TWENTY TWO. in the end it's him and I

      McKenna had seen a lot in her lifetime. Done a lot of things to keep herself alive and to complete her missions. She'd traveled through many timelines by teleportation, hardly ever by car. But driving an ice cream truck to kill Hazel and Cha-Cha was definitely not what she expected to be doing. It would've been easy to use her powers to kill them herself, but she knew how important it was for Diego to get justice for Eudora. So she did it his way and told him it would be the last time.

She was ready to tear her own ears off as she grew tired of listens to truck music. She sat between Klaus as he drove the truck and Diego, who was by the other window. Driving over the hills, the closer they got, McKenna spotted Hazel and Cha-Cha standing with Five and Luther. "Remember the plan?" She said to Klaus.

"Don't worry about me, Peach. I've been waiting for this day!" He thrilled.

"What? To kill someone?"

"No, to highjack an ice cream truck without having to rob it."

She looked over at Diego. He closed his eyes and shook his head. They drove by Five and Luther and Klaus waved at them with a big smile on his face. His brothers looked utterly confused. "Go faster!" Diego shouted.

Hazel and Cha-Cha started shooting at the truck. "Brace yourselves!" McKenna yelled and gripped Diego's arm.

Suddenly as Klaus hit Hazel and Cha-Cha, everything froze mid air. McKenna looked at Diego and Klaus and saw them frozen, his hands still clutching the steering wheel. Her breathing went rigid and she touched her clothing, sighing when she realized she wasn't frozen. "What the hell?" She said out loud.

"Kenna?"

She blinked. "Five!" She said loudly and climbed over Klaus' lap. She jumped out of the truck and saw him standing there, also looking confused. She jogged his way. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here? This wasn't part of the plan?" He hissed.

"What plan? I had my own plan!"

"Oh, how I've missed this." At the sound of the familiar voice, McKenna's blood went cold. She looked over Five's shoulder and the Handler stood there with a briefcase in her hand. She sported an all black attire. A smile spread on her painted red lips. "Neat trick, isn't it?"

Five turned around and his face fell. He held his arm in front of McKenna, almost pushing he behind him.

"Hello, Five. Hello, McKenna." The Handler smiled wickedly. "You both look good. All things considered."

McKenna was almost afraid to talk. Five could hear her shallow breathing in his ear. "It's good to see you again." He spoke to her.

"Feels like we just met yesterday. Course, you were a little bit older then." Her immoral eyes shifted to the girl behind him and she smiled again. "Oh, Kenna, I've missed this version of you. You were so. . . innocent."

"Until you ruined it." McKenna uttered shakily.

"I've been looking for you for a long time." She motioned between them. "Congratulations to the both of you on the age regression. Very clever. Threw us all off the scent."

Five rolled his eyes. "Well, our circumstances were a little different." He replied and glanced at her over his shoulder. "I, personally, just miscalculated the time dilation projections, and. . . Well, y'know. Here I am."

The Handler looked between them. "I had a feelings the two of you would find each other again." She said with a smirk, which caused chills to run down McKenna's spine. "So, why don't you tell me what you really want?"

"Well, I want you to put a stop to it." Five took the lead. He held his hands behind his back, opening one of his palms. Slowly, he felt her hand slip into his and she held onto it tightly.

"You realize what you're asking for is next to impossible, even for me. What's meant to be is meant to be. You should know that. That's our raison d'être."

McKenna's eyes widened when he pulled a gun out of his shorts pocket. He still kept his other hand closed around hers. "Yeah? Well how about survival as a raison?" He threw back at her.

The Handler wasn't fazed. "I'll just be replaced. I'm but a. . . small cog in a machine." She looked at McKenna again with another manipulating smile. "But, I don't think McKenna would be very happy with that. After all, I did raise her."

She dropped Five's hand. "You trained me to be a killer." She stated and stepped out from behind him. She almost glared at her. "And then you planned to kill me as if the last twenty seven years meant nothing."

"Of course they meant something, McKenna." The Handler lied to her. "But you know the rules of the Commission."

Five grabbed her arm and pulled her back slightly. He kept his gun raised.

The Handler turned her attention to him. "This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse. . . is just that. A fantasy." She waved her fingers. When she took another step closer, McKenna stepped closer to Five, her glare deepening. "I must say though, we're all quite impressed with your initiative; your. . . stick-to-itiveness. Really quite. . . quite something. Which is why we want to offer you a new position back at the Commission, in management."

"You bitch. He's not going anywhere with you." McKenna snapped.

"Oh, but it's for the both of you, Kenna." She directed towards her. "I was able to convince the board that you're far too talented to be put to death over a. . . mistake." She lead with. "Come back to where you belong. Both of you."

"Well, it didn't work out too well the last time." Five brought up with a bitter tone.

The Handler continued. "But you wouldn't be in the correction division any longer. I'm talking about the home office. You'd have the best health and pension, and an end to this ceaseless travel." She spoke with a slight laugh. "You're a distinguished professional in. . ." She glanced at his attire. "Schoolboy shorts. We have the technology to reverse the process. I mean, you. . . you can't be happy like this." She lowered the gun with her hand.

McKenna had enough. She held her arm out in front of Five. "Stop. We're not going anywhere with you. I don't trust you." She spat with an evil look on her face.

"Don't tell me you've grown comfortable with this lifestyle, McKenna." The Handler said, motioning to her appearance as well. "Don't you remember who you used to be? You're McKenna Barlowe. You're better than living some wasteful life here, not revealing your greatness to the world."

Her words crept inside her brain but McKenna forced them to stay out. She clenched her jaw until her teeth felt like they were going to break.

"And what about my family?" Five spoke that time.

"What about them?"

"I want them to survive. They're not just my family anymore. They're Kenna's, too."

She glanced at him briefly.

The Handler looked over at Luther, who was howling the briefcase in mid air, then she looked at the frozen ice cream truck. She sighed. "All of them?"

"Yes, all of them." The pair stated in unison.

"I'll see what I can do." She responded and put her black sunglasses on. "But first. . . I need to know that both of you will be returning."

It was clear that Five was set on going back to the Commission. He wanted his old life back. Back to his own age. A life he could live with McKenna before it got ruined. But she was scared to go back, and she had a right to be. Five looked between them. "Give us a minute?" He said to the Handler.

She motions her hand to the side. "Be my guest."

He took McKenna by the hand and pulled her over to the side out of ear shot. He stood in front of her, pulling her in close. "I know you're scared." He said quietly.

"I'm not going back, Five. You don't understand." She said and her fear was clear.

"I do understand." Five grabbed her face with his hands so their eyes met. "Listen, we can do this. We can have our lives back."

She shook her head. "What about your family, Five? They just got you back. And I have Diego—"

"This is our chance to fix everything, Ken. To make sure they stay alive." He told her and rubbed his thumbs along her cheeks. He stared deeply into her eyes, almost begging. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay? I'll keep you safe this time. I promise."

This time. Two words that had a very powerful meaning. Five blamed himself a lot for how everything went down between them because he felt as if he didn't  do enough to get her to stay. But he could fix it now. They could go back to the Commission where everything started. They could be themselves again.

McKenna was still hesitant. She'd started a new life. She had Diego and his siblings. She was safe where she was. Going back meant the fear that consumed her would haunt her again. All the years she spent training to kill would come back. She didn't want that for herself.

But there was no changing Five's mind and McKenna wanted him safe. She wanted him alive. She would choose him every time. "Okay."

His eyebrows shot up. "Okay?"

She nodded against his hands. "Okay." She repeated.

Five grew a smile. He dropped his hands from her face. They walked back to the Handler, who was patiently waiting. When they stood in front of her, she held out her hand. "Do we have a deal?" She asked.

"One thing." Five responded. They watched him walk away and pick up the gun that was on the road. He took it apart and threw the parts into the field.

McKenna stood there awkwardly, shuffling on her feet. Every muscle in her body was tight, making her feel like she could faint.

Before he headed back, Five moved the frozen bullet to the side where it wouldn't hit Luther. When he was finished, he went back to them. McKenna gripped his arm tightly. Five shook the Handler's hand and they were gone, leaving his siblings behind.

When time started again, the ice cream truck rammed into Hazel's car and smashed it. Diego and Klaus bounced around in the truck, grunting from the impact. "Ow! What the hell?"

Diego glanced to the side and saw the empty middle seat. "McKenna?" He voiced. "Klaus, where's McKenna?"

"What?" His brotherly groggily replied. Klaus slid open the truck door and stumbled out. "Come on. Come on."

Diego jumped out of the truck. "McKenna!" He shouted the girl's name and looked around, but she was nowhere in sight.

Luther met them in the middle. "What the hell are you guys doing here?" They sprinted to his vehicle.

"Guys, where's McKenna?" Diego continued to shout.

"We don't have time! Get in the car." Said Luther and they scrambled into the vehicle.

"Luther, go, go, go!"

Diego's heart raced inside his chest. He rubbed his face and put his head in his hands, feeling as if he could have a heart attack. "I don't understand."

"What? She just disappeared?" Klaus said when his focus was now on the missing girl.

"Five was with me and he's gone, also." Luther told his brothers. He looked into the mirror. "What if they're together?"

Diego looked out the car window and huffed. "I'm gonna kill them both."

McKenna was suddenly taken back to a time where she felt like a prisoner. Where her girlhood was taken from her so she could become a killer, and what was scary is that she liked it. It thrilled her to go on those missions, to come back covered in blood and dirt because it proved to everyone how talented she actually was. She didn't know that she was being controlled, that the woman she thought loved her was actually the woman pulling at her strings.

The Commission looked the same as it did the day she left and McKenna felt like she was going to have a panic attack. Five held her hand the whole way, practically feeling the anxiety from her, but he remained calm.

"I must say Number Five in all the time that I've been here, I've never met anyone quite like you." The Handler said as the three of them walked to the building. "And Kenna, well, I've always known how special you are."

She remained quiet, not daring to say anything.

"Hazel and Cha-Cha, for example, are talented, certainly, but. . . they can't see the big picture. Your spunk, your enterprising spirt, Kenna's cunning ways, well, it reminds me a great deal of myself, if. . . I may be so vainglorious."

When she put her hand on Five's shoulder, McKenna wanted to break it.

"If things work out for you guys here, you could potentially make fine successors."

It was clear that she was trying to get a reaction out of them but McKenna refused to give her one. The business of the Commission took her back to years of memories, so many that she squeezed Five's hand harder.

"I'd like to discuss the logistics of my family's safety at your earliest convenience. As well as this body replacement," Five told her monotonous. "And I imagine McKenna wants to figure out the same."

Any other time, she would yell at him for talking about her like she wasn't in the room, but McKenna was still afraid to speak.

"Such chutzpah. It's refreshing, I'll admit. Slow down, Five. All in good time. In fact, now that you and Kenna have finally agreed to work with us, we've got all the time in the world."

They trailed back and Five glanced at her. "Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

"It's like I'm in a nightmare," McKenna finally uttered, "but it used to feel like a dream, you know?"

He did. "I've got you. It's okay." Five promised her.

"The Commission works in support of a delicate balance between the time line of events and mankind's free will," The Handler continued as she lead them through the bundling. They paused in front of the brief case room and McKenna felt her heart rate spike. "The briefcase is no longer part of your kits. Free your minds. Your management now. One of us."

The words made her feel nauseous. McKenna thought she had gotten away, that her past was left in the forsaken building and that she could build a new future for herself. But everything was coming back to her, all of the killing and the betrayal.

She led the two of them to the case management floor. "All the people on this floor are case managers, each one responsible for one major event at a time."

"So many of them." Five mumbled when he saw the many, many rows of desks in the room.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The Handler smirked. "Being apart of something. . .so grand. Come along. Whenever someone chooses the wrong path and the time line is changed, the Commission gets a report from field agents on the ground. You already know this, right Kenna?"

Again, McKenna didn't respond. She only looked the woman in the eyes for a whole second.

"These field reports are sorted and assigned to a case manager. They determine if anyone needs to be. . ."

"Killed."

They both looked at her, Five surprised that she had actually said anything. "Removed I was going to say," said the Handler, another smirking hinting on her lips. "Removed from the equation to assure that their event happens as it should."

She led them into the delivery room.

"Based on that determination, the case manager sends instructions via pneumatic tube to. . .assassins like you both formerly were. Any queries so far?"

"Yeah," said Five. "Who was the case manager handling me?"

McKenna's brows raised. That's a good question.

"Ah. You mean the apocalypse," The Handler said and dragged her fingers along her cheek, causing McKenna to glare at her and she put her hand on Five's arm.

As the walk around the Commission continued, the worse the anxiety McKenna was feeling got. Holding Five's hand with a death grip didn't make it any better but she was so afraid to let go, afraid if she did then they would be separated again. But he squeezed her palm, sending silent signals that he wasn't going to let her go, something that only made her feel worse inside when she remembered everything that happened.