Forty-five years, to get here. Forty-five years, innumerable murders, and puberty twice, to get back and save the world, and the world was getting destroyed again anyway. To anyone else, it would have been a depressing failure. To Number Five, it was progress.
Last time, his family had died. This time, he would save them. Last time Harold Jenkins had lived long enough for Luther to rip his eye out. This time Vanya had dealt with the problem herself. Last time he hadn't known what had happened. This time and going forward, he did.
He had no doubt he could carry his family with him on one big jump into the past. He'd never even thought about carrying anyone with him before, much less tried, but since doing six at once (seven if you counted Ben) was their only shot at fixing things for real? Number Five always did whatever was necessary, and allowed nothing to stop him.
Was it harder? Yes. Were the equations compounded to the nth degree by having to account for 4-6 additional temporal change vectors and having that many more consciousnesses to project into suspended quantum-state versions of themselves? Oh hell yes. Was traveling to the past harder than traveling to the future? Of course.
But he did it. He felt all of them move into the quantum state with him, even unconscious Vanya. Even a wispy thing that was probably Ben. No doubt the fire burning out the world swept across the stage seconds later, but they were safely out of it.
When he opened his eyes on the world, the first thing he did was look around for his siblings. They were... not there. And, come to that, the 'world' seemed to be a desert surrounding an old-ish road. Not a city. Not civilization. For a few seconds, it was like the bottom of Five's stomach dropped out - had he miscalculated? Was he back in the apocalypse? What had happened to his brothers and sisters?
Only for a few seconds, though, because then Five kicked adaptation into gear. What had happened to the others was either simple or complicated. If simple, they were all in this time, but physically scattered. He might have rounded wrong on the spatial coordinates. If that, they wouldn't be hard to find. If it was complicated, well... that would be harder. So be it.
In the meantime he had to take care of himself. A less upset look around revealed an intact building in the distance. Five stepped towards it and jumped outside the front door. It looked like a hotel? Tacky decor aside, it was nicer than the ones the Commission booked for its agents, but Five put a 'to be dealt with later' mental pin in the idea that maybe all of this was Commission fuckery.
Front desk, complete with desk drone staring at him. (Five ignored the desk drone.) Restaurant/cafe to one side. Fine. He'd have to swing by again and convince someone to let a thirteen-year-old rent a room with no parents in sight, but for now he pulled at space and jumped elsewhere.
This seemed like the only structure in easy range, he had to stay at least temporarily. But he was not going to do it without a little recon first.
Number Five - Assigned and OTA
Last time, his family had died. This time, he would save them. Last time Harold Jenkins had lived long enough for Luther to rip his eye out. This time Vanya had dealt with the problem herself. Last time he hadn't known what had happened. This time and going forward, he did.
He had no doubt he could carry his family with him on one big jump into the past. He'd never even thought about carrying anyone with him before, much less tried, but since doing six at once (seven if you counted Ben) was their only shot at fixing things for real? Number Five always did whatever was necessary, and allowed nothing to stop him.
Was it harder? Yes. Were the equations compounded to the nth degree by having to account for 4-6 additional temporal change vectors and having that many more consciousnesses to project into suspended quantum-state versions of themselves? Oh hell yes. Was traveling to the past harder than traveling to the future? Of course.
But he did it. He felt all of them move into the quantum state with him, even unconscious Vanya. Even a wispy thing that was probably Ben. No doubt the fire burning out the world swept across the stage seconds later, but they were safely out of it.
When he opened his eyes on the world, the first thing he did was look around for his siblings. They were... not there. And, come to that, the 'world' seemed to be a desert surrounding an old-ish road. Not a city. Not civilization. For a few seconds, it was like the bottom of Five's stomach dropped out - had he miscalculated? Was he back in the apocalypse? What had happened to his brothers and sisters?
Only for a few seconds, though, because then Five kicked adaptation into gear. What had happened to the others was either simple or complicated. If simple, they were all in this time, but physically scattered. He might have rounded wrong on the spatial coordinates. If that, they wouldn't be hard to find. If it was complicated, well... that would be harder. So be it.
In the meantime he had to take care of himself. A less upset look around revealed an intact building in the distance. Five stepped towards it and jumped outside the front door. It looked like a hotel? Tacky decor aside, it was nicer than the ones the Commission booked for its agents, but Five put a 'to be dealt with later' mental pin in the idea that maybe all of this was Commission fuckery.
Front desk, complete with desk drone staring at him. (Five ignored the desk drone.) Restaurant/cafe to one side. Fine. He'd have to swing by again and convince someone to let a thirteen-year-old rent a room with no parents in sight, but for now he pulled at space and jumped elsewhere.
This seemed like the only structure in easy range, he had to stay at least temporarily. But he was not going to do it without a little recon first.