasn't too far away. Smoke rose from the briefcase, with about twenty holes appearing on the outside of it.

"How many times did I say 'bulletproof briefcases'?" Five groaned quietly as he stared at the briefcase. He peeked over the side of the car, his eyes widening as he looked over at Valerie. "They're coming."

"Drop the briefcase," Valerie muttered as the men began to shoot towards the car, the windows shattering upon impact.

Five immediately let go of the briefcase and Valerie grabbed him, speeding them to the top of the building next to them. She peered over the edge to see the men looking for them, baffled looks upon their faces.

Valerie then looked across the street to see Hazel sprawled across the bench, multiple bullet holes in him as his head was lolled onto his shoulder. She sighed as she moved her head back down, silently praying that the men wouldn't be able to see either of them.

Once the men were out of sight, Valerie brought her and Five back down to the alleyway they had first arrived in. They walked further in the direction of the apartment, only to see that someone in the middle window had been watching, only closing the curtain when they realized that the two had seen him.

"Hey, look at that," Five muttered as he nodded up toward the array of satellites and surveillance equipment that was situated at the top of the building.

"Let's go check it out." She nodded before heading towards the door, which had an old sign that read: MORTY'S AM/FM TELEVISION RADIO, SHIPPING & RECEIVING.

Valerie phased through the door while Five spatial jumped and they headed up the set of black stairs until they reached the second floor. 

Five straightened out his blazer as they approached the wooden door that read: MORTIMER GUSSMAN D.D.S. in gold lettering on the window, the blinds drawn so that they couldn't see anything.

Five knocked on the door, and, almost immediately, the door to their right opened.

A scrawny, middle-aged man with thinning hair and a worried expression on his face opened the door. "What do you want?"

Five gave him a smile, putting his hands in his pockets as the two of them turned to the man. "Hi, we're selling encyclopedias for our youth group. We were curious if—"

The door slammed shut.

"Encyclopedias?" Valerie echoed incredulously as she shook her head, a half-amused, half-exasperated look on her face. "What youth group sells encyclopedias?"

"Shut up," Five mumbled sheepishly. He motioned towards the door before he spatial-jumped inside, and Valerie followed, phasing through the door.

They arrived in the kitchen, where the man took notice of them and shrieked as he grabbed onto the counter.

Five had an entertained smile on his face as the man hurriedly opened his drawers, pulling out a small, dull kitchen knife.

"How'd you do that?" The man stared at them with wide eyes, panting as he pointed the knife toward Five.

Five shook his head and shrugged. "Don't really have time to explain."

"You from the Pentagon? Huh?" the man accused, jabbing the knife at them.

Valerie looked down at her seventeen-year-old body and crinkled her nose. "Definitely not."

"CIA? FBI! KGB?"

"Is that fresh?" Five ignored his accusations and pointed towards the coffee pot on the table that was a few feet away from them before spatial-jumping over to it.

The man screamed once more, his knife stabbing towards the direction of Five and then Valerie in a repeated motion. "What—?!"

Five ignored him and poured the coffee into an empty mug that was sitting on the table. He took a sip as he walked into the living room, then giving an impressed look down at the cup. "Hmm. This Colombian?"

"It's my own blend," the man said timidly as Valerie walked next to Five, eating a banana that she had stolen from the man's kitchen as she examined the room.

It was an absolute mess, to say the least. There was a couch with a blanket sprawled over it on one side, the coffee table in front of it being covered in a pile of magazines and papers. 

A desk with different radios stacked up on each other was pushed against the wall, and a board was on the wall, with hundreds of alien-related news articles pinned on it.

Five took notice of this and quirked an eyebrow. "You ever heard of, uh, Area 51? Roswell?"

The man's eyes widened before he began to chortle, spinning around in his spot as he threw the knife onto one of the many desks in the room. "Hot damn! Whoo! See, I always knew we weren't the only ones. See, Eleanor thought my head wasn't screwed on tight, but . . . but it's all true, yeah? UFOs, crop circles . . ."

"Well, the truth is out there," Five humoured him, a grand smile on his face.

"No, no, no, no, no. The . . . The truth, it's . . . right here in front of us." The man began to walk towards the two of them, his hands outstretched. The two of them took a step back, slightly worried. "Tell me, wh . . . why is it always an anal probe?"

Five leaned in closer to the man, an irritated smile on his face. "Any closer, and I'll melt your brain."

Valerie rolled her eyes. He couldn't even be a nice pretend alien.

The man's eyes widened as he immediately backed away towards the coffee table, nodding. "He needs a little space. Yes. I'll be over here."

Five began to walk near a long counter that was covered in junk. "All those contraptions on the roof, you built those, right?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, sure did." The man nodded eagerly, slightly nervous as Five turned to face him. "Yeah, I've been tracking anomalies in . . . in the atmosphere. Just waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Valerie questioned, her eyebrows furrowed.

"For you," the man answered simply as he looked between her and Five. "For all of you."