The Five Evolution

『"To look upon the abyss is madness, to look upon the divine is surrender."』

The photograph sat on the table. Two white-cloaked figures on a rooftop. Three hundred miles from the Institute. The night Bolivar died.

Amara was the first to break the silence. "They killed him. They killed Bolivar."

Her jaw clenched. They’d questioned Bolivar. And the Apostles had cleaned up their loose end within hours.

"And Zells," Ethan added.

"He warned us," Amara said quietly. She could still hear Bolivar’s voice when they interrogated him. "He told us they’d come for him..."

The revelation felt like an old wound was reopened. It shouldn’t have mattered now that they knew who was likely responsible, but it did.

Dante had been quiet, studying the picture intensely before finally speaking as he pushed himself off the wall. "So we know the who and thanks to Yelena, probably the how."

"And the how scares the voodoo-hating shit out of me, I’ll tell you that." Hiro folded his arms with panic in his voice.

"It is what it is." The Director grabbed the photograph and placed it back into his jacket pocket. Whether he’d intended to light a fire under them, it had clearly worked.

Yelena said something in her native tongue, disgust written across her face like she didn’t approve of this sort of killing method.

Then there was silence as everyone processed the information.

"Dismissed," Director Hale said finally, taking his seat. "And remember, we depart in five days."

***

The Five trudged back to the Relaxation Center with a different kind of exhaustion and information overload combining into something heavier.

With everything that had been going on, it felt like it had been a while since they all gathered here.

Raj collapsed onto one of the couches with enough force to make the frame creak. "I actually miss school," he announced to the ceiling.

"You miss school?" Hiro asked.

"Remember school? Tests? Papers? The girls?" Raj smiled. "That was nice. I want to go back to that."

"You got a C-minus in Bio last semester," Hiro pointed out, claiming the opposite couch and immediately pulling out his device to scroll through case files. "You hated school."

"Yeah, but compared to ’all of this,’" he gestured to everything. "A C-minus feels pretty great." He sat up, rubbing his face and then stared at the mini bar and kitchen. "Ok, maybe not all of it."

"Cool cool cool," Hiro said with his eyes still glued on his device. Then he finally looked up. "Anyone else feel like we’re livestock that just realized what a slaughterhouse is?"

"Jesus, Hiro. Where did that come from?" Amara said from the beanbag chair she sat on.

"Seriously man," Sophia muttered. "That’s a deeply disturbing metaphor."

"Oh that’s disturbing? That’s the disturbing thing right now?" Hiro replied.

"Yeah... deeply," Amara smiled, holding back a laugh. She was feeling a lot better than she was five minutes ago.

Raj stood up suddenly. "You know what? Screw it. Screw the Apostles. We’ve survived a whole lot these past few months. I’m pretty sure we can handle whatever the Apostles throw at us."

"Please Raj, let’s be realistic," Ethan observed.

"Three months ago, none of this would have been realistic," Amara pointed out, looking at her team.

"I love all of you, but if I hear the word Apostle one more time tonight, I’m going to lose my mind." She rubbed her face. "Can we just get shit faced?"

"Hey!" Sophia snapped her fingers at her. "Now you’re speaking my language."

"We’ve got five days until a bunch of old guys decide if we stay together or get split up." Amara stood up. "I say we use these five days to just... relax."

She turned to Hiro. "Hiro?"

"You got it." Hiro vanished in a blur and was back with five shot glasses and a particular bottle he grabbed from the counter. "So Dante hooked me up with this." He held out the bottle.

"What is that?" Sophia asked.

"It’s supposed to be strong enough to do the trick." He arranged the glasses. "A drop is apparently enough to knock out a whale, so I’ve heard."

Raj quickly straightened and rubbed his hands together. "Oh, yeah."

Hiro opened up the bottle and held it out. "To getting shit faced?"

"To getting shit faced," they all chorused.

He immediately started pouring, and nobody bothered pretending they were going to drink responsibly.

Raj took his shot first and immediately coughed violently. "That is awful." He held out his glass. "Hit me again."

Everyone took a seat, and the room slowly relaxed from there as the conversation drifted away from Apostles and stolen files. Away from missing Anchors and the Convergence.

Ethan swirled the amber liquid in his glass, glancing at Amara. He stood up and sat closer to her while the rest kept drinking. "Hey."

She looked at him, all curled up, with both knees raised to her chest and her glass held over her knees. "Hey."

"Since we’re apparently making plans." Ethan took a sip. "How would you feel about going out sometime?"

He looked at the rest of the team. Sophia was already drunk, but was still asking Hiro for another shot. Then he added calmly: "Just the two of us."

He probably needed to clarify that.

Amara blinked, looking down at her glass. Then she lifted it to her lips, downed the entire thing, and set the glass down.

"Why, Ethan." She leaned back into the couch. "Are you asking me out on an official date?"

"So?" Ethan asked.

Amara stared at him for a moment. Then she smiled, the kind that reached her eyes. "You know it’s a yes."

***

Atop a snowcapped mountain stood a vast building, connected to an underground chamber carved deep into the heart of the mountain itself.

No natural light reached this deep. Only the soft glow of luminescent panels.

In the center, a man floated unconscious in an orb of rippling force that served as a prison. His body hung limp, head lolled forward, and his breathing shallow.

Then his eyes snapped open.

"What—where am I?" He twisted in the containment sphere, pressing his hands against its surface. The energy rippled but didn’t yield. "WHAT IS THIS? LET ME OUT!"

He pounded against the barrier, each impact sending small shockwaves through the translucent surface but achieving nothing. "HELP! SOMEONE—ANYONE—"

"Please. Screaming will accomplish nothing."

The voice came from the shadows beyond the sphere’s glow, calm and carrying the kind of authority that made lesser men instinctively obey.

The captive froze, squinting into the darkness. "Who’s there? What do you want?"

There were slow footsteps. And then eyes with patterns that seemed to contain infinite depth, glowing in the dark.

The Apostles’ leader emerged from the darkness in a white cloak, and the captive’s breath caught.

He was tall, late thirties, with features that were only further enhanced by those eyes. Eyes that looked like the universe was watching through human sockets.

Behind him, barely visible, another figure stood motionless in the shadows. A woman. Silent. Watching. She hadn’t moved once since the prisoner had woken up.

"You," the captive murmured. "Who the fuck are you? Wh—" His voice cracked. "What do you want from me?"

The leader stopped three feet from the containment sphere, both hands loose at his sides, expression neutral.

He didn’t speak for a while. Then raised one hand, and the containment sphere dissolved like mist.

The prisoner dropped to the cold stone floor, gasping, scrambling backward until his back hit the chamber wall. "You’re making a huge mistake pal. I’ll—I’ll—"

"You’ll do exactly what is required." The leader’s voice remained calm, almost gentle. He stepped closer, and the prisoner could see the eyes more clearly now.

Looking directly into them made his head hurt, like his brain was being flooded with the story of creation, and couldn’t process what it was seeing.

The leader extended his hand, palm up, offering. "Do not be scared. Your contribution plays a role in saving this world."

The man stared at the offered hand, at those eyes that seemed to contain the secrets of the universe, and felt something break inside him. Not his will. Not his courage.

But his hope.

He looked at offered hand for a moment. Trembling, he reached up and took it. "What... what do you want from me?"

The leader’s smile was sad, almost compassionate, as his eyes flared brighter. "Everything."

Then, his fingers closed around the man’s. And all that was heard was a loud scream that echoed through the chamber and didn’t stop.