12. His Plan

The blue light is blinding, that's why Elisa squeezes her eyes shut. With Five's arm around her waist and Elisa's hands curled around his other arm, she hopes it'll be enough not to fall down in the blue light underneath the two.

It takes longer than she'd have thought. It takes longer than she wishes. That's why the fright inside of her grows every second that the blue light stays.

She presses her body closer to Five, afraid that the light will absorb her.

"You're safe," Five whispers after a while. "You can open your eyes." A chuckle of his follows, causing Elisa's eyes to fly open immediately.

"How long have we been here?" she asks him while looking around. They're somewhere inside. An apartment, to be exact.

Five's smile betrays him.

"A minute, I think."

"A minute!" Elisa exclaims, raising her eyebrows. "You bastard!"

"A thank you would be nice," Five mumbles while smirking. He's obviously enjoying this.

Elisa's eyes widen even more. She takes a deep breath, as if preparing herself. "Thank you," she mumbles.

Her hands let Five's arm out of their grip, and she takes a step backwards, leaving him with a taunting smile on his lips.

With a relieved sigh, Five falls down onto the couch next to him. Elisa doesn't. Instead she turns her head so she can get a clearer image of the apartment.

"Another apartment you're renting?"

"Nope."

"Another room in the house you brought me to when I was wounded?" It doesn't seem likely, but it could. Though, the interior is completely different. This room has warm tints compared to the room Elisa woke up in after being shot. That one's interior was cold.

"Wrong again."

"Where are we?"

"My sister's apartment."

Elisa's head turns to Five again. His head is leaning on the back of the seat and his eyes are closed. Just now she notices how tired he looks. He has circles underneath his eyes, and it seems like he hasn't slept in days by the way his body lets the couch absorb itself completely. Her body is also tired, thanks to the amount of energy she needed to use. But her mind is even more tired. It feels like it is dying.

She frowns as she allows herself to think back of what happened today. She wasn't long at the commission; maybe a few hours. And so much has happened. Too much has happened. Elisa feels like she has been robbed of the reason to live. Maybe it's true. Maybe she truly doesn't have a reason to live anymore. Without Morgana it feels like she's alone in the entire world. It feels as if nothing is worth fighting for anymore.

Her Morgana is no longer. Not because she's dead. Actually, she's perfectly fine. . . physically. But she's been changed mentally. The commission tried the exact same with her that they tried with Elisa. Morgana allowed the handler to change her kind soul. Elisa didn't. She didn't change into a murderer.

"Sit down, Elisa." It's five his voice that shakes her out of her worries.

Elisa opens her eyes-she didn't even know she closed them while replaying what happened today in her head, and looks at him. His eyes are on her, and they're worried.

"You look horrified and very, very overdone." he remarks, frowning at her.

"All right," Elisa whispers softly while she sits down on the other side of the couch, careful not to sit close to Five. He, of course, notices this and chuckles.

It stays quiet for a while. They don't need to talk. It's comforting to finally have a little bit of silence and rest. . . maybe even safety.

"You're calling me Elisa," Elisa remarks, turning her head to Five again. He does the same and turns his head to her, too.

"Yes." He smiles. "I could call you Samantha, too, but. . ."

"It's okay." Elisa shrugs. "It's been a long time since I heard that name. Today. . . was different. It was weird to be called Elisa again, but I don't mind at all. In fact, I really missed it."

Five smiles at the girl as she talks. She looks calm.

"I never lied about my name," Elisa continues. "Sam or Samantha was my name for a little over a year."

"Well, Elisa..." Five trails off to think of what he was about to say. "That was a complicated scene back there."

"It was." Elisa chuckles-actually chuckles. "It complicated even more when you saved my ass again."

He stays silent, but his eyes stay on the girl. When Elisa realizes that he won't talk, she decides to speak up again. "Why did you do it? Now you've got the commission after you."

"It was time for me to leave that sickening place," he reassures her. . . or tries to. "I was only there for one reason."

"Don't tell me you had some crazy crush on someone there." Elisa starts to laugh at the thought. "The handler!"

"Disgusting human!" He laughs with without realizing it. The two continue laughing.

Elisa then throws off her shoes, and presses her knees against her chest. It reminds her of last night. The nightmare fills her thoughts again. Morgana never needed saving from getting killed. She needed Elisa to save her soul. But Elisa is afraid it's too late. Morgana's soul is doomed. Really doomed. That part was very clear when Morgana attempted to put Elisa in the cage without any hesitation.

"I wanted to find out what the cause of the apocalypse is," he admits as he watches Elisa's expression sadden.

She looks away abruptly, breaking the eye contact that the two have been holding for several minutes now. "Now you know..."

"Yes." He sighs. "Now I know."

"Why did you want to know?"

"I want to save my family." It's Five who looks in front of him now, avoiding eye contact with Elisa. "I want to save the world."

"What's your plan, then?"

"Well..." He half chuckles, half sighs. "The first step was to find out what or who caused the end of the world."

"Check."

"Check," he repeats Elisa in a whisper. "Now I have to find out how to stop your Morgana."

Your Morgana.

Elisa closes her eyes again. Morgana isn't hers. At least, not anymore. She might've been once, but things have changed. Morgana has changed. She became the monster that Elisa never wanted to become. She became the cause of the end of absolutely everything.

"She's not my Morgana." Elisa looks at him again. This time with a sad smile on her lips. "Not anymore."

"I'm sorry for that," he whispers, meaning it.

"Me, too," she admits before she meets his gaze again. "So you were at the commission to find the cause of the apocalypse?"

"Yeah," he smiles slightly. "Didn't like it for one second."

"It took long to find out about the cause then," Elisa says, causing Five to frown at her. "You've got amazing skills. You must've been there a long time to become so good."

Five nods. "I was an assassin there for some time, but I was taught quite a lot at home, too. I learned how to fight, how to use my powers for a part from my f-" he stops himself. "From Reginald Hargreeves. Then I left the commission for a little while, but unfortunately I had to return because I didn't know what the hell could cause the end of the world." He leaves information out, obviously. Not not all can be shared.

"Reginald Hargreeves," Elisa repeats the familiar name. "I've heard from him before."

"Oh. Yes?"

"Yeah." The corners of Elisa's lips curl up a little. "Living with the handler you know. . . Tell me more about him."

"It's an old man." Five chuckles, remembering his hate towards the man that adopted him. "An awful man, too. He was cold and always working. He only cared for our powers. He used to say that we were meant for great things, but I doubt it."

"Why?"

"All my siblings their lives are useless in this world," he admits. "That sounds rude-they don't have something that would change the world, you know. Yes, they have these cool powers, but that's it. One brother has been living on the moon; totally crazy that one. Another brother is addicted to all kinds of drugs. It goes on. That's why I didn't know why my father trained us all those years because we were meant for great things. The old man was probably nuts. Still, a sister of mine: Allison-an actress, she's popular. But again, I don't think it's what he meant with 'great things'."

Elisa listens, glad that she can put her mind off the whole Morgana situation for a little while. The story interests her.

"I think I know Allison," she tells Five. "But isn't she older than you? No offense but I thought he adopted all those babies in one time? Did he adopt you so many years later?"

Five laughs, and he does so very loud. It makes Elisa frown. That's why he starts to enlighten her. He tells her about running away, being stuck in the apocalypse; he tells her everything. And Elisa continues listening.

"You should've shot the handler when you had the chance," Elisa tells him as a smile creeps onto her lips. "Would've been easier for us all."

"I am glad that she got me out of that hellhole, though." He shrugs. "But afterwards, yeah, I should've done that."

Elisa wants to ask him more, even tell him more about her life, but the lock in the door turns, telling the two that someone is coming.

"Should we go?" Elisa whispers, afraid that it might be the commission.

"Don't worry," he reassures her. "It's Vanya."

Elisa knows Vanya. She's met her a while ago. She doesn't know how long it has been. A few days ago maybe? Time went too fast.

It doesn't take long until a head peeps from behind the door. Vanya's eyes widen immediately.

"Jesus!" she exclaims when her eyes fall on the two on her couch. "Five! Again?"

"Sorry sis." He chuckles. "Didn't mean to frighten you. . . again."

"Did you climb through the window again?" she asks her brother, avoiding a talk with me. "Are you going to complain about there not being locks on my windows once more?"

"I spatial jumped in," he explains. "Sorry to barge in."

Vanya shrugs it off, mumbling a 'I'm getting used to it,' and then she lays her eyes on Elisa for the first time now. The girl is watching her, waiting to get thrown out. But Vanya doesn't say a thing.

Five notices this, and he says: "You never got her name; this is Elisa. Elisa, this is Vanya."

After swallowing, Elisa forces the corners of her lips to curl up again. "Hi, Vanya."

"Hello," Vanya forcers herself to smile, too. "Are any of you wounded? Last time Five came here, he was bleeding."

"I think we're both fine," five tells her, but turns his head to Elisa afterwards. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Still with the slight smile on her lips, Elisa shakes her head.

"Why are you here?" Vanya asks him as she takes of her dripping wet jacket. Her hair is dripping, too.

"We had to leave. . . It got rather dangerous for us." Five looks away from Elisa. His eyes fall on his feet.

"How dangerous?" Vanya turns to Elisa, hoping she'll answer.

Elisa's eyes widen when she realizes that Vanya expects her to answer. What can she say? We fled a building full of trained murderers. My girlfriend wanted to torture me to death. Nope, that's not a good idea. That's why no decent word leaves her lips. "I-"

"I wanted to ask you if you can inform our siblings that I won't be around. I've got certain things to handle," Five tells his sister with uncertainty in his voice. He's still avoiding eye contact with both Vanya and Elisa.

"What's going on?"

"I can't tell you. It's too dangerous."

"What's too dangerous?"

"There might be some people coming. No one can know a thing."

"Who are you messing with, Five? You just got back to us and you're already pissing off dangerous people."

Five doesn't answer.

"I should've expected this," Vanya mumbles, but both Five and Elisa heard him. "Stay here for the night again. Crash on the couch. Your friend can stay, too. But I don't have much space. One will have to sleep on the single seat." After mumbling a goodnight, Vanya leaves the room and heads to her bedroom, leaving Five and Elisa alone.

"You take the couch," Five speaks up after a few seconds with a true smile on his lips. "I'll take the single seat."

"No." Elisa shakes her head. "I'm the intruder here. I'll take the single seat without a problem. I had way less comfortable sleeping places when I was living with the handler. That'll do fine."

A frown comes upon Five's forehead. When Elisa stands up from the couch, he does the exact same. He puts his hands on her shoulders and stops her from moving.

"I'm not the handler," he tells her softly.

"Thanks God you're not the handler." Elisa chuckles, and then she nods. "All right, but if you wake up at night and do wish to sleep on the couch, then you'll throw me off."

"It's a deal." With that the two nestle themselves in the seat and the couch.

No more words are said. Both assassins are tired and drained from today's activities. It's not even that late, but Elisa's breaths are already slow. Her chest rises and falls in a soft rhythm, and Five listens. He listens to her breathing until his eyes close, too.