200405 Sunday

A/N: Hello! To those who have read this chapter, please refer to the previous chapter as I missed one. I am so sorry!

"Seems like no one else is coming." Luhan says, throwing a pen across the room and then letting it hover right before it lands on the ground. Right now, the only people in the room are Luhan, Chanyeol, Yixing, Jongin and Sehun. "I'm supposed to be the communicator, the one that stays in the safe realms of our submarine so that I can communicate with all of you, but ... I guess at this rate, I'll have to come too, won't I?"

"There's still time ... You said the deadline is in a week, so you should give them time to think. I think the others will definitely come. If not for the half-blood, at least for you." Jongin suggests.

"Let's go." Chanyeol says, as he turns to Jongin, who blinks in surprise.

"We're not going to go without planning what we're going to do ... are we?"

"Hey, wait for us!" Someone calls as the door opens.

"Took you long enough." Luhan grumbles as Minseok grins, panting.

"Sorry, some took a long hard convincin'." Behind him, are: Kris, Kyungsoo and Joonmyun.

"Took you a long time convincing only three people." Luhan mutters.

"Soo-hyung?!" Jongin blinks in surprise. "Are you sure ..."

"Yeah. These guys here can take care of themselves here." Kyungsoo smiles. "Too many doctors to take care of them already, if you ask me." Meanwhile, Kris pushes up his glasses.

"Thinking about how many people there I can experiment on ..." He starts. "... excites me." In the corner, Sehun shivers.

"Oh, and I also thought I'd ask someone who'd be interested in helping us too." Kyungsoo says. "He hasn't had much training experience though, so please go easy on him."

Suddenly, a new figure appears – Yixing and Chanyeol recognise him as that boy that is always locked up in the room that Baekhyun visits.

"How did he ..." Kris starts. "Does he have the same power as Jongin?"

"No. It's even more powerful, and Baekhyun was the one who told me this." Kyungsoo grins. "This is Zitao, and he's got the power of Time."

The plan is as follows:

Luhan and Zitao will stay behind, whereas the rest of them will go onwards towards SQUAOII, and Jongin will be moving back and forth. From there, they will split up into at least two groups, to reduce the chances of all of them being caught. Zitao, with whatever experience/training/skill he has, will try to freeze everything except the invaders, so that they can quickly look for Baekhyun and pull him out.

After that, they will try and destroy all the rest of the data that Lucky Ones have about Monsters, deleting everything so that Monsters won't be a weakness against them anymore.

After that, it will be all over, and they will have nothing to do with each other anymore.

Each equipped with a bag, they meet at the meeting room once more, and once everyone's here, Jongin begins teleporting them one by one.

Once that happens, they split off into threes or pairs. The moment they come out into the opening, there are men everywhere, expecting their arrival. Chanyeol is ruthless as he surrounds men with fire once he reaches the entrance of EX'ACT, remembering these as the uniforms that they wear every time they capture new Monsters in.

"Show me where he is." Chanyeol says calmly even though his hair is flying about, his eyes glowing. No one responds, and Chanyeol doesn't give them time to think up of a clever answer before he pulls one man off one by one, burning them to a crisp in seconds. Every second, one man.

"Okay!" The remaining cower in fear as they surrender, and someone pulls something from his pocket, holding it out. Immediately, the ball of fire opens up just enough for the man to slide his hand through, a card in his hand. Joonmyun, his partner, takes it with his water until it stays in his hands.

"P-P-P-Press against t-the elev-v-vator below the buttons."

Joonmyun and Chanyeol nod at each other before Joonmyun runs off inside EX'ACT.

"If you're lying ..." Chanyeol whispers, and a rubbish bin besides him suddenly explodes in fire. Joonmyun returns and nods at Chanyeol.

Everything inside Chanyeol's being is tempted to crush these men with his bare hands, but a kind face appears in his mind and his anger fades away slightly. His grief intensifies though, and in the end, he lets the fireball encage them before running after Joonmyun.

Once in the elevator, Joonmyun taps the card against the wall, the place below the buttons, and then they watch as new buttons appear. Once again glancing at each other, Joonmyun presses one of the new buttons and they shoot upwards.

At this time, it seems as if time has stopped.

"Yes, Zitao." Joonmyun whispers, and Chanyeol almost smiles as they continue to search for Baekhyun. However, about halfway through their search, time resumes again and everyone, previously frozen, comes back to life.

It becomes a chaos – Lucky Ones outnumber them with guns and shields. If Joonmyun wasn't so crazy about taking revenge, Chanyeol isn't even sure if they'll be able to make it. Kind as Joonmyun is ever since he woke up, this murderous side of him surfaces as soon as he needs to fight, to the extent that Chanyeol doesn't need to move an inch.

"Leader!" A new voice calls. "I think I know where he is." Turning around, Chanyeol takes Joonmyun's arm and then grabs onto Jongin, who teleports them away.

Inside this floor, there are even more of them, as if shielding something precious.

"Help." Jongin says, and then he disappears. Chanyeol and Joonmyun face the dozens of men shielding the door to buy Jongin time. Joonmyun would use water to block the attacks whereas Chanyeol would use fire to attack.

Minutes later, Jongin reappears by their side, holding an unconscious Baekhyun in his arms.

"Hold onto me!" He hisses, and the both of them grab onto his arms, and he teleports them away.

They end up on the darkening streets.

"Here!" Jongin hisses as he runs forward, the others following, and he leads them inside a small cottage.

"Is this safe?" Chanyeol asks, as he pulls Baekhyun from Jongin's hold.

"Safer than anywhere else anyway." Jongin replies, panting as he leads them down the stairs and down to the basement. "We can rest here for a moment, plan what we should do next."

"Hyung?" Chanyeol pants, turning back to find Joonmyun just entering the basement. Jongin teleports to help him down.

"Sorry." The oldest mutters, wincing as he limps towards Chanyeol. "My leg fucked up on me." Chanyeol places Baekhyun carefully on the ground and then helps Joonmyun sit down on the floor. Setting a fire on the ground (that won't spread), Chanyeol pulls up the cloth to reveal Joonmyun's ankle. There seems to be nothing wrong with it except a faint scar across the ankle.

"They amputated it years back." Joonmyun explains. "I'll be fine though."

"Jongin, how do you know this place?" Chanyeol asks as Jongin takes out food for them to eat.

"While I teleported here and there to get a hang of this place, back when you were still at EX'ACT... I found that this cottage was unoccupied most of the time. Probably because the owner works at EX'ACT? I don't really know." Jongin shrugs.

"It's only unoccupied because I let it, junior." A new voice startles them. "If you want to kill me and burn this place down, go ahead, but you won't be able to face those guys out there." A woman appears at the basement, switching on the light. She has flowing, black hair and mesmerising brown eyes, red lipstick, singlet and booty shorts emphasising her fearlessness against three conscious men that will undoubtedly overpower her. She's holding a sack over her shoulder as if it's nothing.

"Stay back." Jongin shouts. "Or ..."

"Or you'll teleport out of here?" The woman chews her gum, looking unafraid at all and unsurprised. Jongin blinks, shocked and at a loss.

"I only appeared for one reason: are you going to let that dying boy sleep on the hard ground like that?" She points her chin towards Baekhyun, still chewing her gum. Then she turns around, back facing to them, as if allowing them to kill her if they wish. Or as if believing that she can take all three on with no problem. Momentarily shocked at her boldness, the men don't move until Chanyeol lifts Baekhyun up to follow her. A hand catches him.

"Are you really going to trust her?" Jongin hisses.

"Keep alert." Chanyeol says softly. "Hyung, don't kill her." Then he follows suit, and Jongin helps Joonmyun up.

All the lights are on now and Chanyeol finds her in a bedroom, where she gestures with her eyes for him to set Baekhyun down. Jongin sets Joonmyun down on a couch.

Rubbing her hands, the woman glances at all of them.

"So? Other than teleportation, what other powers do you have? Ah." She realises with slightly widened eyes. "Fire." She says, glancing at Chanyeol, then turns to Joonmyun. "You?"

"Water." Chanyeol says, finding no use in hiding it anyway. If he wants to, he can set fire on her any time.

"Perfect." She grins, turning around before picking up two buckets, tossing it near the bed. "You can fill it up, and help clean this young chap here." She glances at Baekhyun. When she glances back though, Chanyeol is hovering over her dangerously.

"If you do anything ..." He starts, voice low. Not intimated at all, the girl scoffs and laughs, shaking her head.

"I'm not going to clean him. Do the work yourself." She says, crossing her arms as she continues to shake her head. "Rose Gold, follow me if you want to help your friends out." Then she disappears.

"Me?" Jongin mumbles, shaking his head in confusion as he follows her out.

"Rest there." Chanyeol tells Joonmyun as he finds a cloth and then dives it in the water, squeezing it and then wiping the dirt and blood from Baekhyun's body. The boy is still unconscious, as if he had really and truly been put to sleep, and with every moment that he doesn't wake up, Chanyeol feels more and more agitated.

Jongin returns later with even more food.

"Leader." Jongin says as he quickly sits on the bed where Chanyeol is cleaning Baekhyun's wounds. "I think the others might still be at EX'ACT."

Chanyeol continues wiping Baekhyun's face.

"Last time I lost them because ... because when I teleported, there were too many of them and ... I just sort of lost them." Jongin mutters. "I couldn't really teleport anywhere because they were everywhere ... It was luck I found you, after Yixing-hyung realised that there were more secret floors and I just ... imagined a place I'd never really been to and ..."

"How were they when you left?"

"I don't know. There were too many people they were fighting up against. But ... I told them to come here and they haven't." Jongin mutters. "Leader, come with. I can teleport but I can't fight."

"..." Chanyeol moves backwards, surveying Baekhyun's now clean face, hesitating.

"I'll stay." Joonmyun says. "And take care of him. Since I can't really run anyway." Jongin's surprised when Chanyeol nods and stands.

"I leave him to you." Chanyeol says, and then grabs Jongin's arm before the both of them disappear.

Joonmyun stares at the sleeping boy and he slowly gets up, hobbling over to the unconscious Baekhyun. He had watched his best friend clean up Baekhyun, his actions gentle and meticulous, something that he had never really seen before, because in all his years knowing Chanyeol and staying by his side, Joonmyun had never seen Chanyeol fall in love.

And now, decades apart and reunited, Joonmyun can see how much the older has grown.

But Joonmyun's grown too.

While Chanyeol had been there acting as a Lucky One professor, Joonmyun had been locked up in a small, dark room, tied to a bed and constantly tortured by Lucky Ones. If Joonmyun never bore any hate towards anyone before that, now he's a puppet of hate.

He acted well, didn't he?

"How easy will it be, for me to kill you right here?" He wonders, staring at that sleeping face. "While you're here, completely exposed before me, with no one to protect you."

Joonmyun reaches out his hand, the one where the ring finger had been cut right off by his torturers, and he strokes that smooth, young face.

"A half-blood, never worthy to save. Because you have Lucky One blood inside you, it hurts me to watch you lie before me, alive."

A ball of water larger than Baekhyun's head appears out of nowhere, hovering dangerously over the unconscious boy's face.

"Just like this ... softly, silently ..." Joonmyun whispers. "No one will ever know. You won't suffer like I did."

The water changes shape into a large ring and slides down to the boy's neck, until it looks as if Baekhyun's wearing a water neck cuff. Even so, Baekhyun shows no sign of suffocating, as if he's too unconscious to realise he's dying. Suddenly, the boy's eyebrows furrow, his lips parting to moan softly, his body jerking once, twice ...

Slowly, the water turns darker until it becomes the colour of blood.

Joonmyun sighs.

"But it's too bad you're the one Chanyeol is in love with." Joonmyun replies as the water finally lifts from Baekhyun's neck, revealing a spotless, clean neck, and the boy turns back to being the lifeless doll that he was before. In the bubble of water that is now stained with blood, there is an empty small tube inside.

Just like that, the water dissipates into the air, leaving little flakes the colour of red falling down onto the white bedsheets. Joonmyun catches hold of the empty tube, twisting it in his fingers.

"What are you?" He questions softly, before slipping it in his pocket, overlooking the little speck of gold at the very bottom.

Baekhyun had been stuck in the darkness for a long, long time, whether he's conscious or unconscious, but no matter how much he tries to fight against it, he can't win.

Many times, he had heard Luhan calling him, and he, in desperate attempts, had tried to return the call, especially once he found out that he was the hostage. Yet, Luhan's voice had always been too far above him in the endless black sky, a place that he can never reach.

He had been worried sick, because if Luhan kept trying to contact him, then something must've happened ... but he still couldn't reach him. It's as if he had been sucked into such a deep dark hole that he's not tall enough to reach up to.

In despair, he had curled up in his spot and slept, too mentally tired.

The next time he wakes up though, he's back in the light – with pretty crystal eyes staring down at him.

"Thirsty?" The man before him asks, but before Baekhyun can respond, water slips between his lips and down his throat smoothly, refreshing his entire body.

His body is so weak that he can barely move, and the man helps him up, smiling kindly at him.

"Thank you." Baekhyun mutters, heart racing because why is Joonmyun here? Why is Baekhyun not tied up somewhere ... what is happening?

"Just letting you know, I nearly killed you before." Joonmyun says, chuckling softly, but Baekhyun isn't afraid at all.

"But just as I was about to, I remembered Chanyeol was the one who trusted me to look after you." At that name, Baekhyun's heart skips, and he thinks – if Joonmyun isn't panicking, then Chanyeol must be fine. At least, that's what he's trying to convince himself. "Chanyeol's my best friend, and although he did used to be a cheerful and friendly guy, he was never a trusting person."

Joonmyun takes something and presses it against Baekhyun's lips, and Baekhyun eats it straightaway, slowly.

"I nearly killed you, because you were a Lucky One." Joonmyun continues. "You may say this hatred came from the fact that I had been tortured by them for the past two decades, but it started before then ... You see, I was one of the Monsters who went crazy."

Baekhyun listens, not really knowing what will come next, but feeling as if Joonmyun had wanted to say this out for a long time, but was too kind to worry any of his friends back at the submarine.

"Before then, I had the perfect life ... At least, I was content. I had understanding parents, I had great friends, I had a best friend ... I had a fiancée." Joonmyun says softly, with the smallest smile on his face. "Her name was Baekhee ... She was the most beautiful person I had ever known, inside and out.

"When I went crazy, it came out of nowhere. It controlled me and I was stuck in the darkness, unable to get out. When I woke up again ... ... ..." His voice breaks, and he looks down, shielding his face away from Baekhyun. "When I woke up again ... she was in my arms ... dead."

Baekhyun stills. He was stuck in the darkness ... like me ...

"I didn't know whose fault it was, but I knew it wasn't a Monster's. When the Lucky Ones fought back, I knew it was them, and I decided to sacrifice myself as Chanyeol's hostage, so that Chanyeol could go undercover as a spy for us ..." Joonmyun continues, this time anger tingling at the seams. "For so many years, I endured the pain and torture ... just to survive until the day that I can finally get my revenge."

Baekhyun wants to tell him about Freqse's plans, but right now isn't the right time. Even so, Baekhyun can only take a breath and try and hide his panic.

"But when I saw how Chanyeol, the man filled with hate the day his family was killed, would look at you so gently, protect you unconditionally, take care of you at every cost ... You're also a Lucky One, but he decided to let go of his hate, for love. Then suddenly, my hate sort of disappeared.

"I thought, maybe in the end, I hated no one as much as myself." Joonmyun whispers. "I hated, and feared, nothing more than me."

Somehow, Baekhyun understands that feeling.

Still, even though he wants to empathise with this man so much, who had told him the story of his painful past in such a way that Baekhyun's sure their hearts have gotten closer, he can't, because there are more important matters he needs to talk about.

"I know why." Baekhyun croaks, and he does the best he can to explain it to Joonmyun. Joonmyun's eyes go wider and then darker. By the end of it, Baekhyun had tired himself out too much trying to explain, and loses all energy.

"Thanks." Joonmyun says grimly once Baekhyun's done. "For telling me. Rest well now, okay?"

Where are you going? Baekhyun wants to ask, but he's too exhausted and he's already starting to lose consciousness. The older tucks him in, pulling the blankets over his face, as if he thinks Baekhyun's face will freeze without the blankets or something.

Baekhyun falls asleep without wanting to.

Jongin takes Chanyeol to an area near EX'ACT Laboratory. The moment they arrive, the sounds of silence from where they were before turns into distant sounds of chaos and war. Chanyeol and Jongin prepare to head inside the Lab to find and fight alongside their comrades, but a body stumbles towards them.

"You're ..." Jongin trails off, watching as the man stops in front of them, clutching at his bloody side.

"Leader ..." The man pants in pain.

"How did you get here?" Jongin asks as he holds the man upright. "You! You're the one that can run forever without being out of breath. Why are you out of breath now?"

"I'm in pain ..." The man almost deadpans at Jongin's idiocy.

"All of us Attackers decided to accompany you in your journey to save the half-blood, Leader, but ... by the time we came, you were gone." The man continues breathily. "Luhan-hyung sent us on a mini submarine instead."

"You idiots!" Jongin hisses. "They would've noticed –"

"We wanted to support Leader, even if we hate the half-blood ... But they knew we were coming. We were too rash ... Most of us are still fighting in that tall building ... Save them, Leader ..."

"Jongin." Chanyeol calls once they've pulled the man to a safe, hidden place.

"Yes." Jongin nods, grabbing Chanyeol and preparing to spin them towards EX'ACT.

"Wait ..." The man is half conscious as he speaks once more. "Be careful ... All of us went crazy in there. There were no Lucky Ones anywhere. Eventually, everyone went crazy, except me. That's why we had such a hard time beating them ... We couldn't bear to fight amongst ourselves ... It's like the MAMA Wars all over again ..."

"Leader ..." Jongin mutters uneasily.

I have a bad feeling about this. Chanyeol thinks to himself gravely as Jongin teleports them inside on ground floor. There seems to be no one there, so they head towards the elevators, pushing a few random numbers and hoping he'll be able to catch some Monsters.

As they come across empty floors, Chanyeol's mind continues to wander back to the man's words.

All of us went crazy.

It reminds him of decades ago that began this war in the first place. Monsters, who mysteriously went crazy and began attacking everyone, starting on the weaker Lucky Ones. Why did it start up again?

"Hyung ..." Jongin whispers as they return to the elevator. "... I'm scared."

Just like that time two decades ago, when the Monsters just lost control out of nowhere. Nothing of the sort happened while they were on the submarine, but the moment they leave it, it begins again?

Monsters didn't know the reason behind their uncontrollable behaviour, whereas the Lucky Ones believed it was an attack on them on purpose to assert themselves as the superior race. No one knows the reason behind how this began that fuelled so much hatred between the two races who once lived in harmony, almost as if it was carefully planned ...

But how else can Monsters be attacked, without Lucky Ones even touching them?

"There were no Lucky Ones anywhere. Eventually, everyone went crazy, except me."

Why everyone, except him?

"You! You're the one that can run forever without being out of breath."

"Let's go, Leader." Jongin says bravely.

The elevator doors open and a new level of noise hits them.

"Jongin –" Chanyeol starts, but the boy has run off into the fog and smoke that is full of growls and shouts.

"Jongin!" Chanyeol shouts, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, but even so, he can already feel dizzy. He knows it's not from the smoke. Shit.

"Leader ...?" Jongin calls out, but his voice is weak.

"Cover your –" Someone attacks him and he pushes against the body, knocking her out.

The only reason why that Monster could escape this was because he doesn't need to breathe.

That's why he could run forever without being out of breath.

The virus that makes us all crazy ... We inhale it.

Frustrated that he can't see anything in the smoke, Chanyeol returns to the elevator and pushes the button to clear the air around them, a button usually put there for such emergencies. The air clears and Chanyeol finds dozens of Monsters fighting amongst themselves, all of them Chanyeol recognises from the submarine as Attackers. He spots Jongin at the very end of the hallway on the other side before he disappears into thin air.

Shit. Sleeve still tightly pushed against his face, Chanyeol decides to knock out the Monsters one by one until he's the only one left standing, and then he heads towards the nearest laboratory where masks are stored. Placing one over himself first, he takes another bunch and heads outside once more. Just as he does, he finds that about a dozen of the Monsters are gone, and Lucky Ones are quickly trying to heave their unconscious bodies. Lighting a fire on his arm, the oranges and reds capture the Lucky Ones' attention, and they pull out guns shakily.

"How is one still standing?" One mutters.

"How did you figure it out?" Another shouts, until his eyes clear in realisation upon recognising Chanyeol's face.

Without a threatening nor merciful word, Chanyeol shoots fire at them until all of them are either burning or are retreating. Then, he immediately heads over to the unconscious bodies and placing masks over their faces.

Leader ... He hears a distant voice calling out to him in his head.

Bad news. He tells Luhan once the older has a more secure connection. Monsters have gone crazy again. It's in the air. Tell the others.

Shit. What about the Attackers I sent ...?

Not sure. Be careful of Jongin, I was too late.

Luhan doesn't reply again.

"Urgh ..." Someone moans, and subsequently groans one after the other follow as the Monsters wake up one by one. Chanyeol's heart is restless as he thinks back to the terrified younger, who has now disappeared into thin air.

I have to take care of these first. He decides eventually.

The next time Baekhyun wakes up, he can't seem to move or will his body, yet he's not in the darkness that he had always been whenever that force takes over his body.

What's going on? Baekhyun's active mind thinks as he tries to open his eyes, but it feels as if his eyelids have been glued together.

Baekhyun? He hears a voice, and he immediately holds onto it.

I'm here! Baekhyun calls out, hoping that he will get an answer.

You have no idea how much I've been trying to get in contact with you. The older sounds relieved. Can you tell me what's going on? Some of us are over there right now, planning to destroy every machine and data that the other race might use against us ... I need to let them know anything else that is important. Do you have something?

Yes ... Although Baekhyun has no idea what's happening and what they're doing, it doesn't matter right now because Baekhyun has something to say that will matter.

Freqse has other plans ... he wants to bring all Monsters here and use them to oppress and control other Lucky Ones. Baekhyun explains just like how he explained to Joonmyun, about what they did to him when they used him as a guinea pig. Right now, they have a mining level in EX'ACT ... I don't really know. I was half conscious when I heard them talk about mining for gold in some place, using it not only to control, but also releasing gold in the air so that any Monster in SQUAOII right now would go crazy and therefore becoming easier to control.

... I'll relay that to the others.

Then when Baekhyun's left alone, he is desperate to try and get out of this place – whatever he is, that refuses to give him access to his body.

But then he realises that's because he's half conscious, half dreaming, but being half conscious is somehow sufficient for Luhan to be able to get through to him.

Eventually though, he can finally take over his body again and the wakes up, feeling for some reason very short on breath.

Lifting himself up, Baekhyun aims to take this thing off his face that's suffocating him, but a hand stops him.

Brain finally registering that he's awake and in the actual world, Baekhyun blinks to find sky-blue eyes gazing into his own, those sharp orbs staring into his as the owner shakes his head.

Baekhyun's shoulders are heaving up and down from being oxygen-deprived, and it might be the lack of oxygen talking, but he stares at the man before him, feeling tears well up his eyes.

While he was alone for the past ... who knows, how many days he had been here, Baekhyun barely had time to think about what's happening and how it's impacting him, but upon seeing a very familiar face for the first time in such a long time, Baekhyun finally comes to terms with his own feelings.

He had been so afraid and alone, and he didn't even know that until massive piles of relief land on him upon seeing those sharp eyes.

I was so scared, He wants to say, vision blurring, but a gentle hand snakes towards the back of his head and pulls him into a warm embrace, until Baekhyun can feel warmth spring up from the touches, making him again realise that he needed a hug more than he thought he did.

"I'm here." The light voice says softly, and even though it's also muffled by the mask he's wearing, Baekhyun can hear it rumble in his chest. Desperate, Baekhyun reaches up and holds onto Yixing tightly, terrified that if he lets go, Yixing will disappear from his arms.

"Luhan relayed the message." Yixing explains. "You and Leader told him that they planned to spread gold dust for us to inhale."

"Professor? He figured it out too?"

"Mm." Eyes still shut, Baekhyun nods, hoping that Yixing will understand why he's still holding onto him.

"So don't you take off that mask." The older continues, stroking his hair. Once Baekhyun has recovered, he pulls away.

"Why are you here? What happened?" Baekhyun asks, looking around. "Is professor okay?"

Instead of replying him, the older pushes something to his mouth from under the mask, and Baekhyun takes the pill gratefully, drinking the water and letting the energy take over his otherwise weakened body.

"Let me know if it hurts you." Yixing says, and Baekhyun nods.

"Wait, but –" Baekhyun starts, the hand on Yixing's arm pushing in an attempt to lift himself off the bed.

"We came for you." The older explains, and those previously flitting golden eyes turn to meet blue ones. "We came to get you, destroy anything that will become a threat to us, and leave them once and for all.

"I can't tell you where your professor is, because we all split up." Maybe Yixing can detect the guilt and dejection and horror in Baekhyun's expressions, because he takes Baekhyun's wrist and tightens his grip. "This is war. Even if you weren't captured as hostage here, we'd have come to settle this once and for all."

"Professor ..." Baekhyun whispers, looking very worried. "He ..."

"He's the Leader." Yixing says. "If he can't take care of himself, how does he lead everyone?"

Even though these aren't words of comfort, Baekhyun is comforted enough, as if these are the words he really does need to hear instead of sugar-coated lies.

"Ah, Baekhyun's awake." A new muffled voice sounds, and Baekhyun turns to find Kyungsoo at the door.

"Thank you for telling us about this mess, even though you were unconscious." Kyungsoo says gently.

Right. Baekhyun remembers that Luhan can communicate with everyone.

"What did Luhan-ssi say about everyone? Are they okay?"

"Sorry Baekhyun." Kyungsoo sighs. "I think hyung is resting somewhere. He must've done a lot of communicating with all of us, because he's unresponsive now."

"Oh ..."

"But it'll be okay." The smaller reassures. "I am a bit worried about Sehun though. He's so young and inexperienced ..."

"That last time I saw him, he was kicking some good ass with Kris-hyung and Minseok-hyung."

That voice makes Baekhyun freeze in his spot. Yixing tenses up next to him.

"Go back." Kyungsoo hisses to the figure whose identity is blocked by the door. Seeing as it's too late now, Kyungsoo laughs awkwardly instead, trying to fill up the tense silence.

"It's okay, Baekhyun. He's here for a reason. He came here for you!" Glancing at Baekhyun, who is shrinking behind Yixing, Kyungsoo's smile disappears and he sighs. "Look how much you scared him – he's trembling."

Strange, how just a few weeks ago Baekhyun had been beaten bloody and blue, but now looks as if he had never been hurt.

It really does piss him the fuck off, the way the boy buries his face in the doctor's shirt.

"Fuck off." Yixing whispers dangerously, blue eyes flashing and meeting against green. The stare goes on for so long that Kyungsoo swears something is going to burn, but then green eyes break the contact, and Jongdae walks away.

"I'm ... okay." Baekhyun breathes, swallowing big breaths as he stares at the door that's now empty.

"I told him not to show up ..." Kyungsoo mutters, sighing again. "Hyung, don't show him too much hostility. He still came despite everything, and didn't need to be asked."

"I'm grateful ..." Baekhyun whispers, albeit shakily.

"Some new people?" A new voice sounds at the now occupied door, but before Baekhyun can turn to see who it is, Yixing pulls him behind.

"Who are you?" Yixing growls.

"Come on, you barge into my house and talk to me like I'm the intruder?" Baekhyun can hear the rolling of the eyes in her voice. "Hey, you know the world is chaotic outside and you wanna cause chaos here?"

"What do you mean?" Kyungsoo asks.

"I'm seeing a whole bunch of Lucky Ones running from EX'ACT, to be honest." Baekhyun peeks over, and finds that girl shrugging. "This is some chaotic shit."

"Kyungsoo." Yixing calls, and Baekhyun holds onto his shirt.

"Don't hurt her." He whispers.

"Look, EX'ACT has been doing some fucked up shit." Unfazed, the girl continues. "Anyone in this area of SQUAOII would know. They would've had to constantly watch the Experimenters take the dead bodies to dump them out in the sea."

"Hey, don't look so triggered." The girl continues. "It's the truth. If they are that ruthless, then we as normal citizens will be next."

"What I'm saying is, for us to beat them and their crazy gadgets, us normal citizens can't do it alone. We should team up." The girl finishes.

"That would be the best idea." Yixing replies, and when Baekhyun tries to peek again, Yixing shields him.

"Hyung –" Kyungsoo starts.

"Hyung is right." Baekhyun cuts in. "F-Freqse-ssi wanted to use Monsters to control Lucky Ones. It isn't the time now to make everyone our enemy."

"Great." The girl says, and when Baekhyun tries to peek over this time, Yixing doesn't stop him. There is something between a smile and a smirk on the girl's beautiful features, her red lipstick and mascara-ed eyelashes making her look so powerful. "Nice to meet you, comrade. I'm Hyuna."

Hello everyone!

Thank you for the support once again, I enjoy reading all your comments! Sorry for the late update. I have decided to change some plans on what will happen in the future, which has caused me to restructure certain parts of the chapter (and will have to do so for upcoming chapters as well). Thank you for your patience and I hope everyone is taking care of themselves and others~