Chapter Thirteen:

It was a longer walk to Diego's place than he said, she was stick of having Five leaning up against her. The boy was half asleep and was laying almost all her weight on her, she had to stop and resort to wrapping her arms around his torso to hold him up until Luther stopped and noticed. He walked over and scooped his brother up again and they continued on, only taking another ten minutes or so to arrive at a small boxing place. She froze outside the little run down building, she really didn't want to go in there. This was one of the places she managed to sneak into when she spent her first year without a home. The old man seemed to always find her after awhile and chase her out, yelling at her to go get a job. But she had tried that, and it never worked. Nobody wanted to hire a sixteen year old girl and she never felt like trying to explain herself, nobody ever believed her.

"Aren't you coming?"

She looked a Diego and then took a deep breath, following them in. She stayed close to Luther, trying to hide behind his big frame. They rushed passed the main area and turned down a narrow hallway, she trailed behind until Diego stopped at a room labeled 'Boiler Room' and unlocked the door. The room was big, and clearly he hadn't been kidding when he said he lived there. Luther walked down the steps and gently placed Five on the bed, the boy curled up and exhaled loudly, eyes fully closed now.

"If I didn't know he was such a prick." Diego paused watching him, "I'd say he almost looks adorable in his sleep."

Lotus didn't disagree as she stepped next to the two men and glanced at the sleeping figure, he did look awfully at peace.

"Well, don't worry. He'll sober up eventually." Luther waved a hand walking away from the bed, "Be back to his normal, unpleasant self."

Lotus turned and watched as both brothers wandered around, finding something to keep their interest. "Has he always been like that?"

"Like what?" They both questioned.

She rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean."

Both were silent but then shared another look, she wondered if they were thinking the same thing. She figured he had always been snarky and stuck up but believed that his time away officially sealed him off from emoting like a normal person.

"He's very driven, nevertheless." She said, "About this whole apocalypse thing."

"Yeah well—"

There was a knock on the door and they all turned staring at it, as if the person standing on the other side would somehow reveal themselves. Had the attackers that Five had called Hazel and Cha-Cha had followed them, but how had they had found them in the first place? Diego already had a knife out as he silently approached the door, he lifted a finger to his lips to indicate their silence. His hand wrapped around the knob and he swung it open, ready to throw the knife at whoever stood there. Instead, a yelp sounded from an older man.

"You throw one more of those damn knives at me I'm pressing charges!" He shouted peeking into the room, his eyes landed on Lotus and he scowled. "You!"

Lotus took a step bed and nearly stumbled on the leg of the bed, she frowned standing up straighter.

"Hi, Al." She waved, "It's been awhile."

"What do you want, Al?" Diego sighed ignoring the other twos brief mingle. Al turned and glared at him, "I ain't your secretary." He seethed stepping back out into the hallway, "But some lady called you, needs your help or something."

"What lady?" Diego asked, clearly interested. You could see his mind connecting the dots behind his dark eyes.

"I dunno. Uh, some detective." Al shrugged, "I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or something."

"Patch? She needs my help?" His eyes lit up, a small smile threatening to take over her lips. "She needs my help!"

"She said to meet her at some motel, the dump on Calhoun. About an hour ago, actually." Al told them beginning to walk away, "Said she found your brother."

They all turned to look at Five, still curled up on the bed. "That didn't make any sense." Diego muttered. Lotus' brows scrunched as she thought, a name floating in her head.

"Klaus." She said looking back over at Diego, "It has to be him, right?"

"Go." Luther told his brother, "I'll stay here with—" but Diego had already slammed the door shut, his footsteps echoing in the hallway.

Lotus paced the room while Luther found a seat against the wall, he picked up a magazine and began rifling through it. It seemed he wasn't in the mood to say anything and for once she wasn't either. Her mind was spinning of the events of the past few days, of how she went from attempting to rob a bank to believing and trying to help a crazy person stop the end of the world.

Five shifted on the bed, she stopped and watched as he blinked wildly at the bright light of the room. He slowly pulled himself to a sitting position, eyes locking with Lotus.

"Oh god." He mumbled, placing a hand on his head. "Did I really throw up on you."

"Almost." She shrugged, "But I got you back for it."

He winced as he tried to move, he glanced at his side and then glared at her. Clearly he did remember that, but she didn't know if he remembered everything else.

Luther stood up taking a few steps and stopped next to Lotus, "When's it supposed to happen? This apocalypse?"

He wasted no time getting straight to the point, but Five raised a hand and pointed at the coffee machine placed on a counter. Luther huffed but walked over and began brewing a coffee, waiting a bit until it was finished and he poured it in a mug, handing it over to Five.

"I can't give you the exact date, but from I could gather, we have four days left." He took a long sip of his coffee, staring between both Luther and Lotus.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" His brother asked, but Five looked to Lotus with a frown. "It wouldn't of mattered."

"Of course it would! We could've banded together and helped try to stop this thing."

She frowned, already knowing the end to this part of the story. "You already tried." She finished for him, "You all die."

"What do you mean?"

"What she means is, I found all of you. All your bodies." Five replied, "You die, horribly. You were together though, trying to stop whoever it is who causes the end of the world."

"Wait? How do you know this?" Luther asked. He was curling and uncurling his fist as Five just took another sip of his drink, sighing as he swallowed the liquid.

"This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you." He explained digging a folded piece of fabric from his shorts pocket, he unravelled it to show a prosthetic eye. "Must've ripped it out of their head beside you went down."

"Who's head?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"There is a serial number on the back—"

"He's already tried that." Lotus chimed in, "I'm sure he's already tried more than that as well."

Luther turned and sent a glare her way, she frowned watching a wash of anger vanish from his face. "How do you know all this? I thought you said he told you nothing."

"He did tell me nothing. Just all bits and pieces are coming together now, it's all making sense."

"Where the hell did you even come from?"

Lotus' eyes narrowed as she stared up at him, "I already told you that."

"And why should I believe you, or any of us for that matter?" Luther questioned, "What if you're really not Number 14?"

Lotus chewed on her lip nodding angrily, she marched up to the man and grabbed his finger as she did the night they met. She felt the shiver and the change course threw her, she felt her torso grow and face narrow. She could see the change in the way Luther stood, he was no longer as confident staring at himself in the middle of a dank room.

"Does it matter what number I would've been?" She questioned, "It doesn't change what I can do or how much I want to help."

"Luther." Five's voice was raised, "Let me talk to Lotus alone."

"What, no—"

"Luther." He sneered. And to her surprise, the big man stalked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. Lotus sighed changing back into herself, she ran a hand through her long hair and shook her head.

"You've been standing up against many of the Hargreeves it seems." Five said placing his mug on the floor, "Good on you."

She rolled her eyes, "Maybe I do prefer drunk Five. He seems more fun."

"Yes, Yes." He sighed patting the empty space next to him, "You're hilarious."

She hesitated but sat next to him, "What do you want?"

He shifted awkwardly, staring at the ground. "You don't need to help me anymore."

"What?" She frowned, was she actually growing upset?

"If you don't want to, I mean." He looked at her, "You don't have to."

Lotus pursed her lips, she already knew her answer. "I want to help."

"Really?" She was shocked to see a small smile flicker on his face, maybe he was still very, very intoxicated.

"Are you ok?" She questioned. That seemed to snap him out of it because a grimnlined found his lips, "You know it's going to be dangerous."

"Obviously." She stood up and walked across the room, leaning against a metal support beam.

He raised his eyebrows, "What happened to just letting the world burn?"

Lotus shrugged, "Maybe I changed my mind."

The door burst open and she whirled around to see Diego storming down the stairs, Luther scrambling to get ahold of him. Lotus stepped in front of Five and raised her hands as a barrier, she knew he could get past her very easily but he stopped and Luther grabbed ahold of him.

"Piece of shit!" Diego yelled, "Do you have any idea of what you just did?"

No, Lotus thought. He probably didn't. But even if he did, would he care?