Word count: 2507

"𝐈'𝐌 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐘, 𝐃𝐎 you mean to tell me that you searched all of Dallas in less than a minute?" Diego asked incredulously as he stepped towards her.

"All six hundred thousand miles." Valerie nodded and shrugged. "Don't act surprised, idiot. What do you think super-speed means? That I can control fire?"

"He okay to leave here like that?" Five questioned as he gestured towards Elliott, who was watching them anxiously.

"Yeah, he's fine," Valerie said dismissively with a nod.

Five turned to Diego and raised his eyebrows. "What about the girl?"

A look of realization came over Diego's face as he glanced over his shoulder and breathed out, "Shit."

As Diego went to find Lila, who had disappeared during their conversation, Five turned to Valerie. He seemed concerned, his green eyes roaming her face as he murmured, "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am," she said as she furrowed her eyebrows. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You said it yourself, you ran six hundred thousand miles in less than a minute," he pointed out with a small scoff. "That's a lot."

"It's not that bad." She shrugged. "I'm not tired at all."

"Well, I don't want you to pass out again," Five sighed, ruffling his hair with one hand.

Valerie frowned. "I know, and I'm sorry that it happened, but—"

"Hey, hey, I'm not blaming you for anything," he interrupted quickly as he placed a caring hand on her shoulder, grasping it tightly as he shook his head. "I just don't like seeing you hurt."

She gave him a small smile before leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "I know."

Diego came not long after, a determined look set on his face as he rolled his shoulders back. "All right, so are we driving there or—"

Valerie grabbed onto him and Five's collars and ran the three of them to the plain building from before.

It was dark out, and no lights were lit inside the building to indicate any sign of life. Next to the glass doors was a white sign with the familiar logo of an umbrella on it, the words D.S. UMBRELLA MANUFACTURING COMPANY accompanying it.

"This is it." Five nodded after both men had recovered from the nausea that had overcome them.

"'D.S. Umbrella.'" Diego stared in disbelief as he read the name off of the sign that sat next to the door. "This is it."

"What, you didn't believe me?" Valerie scoffed.

Five suddenly stopped a few feet away from the doors, his eyes glued to the sign. An unsettled look came across his face as he swallowed.

Valerie stopped walking and turned to him as she softly asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Five nodded before beginning to walk towards the doors again. He sighed as they stood in front of the doors and shook his head, "Just . . ."

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

"Twenty-one years," Five answered as he leaned against the doors, his hands in his pockets.

"That's a trip." Diego got onto his knees in front of the handle, starting an attempt to pick his way through the lock.

"No kidding," Five scoffed as he tried to look through the tinted doors. "You know, when I was stuck out there 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?" Valerie asked as she watched Diego fail over and over again.

"Ah, shit," Diego muttered.

Five looked towards the ground, shaking his head slightly as a miffed smile came onto his face. "'I told you so.'"

"Well, if Dad's here, he's never met you before, so he can't say 'I told you so'," Valerie said as she gave him a small smile.

Five's eyes turned towards her, his miffed smile only growing as he told her, "I'm sure he'll find a way."

"Ah, jeez, Diego," Valerie grumbled as he failed to open the door yet again, shaking her head. "How many times do I have to remind you of my powers?"

She rolled her eyes before phasing through the doors, then unlocking and pushing the right door open. Five held the door open for Diego to go through before coming inside himself.

"Right." Diego nodded as he got to his feet. "Gotta remember that."

The foyer that they were in was barely lit, the only source of light being from the faint moon outside. There was a long, wooden desk on the left, and a couple of sofa chairs on the right. A couple of lamps accompanied the coffee tables, and there were two doors, one on each side of the room.

Five reached inside one of the lampshades and turned it on before walking with the other two. Only a moment later did the lamp flicker off.

The three of them turned to stare at the light with confusion.

"Shit," Five breathed out.

"Guess Dad wasn't much for home decor," Diego commented as he looked around the simply decorated room, his face scrunched in disapproval.

Five leaned over and punched a mauve pillow that sat on a couch. "Feels more like a front."

"A front for what?" Valerie asked with a crinkled nose

Five sighed as he looked around, "I don't know."

"Well, I'll take the left," Diego instructed as he slowly walked towards the left door. "You two go right. Yell if you, uh . . . get in trouble."

"Glad to see he's still as inspiring as ever," Five muttered to Valerie before pulling the door open.

The two entered a narrow, coolly lit hallway, where many doors rested on either side. Five tried opening the first door on the left but to no avail. He moved onto the door on the right, furrowing his brows as he twisted the handle. He then pushed the door open, the handle not seeming to be attached to the door.

Valerie turned on the light switch that was attached right next to the door, and the lights inside slowly flickered on.

The room seemed to be the design of an average living room. A painted neighbourhood was on the back wall, with curtains on either side. A family of mannequins sat around the coffee table, the mother and daughter on one couch while the father lounged on the other.

"What are you up to?" Five muttered softly just before the lights went out.

They moved onto the next room, where another family sat around a dining table, plastic food set in front of them. There was a filming camera set on a tripod in front of them, and a studio light next to it, for whatever reason. However, this room had an actual desk with folders on it, intriguing the two of them.

Searching through the papers, Valerie found a white envelope, slightly thick with an invitation inside. She pulled it out and nudged Five, the two of them reading it together.

𝓜𝓻. 𝓗𝓸𝔂𝓽 𝓗𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓴𝓸𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻
𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒
𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒢𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝑀𝑒𝓍𝒾𝒸𝑜 𝒾𝓃 𝒟𝒶𝓁𝓁𝒶𝓈

𝒸𝑜𝓇𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝑔𝒶𝓁𝒶 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝒹 𝒶𝓉
𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝓍𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒
𝑜𝓃 𝑀𝑜𝓃𝒹𝒶𝓎, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝟣𝟪𝓉𝒽 𝑜𝒻 𝒩𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇, 𝟣𝟫𝟨𝟥
𝒶𝓉 𝟧:𝟢𝟢 𝑜'𝒸𝓁𝑜𝒸𝓀.

Five took the letter from her and folded it in half before tucking it inside of his blazer.

Suddenly, the clattering of metal sounded behind them, causing them to look at each other with alarm. They slowly turned and approached the back of the room, tip-toeing around the random toys on the ground.

A soft cooing noise came before the perpetrator revealed himself from behind a big, metal chest. A tiny monkey waddled out, wearing a boy's pyjama pants. He had a curious expression on his face as he stared up at the two.

"Pogo," Valerie breathed out, her eyes widening as the monkey gave soft hoots.

Five kneeled down in front of Pogo, speaking softly with a smile, "Hi, Pogo. It's all right, little buddy. It's good to see you."

Five reached out to touch Pogo, but the monkey let out an ear-splitting shriek before scratching his nails into the left of Five's neck. Five let out a cry of pain as he fell down to his side while Pogo leapt through one of the windows, the glass shattering as he disappeared.

"Five!" Valerie dropped to her knees as he groaned in agony, clutching the side of his neck. "Let me see."

She gently moved his hand down to see three bloody scratches on the side of his neck, courtesy of Pogo's sharp nails. It seemed quite deep, immediately worrying Valerie.

"We should get back to Elliott's," Valerie instructed as they stood up, Five tentatively covering his neck.

"What about Diego?" Five muttered.

"One second." Valerie raced through the entire building, but only found empty space and more strange mannequins. She went back to Five and shook her head, a frown on her face. "He's not here."

He furrowed his eyebrows as he leaned towards her and asked, "What do you mean 'he's not here'?"

"The hell does it sound like? I mean he's not here!"

"Then where is he?"

"I don't know!" Valerie shrugged and shook her head once again. "Maybe he went back to Elliott's? Or maybe he was murdered?"

He gave her an incredulous look as he pointed out, "Those are two very different ideas."

"Here, let's go back to Elliott's, and if Diego's not there, I'll search the city for him," she offered, nodding quickly.

Five instantly shook his head at the proposal. "I'm not letting you run another six hundred thousand miles."

"Oh, come on," she sighed, "it's no problem for me."

"The last time you passed out, you had only run four hundred thousand miles," he pointed out, his eyebrows raised.

"That's different," Valerie mumbled, pouting slightly.

"How?"

"I didn't eat that day."

Five narrowed his eyes at her, tilting his head to the side as he suspiciously questioned, "And how much have you eaten today?"

"I ate, like, seven of those disgusting excuses of a bar," she said as she waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, that doesn't matter right now, we need to clean those scratches before you get an infection."

Five sighed, "Fine."

She grabbed onto his shoulders and sped them back to Elliott's living room, where they found Lila crouched over an unconscious Diego. There was a bloody wound in the right of his stomach that Lila seemed to be healing.

"Oh. He isn't dead," Five mused as he and Valerie walked into the living room.

"Disappointed?" Lila questioned as Valerie found a square of gauze and handed it to Five.

"To see you?" Five gave her a sarcastic smile as he pressed the gauze against the cuts. "Always."

"So much hostility in such a tiny package," Lila remarked. She narrowed her eyes at the boy's injury, and asked, "Did you cut yourself shaving? I could teach you to shave like a big boy."

"No," Five sighed. "Just ran into an old family friend."

Suddenly, a faint snore filled the room. Valerie and Five turned to see Elliott still bound and gagged in the kitchen, now sound asleep.

Valerie looked back at Lila with raised eyebrows. "You didn't untie him?"

Lila feigned innocence, batting her eyelashes as she questioned, "Was I supposed to?"

Valerie sighed before walking over to Elliott, gently untying his hands and legs before taking the cloth out of his mouth. She figured he'd wake up on his own, so she let him sleep peacefully on the chair.

She went back to the living room, where Five was having an intense stare-off with Lila, and grabbed his hand. "Goodnight, Lila."

"Nighty-night, little ones," Lila called after them as Valerie led the two of them to the bathroom.

"I'm older than her," Five muttered angrily.

"Well, she doesn't know that," Valerie murmured as they entered the bathroom. "Take your shirt off."

"Oh?" Five raised his eyebrows at the sudden request, a playful smile appearing on his face.

Valerie stared at him for a moment before whacking him on the arm. "Not because—you need to wash the scratches to clean them, and I didn't want your shirt to get wet."

"Sure, I'll believe that." Five smirked as he slid his blazer off, throwing it onto the counter.

Once all of his uniform top was off, Valerie instructed him to lean his head over the sink. She gently washed the wounds with water and soap, then rubbing an antiseptic lotion that she had found in the closet onto it after drying it.

"Put your clothes on."

"Are you sure?" The smirk was back on his face as he slowly reached over to grab his shirt. "Because, I mean, I know you—"

"Just put your shirt on, dumbass," Valerie sighed before heading towards the bedroom.

She hung her blazer on one of the chairs, wishing more than ever that she had other clothes that she could wear to bed. Her only other option was Elliott's clothes, and that was something she was not about to wear.

"You okay, Val?" Five questioned once he entered the room. His eyes watched her carefully as he tentatively scratched his neck. "You seem more stressed than the time we had that pop quiz on sinusoidal waves when we were sixteen."

"I'm fine," Valerie muttered as she pulled the blanket back and slipped into the bed.

"Okay, I don't believe you." He gave a small shake of the head as he laid down beside her. "What's wrong, darling?"

She stared at him with narrowed eyes as she whispered, "How dare you."

"What?" he questioned innocently, though a grin spread onto his face. "Did I say something wrong, darling?"

"I will throttle you right now."

"Oh no, darling, don't do that." His grin only became wider, loving how infuriated her expression was slowly becoming.

"You little—"

"Maybe, darling, if you told me what was wrong, darling, I wouldn't call you darling, darling."

"Nothing's wrong!" Valerie insisted with a sigh.

"Then I won't stop calling your darling, my sweet, sweet darling."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," she groaned as she rubbed her eyes.

"Just tell me, darling."

Valerie was silent for a moment before confessing, "I'm just worried."

"About what, dar—"

"No."

"About what, Val?"

"That we won't be able to stop the apocalypse. Again," she murmured as she turned on her side to face him. "I mean, Diego's half-dead, Luther wants nothing to do with us, we have no idea where anyone else is, Dad is apparently involved in J.F.K.'s assassination, we have to worry about those weird Swedish guys who killed Hazel, and we are nowhere close to knowing what even causes the end of the world."

Five wrinkled his nose. "Well, yeah, I guess it's pretty worrying when you put it that way."

"You think?"

He gave her a soft smile, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as he pulled her closer to him. "Relax, Val, we still have eight days to figure everything else out."

"We had eight days the first time," she pointed out as she nestled into his side, resting her hand on his chest as she frowned.

"Okay, yes," he admitted with a slow nod, "but . . . we had two extra days this time."

"Which were almost completely pointless."

"Exactly. Almost."

"It's not great."

"We'll figure it out," Five promised, kissing the top of her head. "We're Valerie and Five, remember? Super cool and strong and awesome."

"You know that's not true," she laughed lightly.

He gave a small shrug. "I'm just saying what you told me the first time."

"And at that time, I also said it wasn't true." Valerie raised her eyebrows, shaking her head slightly.

"It's more than true." He kissed her again, this time on the lips. Keeping his face only inches away from hers, he whispered, "We can do this."