Dealey Plaza | Afternoon

[knife_bender]

They were really getting to learn the in's and out's of Dallas on this adventure, weren't they?

Once he, Annie, Allison and Klaus were assembled outside of the FBI building, Diego checked his watch. "Okay, we've got a little time before Kennedy shows up."

He looked at the doors to the building and then back at Annie. "I need you to stay out here."

And, yes, he knew that wasn't going to go over well.

Annie	Annie, who had been trying to subtly take in their surroundings and any suspicious characters, turned to him in confusion. "Uh, and I need you to not say crazy things," Annie replied, actually kind of taken aback. "Of course I'm going in." Come on, Diego. She'd just spent like an hour trying to convince herself he was fine when he was actually thoroughly kidnapped, so, like, she needed to go in for her own peace of mind. Not to mention the whole invulnerability factor. That would probably be, you know, mildly useful.
Diego	"This isn't, like, a protection thing, I promise." Only in their relationship would that be a normal thing to say. "But if we can't convince Vanya to stand down and this building blows?" Diego said. "You'll be the only person who has a chance of stopping her."
Annie	That was...grim, and it showed on Annie's face how much she hated hearing that. But the bitch of it was that he was absolutely right, and she was actually pretty proud of him for being able to see the big picture in a way she couldn't and likely never would have been able to. Real life selfless heroism, right before her eyes. She swallowed uneasily, then gave a quick, sharp nod. "All right." And even if she wasn't going to be as effusive as she might have been without Diego's brother and sister standing there, she was still going to lean up to give him a kiss. For luck. And in case he -- nope. "Be careful," she cautioned softly. "All of you." Vanya very much included.
Diego	Diego kissed her back, and then kissed her again for good measure. "You be careful too." He nodded at Klaus and Allison, who started heading to the door. "Shouldn't take long...hopefully."
Annie	"I'll be here," Annie promised, just shoving down all her worry about Diego, and Allison, and Klaus, and Ben, and even Vanya. This wasn't like last time. Probably. Unless it was. And at least Luther and Five were...somewhere. (She'd almost thought 'safe,' but you know. Probably not.)
Allison	By the time Diego caught up with Allison and Klaus, they were already in the elevator, holding the door for him. Allison felt a nervous anticipation as the door closed and the elevator started going up. "I hope we find Vanya in time."
Diego	That was, of course, when the lights started flickering and the elevator began shaking. Which wasn't good. At least the elevator made it to their floor rather than dropping them down into the basement. As soon as the door opened, all three were pushed back against the wall by some invisible force. There were flashing lights, and the door down the hall was shaking, just barely containing whatever force it held. Diego's eyes adjusted to the flashing lights, and he could see the bodies of what had to be FBI agents pinned to the ceiling, obviously dead.
Allison	It took some effort, but Allison managed to pull herself through the elevator's opening. Whatever force was pulsing behind the door made it feel like she was moving in slow motion. She literally had to drag herself to a turned over desk in order to shield herself for a few moments.
Klaus	Diego and Klaus followed, though Klaus had to be partially dragged by Diego. There was enough space behind the desk for all three of them to fit and try to figure out what to do. "Question, guys, who are we trying to save Vanya from?" Klaus asked, gesturing to the guys on the ceiling. "If the FBI are all sucking ceiling right now, why hasn't she stopped?"
Diego	Great question. One Diego did not have an answer to. "Vanya's in the room at the end of the hall." That seemed obvious, anyway.
Klaus	"And how do you propose we get to her?" Klaus asked, raising his voice as the power behind the door seemed to get louder and stronger.
Diego	"Haven't figured that out yet." Maybe run? Super fast?
Klaus	Klaus waved a hand. "Count me out."
Allison	Allison's mouth dropped open. "Klaus."
Klaus	"What?" he asked. "You guys save her. You're great at all the hero shit." And he was the good looking one. It was the balance he was most comfortable with!
Allison	"Oh, Klaus!" Allison shouted, reaching over to smack him.
Klaus	"Listen, listen, Vanya would understand 'cause she has realistic expectations of what I am," Klaus insisted. "And what I am is sexy trash!"
Diego	"You're a big pussy is what you are!" And to think Annie was out there worrying about their wellbeing right now.
Klaus	"Why? Because I don't wanna die?" Klaus asked. "Who does? And martyrs aren't around to join the victory party 'cause they're dead!" Just ignore the fact if they didn't pull this off they'd be dead anyway.
Diego	Diego reached out to grab Klaus by the collar. "I'm gonna beat you, and not the way you like it!"
Allison	"That's my cue," Allison said, pulling herself up off the floor. Immediately she was knocked down to her knees as the force coming from the door hit her straight on. All she could do was crawl on her hands and knees towards the door. "Vanya! Vanya!" The only reply was a violent pulse of energy from the door that knocked Allison back all the way to the desk, rendering her unconscious.
Diego	Well, fuck. "All right, I'm going," Diego said, already moving to crawl out from their hiding space.
Klaus	"No wait, wait," Klaus said, scrambling to grab Diego's shoulder. "If you don't make it back, there's one thing I need to tell you."
Diego	"Klaus, I don't have time for this!" None of them did--world ending, remember?
Klaus	"Please," Klaus begged, giving Diego a sincere, concerned look.
Diego	"What?" Diego shouted.
Klaus	"You look like Antonio Banderas with the long hair," Klaus replied, patting him on the shoulder. "I just thought you should know." If they died, at least Klaus could die knowing Diego knew that.
Diego	That was...actually kind of touching? "Thanks, man," Diego said, putting his hand over Klaus'. After a moment he let go, crawling out from behind the desk. The force of power from Vanya was almost paralyzing, Diego had never felt anything like it. He managed to pull two knives out of his pocket, slamming them into the floor in order to get some sort of purchase. He knew it wouldn't be enough. He could already feel himself fading. "Klaus! I'm not gonna make it! It's up to you, buddy! You gotta save the world!"
Klaus	Oh no, no, that was--that was way too much responsibility. "No, Diego, that's a terrible idea!" Everybody knew it! JFK in his motorcade knew it!
Diego	Ignoring Klaus' protests, Diego used his remaining strength to crawl towards where the emergency fire house was posted against the wall. One well placed knife and the hose was released, hopefully giving Klaus he could hold on to as he got to Vanya. Then his energy gave out, and he was thrown back against the desk next to Allison.
Klaus	Klaus winced when he heard the thud of Diego's body hitting the desk. Fuck. Fuck. This wasn't supposed to be up to him. He took a few calming breaths, though they didn't help much. Or at all. "Okay, Klaus. You can do this. You fought in Vietnam. You survived a family of seven. And you once wore a sarong to a fraternity party and got a shitload of numbers." The pep talk didn't do much in the way of his optimism this would work, but it did give him the courage to reach for the fire hose that was swinging wildly in the air. He pulled himself up to a standing position, sparing a glance to where Allison and Diego were unconscious. He started using the hose as leverage to pull himself closer to the door. He frowned when he realized he was going to run out of hose before he could get to the door. But still--he had to try something. With the last bit of strength he had, Klaus flung himself to the door, grabbing onto the handle. He was unconscious before he even realized he got the door open, but it turned out that was enough.

Old Man Five	Five made sure to keep up with Luther, leaving his younger self to trail behind them as the paranoia really started to kick in for the little shit. "Alright, just be cool till I finish the job on the grassy knoll. We'll get the time math and I'll ice the squirt."
Luther	Oh god. "I just wish there was another way, you know." Yeah, Luther, try to appeal to this guy's humanity, that would work.
Old Man Five	"There isn't," Five insisted, glancing back once at his insipid counterpart. "Look at him."
Five	Where Five was... well, he wasn't doing great, no. He was compulsively scratching now and practically baring his teeth at anyone who looked his way. "What are you looking at? See something funny?"
Old Man Five	"Worst case of paradox psychosis I've ever seen," Five remarked sadly. This was, in fact, the first and only case he'd ever seen. "What's wrong?" Don't go soft on him now, monkey-man.
Luther	"Well, I feel bad for him, you know?" Look at him. Look at the sweaty, angry child.
Five	"Mind your business, or I'll give you something to stare at!" Five shouted at a random passerby who deserved none of that hostility. "You wish you could pull off these shorts!" No one wished that, Five. No one.
Luther	Yeah, Luther was looking even more worried now. "He's just a little guy."
Old Man Five	"Everybody is a little guy to you. You look like King Kong and the Hitler Youth had a baby." Wow, at least you didn't have to worry about whether or not this was really Five with a comment like that. "Luther, I don't have time for you to tuck and squeeze here. Can I count on you to keep him under control?" Or did he have to eliminate you too? He wasn't paranoid, you were being paranoid!
Luther	Well, that was wholly unnecessary, Old Man Five! But someone older than him was counting on him. That had to mean something. "Yeah, I'll do my best."
Old Man Five	Five nodded at him, totally driving home those daddy issues with the implication that he was proud of Luther for manning up here. To murder his brother on behalf of the same brother. For now, he left him to keep the other Five under control, continuing ahead to lead them to where he needed to set up for the motorcade.
Luther	Luther slowed down to let the younger Five catch up to him. You know, once he was done yelling at strangers. "Hey, brother. How are you doing?" Nice and casual. Nobody is murdering anyone.
Five	"He's gonna kill me, isn't he?" Five asked, turning all that crazy energy on Luther. God, he was just so itchy.
Luther	"What? What, him?" Surely you jest! "He's gonna kill you? Yeah, right. That's ridiculous." Was he laying it on too thick?
Five	"You know, you're a terrible liar, Luther," he hissed. "You are a worse liar than you are a spotter." THAT'S RIGHT, FEEL SHAME OVER YOUR FAILURE.
Luther	"Okay, whose fault is that?" Luther asked. "What good is having a spotter if you won't even listen to him?" Maybe it was you who was the bad spotee, Five!
Five	Excuse you! He was doing his best here! "So you admit you're conspiring against me?"
Luther	"Do you admit you're suffering from paradox psychosis?" Teenagers were sweaty, but they weren't that sweaty.
Five	Five had to live with a bunch of teenagers before this! He was more of an expert on it than you, Luther! But no. No, they weren't. "All I'm suffering from is bracing clarity about you and your murderous intentions."
Luther	He didn't have murderous intentions! He was just not stopping someone else's murderous intentions. "He's not going to 'kill you' kill you," Luther said. "He just wants to kill, um, a version of you." There. Totally fine.
Five	"But I am that version," Five replied, trying to get reason through Luther's thick skull. He should have used a hammer, really.
Luther	Yeah, fine, Five did have the right to be upset about that part. "Look, I don't love it either," Luther said, like that would totally help things. "But he's actually got a pretty good plan." When was the last time you had a good plan, Five? Wait...
Five	"What? The one where you guys off me and then jump to 2019 to save the world?" Five asked, scratching compulsively and glaring up at his own back.
Luther	Luther looked shocked to hear that. That was some psychic shit. "How did you know that?"
Five	It was not, you dullard! "Because I'm him," Five shot back, just shy of a screech. "That's exactly what I would do if I were trying to kill me!" Had he though about it in the past? Maybe.
Luther	Okay, it was time for some tough love. "All I know is we've got one Five too many and you're the one acting like a maniac."
Five	"Maniac?" Five shouted, turning to get in his face on this. "Luther, you have seen nothing. If you want a maniac, I will show you a maniac." He'd find an axe right fucking now!
Luther	He was watching a maniac right now! "Okay, as your spotter, I think the best thing I can do for you right now is put you out of your misery." It was harsh, but fair.
Five	"Okay, Luther, listen up," he snapped, getting all up in Luther's face. Well, chest. Giant that his brother was. "I know your feeble mind only responds to age and authority, so listen very closely: yet again, you are experiencing daddy issues, this time with your own brother, which honestly is making me a bit crazy." Well, it was definitely part of it. "But remember this: I'm much older than him. I have seniority here. So it is me you should be listening to, Luther. I'm the daddy here!"
Luther	Oh god, was this more or less embarrassing than the time Klaus exposed his sex life in the bowling alley? More, it was more. This was 1963 and Texas, they probably didn't appreciate whatever sex games this looked like. "Five, please," Luther hissed. "You are being unseemly. Look at you."
Five	Accept it and move on, Luther! "I admit there is a possibility that I may not be in my fully right mind right now," he granted with a compulsive little twitch.
Luther	"Okay, good." Admitting it was the first step towards healing. Or accepting your death at the hands of your doppelganger.
Five	"But whatever I've got, he's got it too," Five hissed, jerking a thumb over at the other him.
Luther	Oh goddammit. "What?" Well they couldn't kill both Fives, that made no sense!
Old Man Five	"You two quit grab-assing, we're here," Five called back, feeling certain that his counterpart's obvious insanity would keep Luther on his side. Just please ignore how there was a long, looong fart as he crouched down to assemble his rifle.
Luther	"Flatulence. Stage four." Oh god they were going to die.
Five	"See? What's your plan now, bucko?" Five demanded, giving Luther some primo crazy eyes.
Old Man Five	Maybe if he just ignored it, they wouldn't notice. That didn't seem likely, so he was just going to keep an eye on his counterpart while pretending to be fully focused on the task at hand. Sucker. "This is my favorite part," he told, well, mostly just Luther. "The calm before the storm."
Five	The idiot was distracted. Five looked at the Commission issued briefcase and then at Luther pointedly. "Look," he whispered. "The briefcase."
Luther	"No," Luther said. "You won't be able to get there in time." Didn't they just go over this in the bar?!
Five	"Of course I will." Don't be ridiculous. He had this. It was fine. Everything was fine. "This is our only chance." So, was this what doing meth was like?
Luther	"Uh huh," Luther said. "Remind me, what's the final stage of paradox psychosis again?"
Five	"Homicidal rage." Oh, he was gonna do it.
Luther	"Right, that's great." Luther opened his mouth to say something to calm Five down--and oh, it was too late. "No, Five, listen to me! No--"
Five(s)	Nah, he was doin' it. He ran forward, not realizing his counterpart could see him out of the reflection in the scope of the rifle. So, instead of getting the jump on him, they had essentially just swapped places with a teleport each. At the same time. It was terrible.
Luther	You know...the both of them should have seen that coming. Probably would have if, you know, wasn't for the psychosis. "Oh shit." What did he even do here?
Old Man Five	You help Five kill Five, of course, Luther. "Bad idea, shitheel," Five said, raising the rifle to blow his counterpart's brains out.
Luther	"Oh for god's sake." At least he knew he was taller than the both of them. Luther put his hand around the barrel of the gun and yanked it away. Sorry, short people. "Stop it, all right? The both of you. Pull it together." As much as two maniacs could. "Now, Kennedy is going to be coming around that corner any minute. Okay? So, everyone, let's take a deep breath." He even took a deep breath. You know, to encourage Five(s) to do the same. "Now, we're all family here, okay? So can we try to get along for a few more minutes?"
Five	You know, Five really ought to be glad that Luther's better judgement finally happened, but... "You want it?"
Old Man Five	"Go ahead," Five replied. He'd get the next time.
Luther	"What's that?" Would there be a family hug before they blew out the President's brains?
Five	Oh, Luther. Luther. No, it was a sudden kick in the nuts delivered by your beloved brother instead.
Luther	He should have let the old man kill you, you sonofabitch! At least that was what Luther would have said if his life wasn't flashing before his eyes right now as he doubled over in pain. So much time on the moon.
Five(s)	You brought it on yourself. "Now, where were we?" Five asked himself before they launched themselves at each other in the most confusing, annoying fist fight possible. When you knew exactly what your opponent might do and you could both teleport around, it was just... the worst.
Luther	God, he hated this family. Hated them so much. "Would you please--"
Five(s)	Yeah, this time both of them teleported over to do it. At the same time. How do you like that, Luther?
Luther	He didn't like it at all! "I'm getting really sick of this!"
Old Man Five	"Getting tired yet?" Five asked, completely ignoring poor, poor Luther's pain.
Five	"I can do this all day," Five shot back, even though both of them looked so, so sweaty and like they might fall over at the drop of a hat at this point.
Luther	"Guys, this has to stop." He had been kicked in the nuts twice and he still could tell this fight was pointless.
Five(s)	"Eat shit, ape man," both of them said in unison before they tried to teleport into each other. Which had the fun side effect of causing a little explosion that sent both Fives backwards and disoriented for a moment. More than the whole paradox psychosis already was doing.
Luther	Thank god they just insulted him rather than kicking him. That at least gave Luther the chance to grab the gun and point it in their direction. "Hey! Assholes!" he called. "I'm done listening to the both of you. I'm in charge now."
Old Man Five	Hey, hey! You had a deal with him! "No, Luther, shoot him!" Five said, pointing at the other Five.
Five	Fuck that! This Five met him first! "Shoot him!"
Luther	Never in his life did Luther think he'd be a part of this trope. It really sucked. After some back and forth in his mind he finally aimed the gun at teen Five. "I'm sorry, buddy."
Five	Well, try being on the other end of it, pal! "Luther..." You were his fifth favorite sibling!
Luther	Again: Fucking rude. If he could read the narrative, he might have changed his mind about his next action. But since he couldn't, he went through with his plan of turning and smacking Old Man Five in the head with the butt of the gun. "Now! Open the portal!"
Five	Oh thank god. He made his way up to fourth with that move. "Right," Five said, nodding and taking a deep breath to work on it.
Old Man Five	As the portal was starting to open and a familiar scene for one Five and Luther appeared in it, the other Five had come to and was taking advantage of the moment to crawl for the Commission briefcase. You could all suck it.
Luther	Luther turned to point the gun at Old Man Five. "Don't even think about it." The spell of the old man was broken!
Five	"Into the vortex you go, asshole!" Five shouted gleefully. You know, this really ought to be drawing some attention at the rate they were going.
Old Man Five	"Fine! But give me the math," Five replied, slowly getting to his feet, wary of the gun. "So I don't even up looking like Tiger Beat over here."
Five	"You stand next to the vortex and I'll tell you." He knew himself too well to fall for this one. "Go! Closer!"
Old Man Five	He positioned himself just between the briefcase and the portal before stopping. "This is close enough! Now give it to me!"
Luther	Luther looked over at Five and nodded. Come on, give the old man a fighting chance to be...his gross old self.
Five	Fine. If he had to. This was only because you didn't kill him, Luther. Only reason. "It was a typo. We put a decimal in the wrong spot in our proof of the existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields of a fixed degree. We wrote down 5.7. It should be 0.57."
Old Man Five	A single decimal threw it off. Of course it did. "Son of a bitch. I knew that didn't look right," he said, eyeing himself speculatively. "Alright. I guess this is it." Not gonna apologize about the murder attempt.
Five	Well. Neither was he. "This is it. Go."
Luther	Luther looked into the portal, frowning when he realized there was something coming out of it, towards them. Was that a fire extinguis-- Yup. That was the fire extinguisher Klaus threw. If only he knew his throw landed to knock Luther in the face.
Old Man Five	Just the distraction he needed, suckers! Five dove for the briefcase, wrestling with his counterpart over it as Luther was downed by a stray fire extinguisher. He might need this, after all.
Luther	"Five!" The young--you knew which one you were! "It's shrinking!" Luther did the only thing he could think of, kicking the old man into the portal.
Five	Which sent him flying back into it. And that would have been great if he didn't also have the briefcase in his hands while Five tried to yank it back. And as such, only half of the briefcase stayed in Texas.
Luther	Luther either didn't notice, or didn't realize the implications, because he was looking at Five with a goofy grin on his face. "We did it!"
Five	Oh, don't worry, Five would let him know. "The briefcase, you idiot!"
Luther	And there went the smile. "Hey, you know what? A thank you for preserving your existence would be nice." You have been demoted in his personal sibling ranking, Five!
Five	Oh, please. Everyone knew that Allison was numbers one thru six. "A thank you--" he started before the sounds of the crowd picked up. "Luther! Luther, here he comes!" Yes, come watch the president get shot with your brother. As a bonding activity.
Luther	Oooh, family bonding! Luther went over to the fence, looking as the motorcade started to approach. Then he recognized a familiar figure. "Look, it's Dad. What do we do?" Shoot Dad? Shoot Kennedy? Shoot someone?
Five	"Uh oh," Five said, spotting someone even more concerning in the crowd. "Oh, shit. Diego."

Vanya	Klaus opening the door had opened the chance for Ben to reach Vanya and, well, he saved the day. Vanya was stepping out into the hallway, more or less unharmed, and immediately going to check in on her siblings who were slowly regaining consciousness. The thought of Ben popped into her mind, but Vanya wasn't ready to deal with that just yet. She had to make sure the rest of them were okay first. "Are you guys all right?"
Allison	Allison's nose was still bleeding and she still had ringing in her ears, but she immediately broke into a smile when she saw her sister. "Vanya."
Klaus	"Did we save the world or what?" Klaus asked groggily.
Allison	"I think so," Allison said. "Building's still here." Dead FBI guys were still dead but...whatever.
Diego	Diego had taken a couple moments to reassure himself that he and his siblings were alive, but Klaus' mention of saving the world had him looking at his watch. "Kennedy's still a few minutes away. I can save him."
Allison	This again. "Diego, no--"
Diego	"I still have time to stop Dad before Kennedy makes his final turn," Diego said hurriedly. "Look, I saw the explosion. I saw the tapes, Allison. The explosion causes doomsday. You're safe now. He doesn't have to die." Diego could hear Allison shouting after him, but he was already well on his way to the emergency stairwell to get out of the building.
Annie	Annie, who was pacing nearby and swiveling her attention between the building's exits and the crowd gathered to watch the motorcade, felt her stomach do a little flip-flop when she saw Diego. "Oh, thank God." Clearly they'd stopped Vanya. Also, clearly, Annie was about to get a lesson in sprinting in 1960s casual footwear.
Diego	"We gotta go!" Diego said, reaching for Annie's arm. "We can still save Kennedy!"
Annie	"It's gonna be close!" Annie warned, immediately taking off alongside him at a hard pace. And Diego, she figured, already knew that. But she had always been the slower of the two of them, and her shoes weren't helping. As they raced through the crowd, Annie scanned figures frantically for a guy who looked like he deserved tackling and was holding an umbrella. Diego was going to get there first, regardless, but she was determined to stick with him. Ride together, die together. (Or go to jail-slash-another-institution together.)
Diego	"There!" Guy with an umbrella near the grassy knoll. Diego ran faster, putting in one last burst of energy to tackle the guy. He got up on his knees, breathing heavily, but still wanting to get a nice quip in before his father-- Wait. This wasn't this father. That's when gunshots rang out.
Annie	"No!" Damn it, they'd been so close, and Annie couldn't help the way she glared down at the guy who absolutely was not Reginald Hargreeves, and it wasn't just that she'd nearly run into his umbrella. Oh, man, fuck that guy so hard for not being Reginald. She whipped around to look in the direction of the shots, already knowing from high school history class what she'd see if she managed to spot that convertible in the chaos. People were panicking around them, and already the grass was littered with discarded handheld US flags. "God fucking damn it."
Diego	Wait, this wasn't just some guy. Diego recognized the guy as his father's driver. "Where is he?!" The guy just handed Diego an envelope. Diego ripped it open and on a piece of paper with Reginald Hargreeves letterhead that read: Told you so. He lifted up the note for Annie to read, too angry to speak.
Annie	Okay, above all else: who typed a note like this? Annie's mouth set in a thin little line as she read it, then blew out a harsh breath and reached out to slide her arm across Diego's back, equal parts support and comfort. Like. She hadn't been pinning her hopes on this for months, and she was disappointed. "We've gotta go, babe." She wasn't even invoking that as a codeword this time. They just really needed to get out of here before someone started paying more attention to the couple who'd gone sprinting disruptively through people and crashed into some asshole with an umbrella.
Diego	"Yeah," Diego said, sounding a little shaky. "Yeah, come on. Allison will get Klaus and Vanya out. We need to get back to Elliot's." Hopefully that place wasn't swarming with FBI yet.

[NFI, NFB, OOC is appreciated. Taken from TUA 2x08 The Seven Stages and 2x09 743 and preplayed with apocalypsehow and defenderofdesmoines]