Archive of Our Own

10:00 Welcome to XO.

It all begins when he wakes up on a gurney in the med tent on a morning some days before Operation Deliverance…

Kai sits up fast and is surprised to find that nothing hurts. His memory is blurry, but he’s pretty sure he died the night before. The mimic had cornered him against a fallen transporter. He’d run to the fiery metal carcass hoping to use it as cover, but instead it had served as his end. Kai fired his entire magazine into the alien being, but the mimic had still lashed out with one of its ever-moving tentacles, catching him across the chest. His metal suit had broken and shut down, leaving him immobile. He’d closed his eyes and awaited death as the beast hovered closer, gaping maw wide.

Yet he is alive.

How on Earth is he still alive?

“About time you were up,” a deep, smooth voice says. A soldier with raven-black hair stands at the tent opening. He’s small by army standards, with narrow shoulders and a short torso, but he strides forward like he owns the world. Most captains walk like that. Very few deliver the implied threat. But by the gaze this man levels at him—hard and cold as steel—Kai doesn’t doubt he can deliver any offer of pain that comes out of his lush mouth.

Kai musters a quick salute after checking the man’s insignia and tag. Captain D.O. The name doesn’t ring any bells and Kai frowns. He thought he knew all the higher ups stationed on base.

“I have orders from General Wu himself,” D.O. says. “You’ll be serving time with XO squad from now on, soldier. So, if you’re done with your beauty sleep, put on some boots and follow me.”

The man about faces and is ready to go, but he looks over his shoulder once more before striding away. There’s something familiar about his wide brown eyes that Kai can’t pin-point right at the moment. His brain is too busy trying to figure out what the hell happened—is happening. He finds boots underneath the gurney, puts them on, and tightens the laces. Kai figures that whatever is about to happen will be better faced with sharply tightened boots.

Outside the tent is a flurry of activity. Kai shields his eyes against the sunlight and tries to make a sense of the chaos—trucks rolling noisily along, troops marching to a strict military beat, official higher ups shouting commands every which way, and endless instructions being given through the intercom system. The Jeju International Airport base has always been like this, but Kai feels an extra tension in the air which can only mean they’re getting ready for a big mission. What day is it? How long was he out exactly?

Kai jogs up to the captain who waits for him by a Jeep. “Sir, what’s happening?”

“Operation Deliverance in forty-eight hours.”

The last time he remembers, there had been a month left until mission day. He’d been asleep for four weeks? “But I…How?”

“All questions will be answered soon,” the captain says and hauls himself onto the driver seat.

“But, sir—”

D.O. puts on a pair of sunglasses. “Get in.”

Kai isn’t particularly happy about not getting answers, but that’s how it usually goes in the military. It’s been six long years since the mimics invaded Earth and Kai joined the army. In his experience, it’s always better to go along with what his superiors’ demand of him. That is, until he gets to the battlefield and then he does what he wants.

For now, he jumps into the passenger seat and holds on tight as the captain drives like a lunatic away from the base. They head down the main runway and out, towards the coast. The area, previously filled with houses and businesses, was cleared up to make space for more military hangars, warehouses, and barracks. Their destination is one of the smaller structures by the shore.

The unmarked building does nothing to calm Kai’s nervousness. But he breathes deep and follows the captain inside. They walk down a long and empty hallway, and enter a wide office space at the end. Captain D.O. motions him to take a seat and so he does, waiting for further instructions. There’s still that feeling of familiarity whenever he looks at the captain, but his mind shies away from the answer.

It’s not long until the door opens again and nine other soldiers walk in. They each take their seats in silence and wait, just as he had done. Kai tries really hard not to stare at the others, but he’s hoping to recognize someone, anyone that can tell him what the heck is happening.

“Do you remember what happened to you, soldier?” Captain D.O. asks him suddenly, while turning on the table screen.

Kai removes his hands from the table. “Yes, sir. I was in the Busan evacuation,” he says. “A storm was approaching and we had to move fast, but there were too many people. We were told to hold the perimeter while everyone boarded the ships. But in the horizon…sir, it wasn’t a storm. It was mimics. By the thousands. They overran us. Only two of the ships made it out of the harbor. I fought a mimic and lost.” I lost…. Kai shakes his head trying not to let the memories affect him. He was reporting to a higher-ranking officer and it wouldn’t do to show emotions. His troop had fought as hard as they could, for as long as they could. Their only goal had been to take down as many of the mimics, knowing there was no salvation for themselves.

There’s a question he needs answered and answered now. Kai looks up at the captain. “Sir, how did I survive?”

Captain D.O., serious as ever, says, “You didn’t.”

Kai leans forward and places his elbows on the table, causing it to beep an error when too many buttons are pressed. He mutters a quick apology and straightens himself. “I don’t understand.”

The captain types quickly on the table. A medical report comes up showing Kai’s name and rank at the top and the time of death. “You died. And came back to life.”

Kai reads the report. Cold washes over him and he has to swallow twice before he can speak. “That’s…impossible.”

“Impossible. Hmm. It’s what they said when the first reports came that aliens had invaded Earth. And it’s what they said when they built the first metal exoskeletons to help us fight mimics.” Captain D.O.’s smile is hard and humorless. “Is it really hard to believe you came back to life?”

Yes, it fucking is. Not only that, but he clearly sees the stamp on the report marking him as deceased when he clearly is not. Kai clenches his jaw. “How?”

His question goes ignored.

“I suppose it is hard to believe,” D.O says. He stands and clasps his hands behind his back. “Do you know the story of Operation Downfall and the omega?”

“Yes, sir.” He’d seen the news and read the reports. An omega was a bigger alien beast that controlled all the smaller mimics in one area. Kill it and all the mimics would drop dead.

The captain nods. “After the Paris omega was eliminated by Major Cage and Sergeant Vrataski two years ago, and the secret of how they did it was revealed, the nations began experimenting with mimic blood to see if they could replicate the time reset phenomenon that allowed them to win against the omegas own time control capabilities. Unfortunately, the experiments weren’t successful, but they found out other skills could be acquired.” He opens his arms wide. “We are special unit XO, designed and equipped with skills acquired from mimic blood that will help us win this war.”

Kai glances around. The others are staring at him as if waiting for an answer. “Sir, what exactly am I doing here? I didn’t sign up for this…special program.”

“Oh no. You already have an ability.” The soft voice comes from a dark haired soldier with bright eyes and delicate fingers. His tag reads Baekhyun. “You died by mimic blood. It not only resurrected you, but it gave you power.”

The battle. The mimic hovering over him. He’d closed his eyes, but…an explosion? Burning liquid on his arms and face? Kai runs a hand through his hair. “Mimic blood is acid. How am I alive?”

“I can reset time back by five minutes,” a young man with the name tag Tao says. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. It helped us get to you before your body decomposed too much.”

Kai’s laugh is met by silence. “This is crazy. You’re saying that you turned back time, somehow healed mimic-acid wounds, and saved me. Wouldn’t that erase the fact that alien blood got into me?”

“Mimic blood is timeless,” Tao says. “Once it’s in you, it’s in you forever.”

There’s a slight pressure building at his right temple. If things don’t start to make sense soon he’s going to need some aspirin or alcohol. “So, I too have an ability now? What is it then? Because I don’t feel different at all. Do I have super strength? Am I going to Hulk-out? Is it like a Spider-Man thing?”

The captain waits a beat and Kai doesn’t know if he’s trying to control anger or just giving him time to not freak out. “After Tao reset back and they lured the Alpha away, your body wasn’t by the crashed transporter. It was inside.”

Kai blinks. “I must have dragged myself in. But I don’t remember—”

“When I went to heal you,” an ash blond man with the tag Lay says, “your body kept fading in and out. It was almost as if you could…teleport.”

“Teleport?” Kai notices no one is smiling, so he stops. “You guys seriously think I can just…poof, teleport?”

Ten pairs of eyes stare back at him. No one cracks a smile; no one says it’s all a big joke, nothing. Fuck. They aren’t kidding. He has…superpowers? What the hell? Okay okay. It isn’t time to freak out. This is the military, and he is the Hero of Seoul. Surely he can talk to someone higher in rank that will help him. Yes, that’s what he will do.

Kai stands. “Thank you, sir. I’m sure your unit is efficient at what they do, but I don’t belong here. I belong out there fighting with the people.” Normal people he wants to say. “So, if you could excuse me now, I need to get back to my unit and get ready for Operation Deliverance.”

He heads for the door and just when he reaches for the handle, his body freezes. All his muscles lock up painfully and he can’t move an inch.

“Bring him over, Luhan,” the captain says.

Kai is ready to growl at whoever this Luhan guy is. He outranks everyone in the room except for the captain and he’s not about to let himself be manhandled, even on the captain’s orders. But no one lays a hand on him. Instead, his body lifts off the ground, turns slowly, and moves forward until it settles back down in front of Captain D.O.

The captain takes a step until his boots are pressing against Kai’s own. He tilts his head up and whispers his next words. “Your unit is here, soldier,” he says. “And if you try to leave again, worse things than being trapped in a telekinesis field will happen.”

“Let me go,” Kai growls. He knows he’s breaking proper protocol by addressing the man informally, but being restrained and humiliated is going too far already.

The captain opens his mouth to say something else, but then looks over Kai’s shoulder. “Yes, Lieutenant?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kai sees one of the soldiers stand. By his pale skin and extra clean appearance, Kai guesses the guy has never been outside of an office, much less seen a battlefield. The lieutenant’s voice is polite and demure when he says, “Perhaps the soldier here could do with a demonstration, sir, to ease his mind into the idea.”

Kai feels as if the captain’s big eyes are drilling holes into his soul. It’s a familiar feeling, but his mind still refuses to answer from where.

“Good idea, Suho. Yeol, Sehun, and you can take Kai and show him what we do,” the captain says. “Luhan, go with them and make sure he doesn’t try to escape again. The rest of you stay here. We need to go over the new plans.”

With that, Kai’s muscles unlock and he almost crumples to the ground, but catches himself on the edge of the table. He straightens when he hears a chuckle. He could’ve sworn it came from Captain D.O., but when he checks, the man has turned around to talk to his other soldiers.


11:00 Best Laid Plans.

The second Kai leaves the room, Kyungsoo shakes in a full body shiver and finally relaxes. When he was sent to retrieve another recruit for XO, the last thing on his mind had been that he would recognize the soldier. The day his team had rescued Kai at the failed Busan evacuation, he’d chosen to pilot their chopper, allowing Tao to help down in the field. If he had been there, he wouldn’t be freaking out now.

This is not happening. This is insane. Kyungsoo resists the urge to launch into laughter.

Kai. Kim Jongin.

Five years had aged him a little, but the young man is as handsome as the first day Kyungsoo laid eyes on him. The same olive skin with a few more lines, the same lean but strong body, the same easy smile that always managed to stall Kyungsoo’s breath.

They’d met before battle some two years ago. Kai had been second in command of their unit. Kyungsoo had been part of the fresh meat they’d brought in to fill in the ranks. Most of them hadn’t even been training for long before being shoved into an exosuit and told that they would be battling mimics in less than twelve-hours. Inevitably, all hell broke loose when they reached the battlefield.

A mimic destroyed Kyungsoo’s metal suit, leaving him completely defenseless. He kept his eyes open, glaring at the alien beast, accepting his death but unwilling to show fear. Then Kai descended from above like an avenging angel and jumped onto the beast, slicing clean through the mimic’s head with a military issued broadsword. Blood splattered high and wide, and onto Kyungsoo himself.

The last thing he remembers is unbearable pain as the alien blood seeped into his skin, and Kai’s concerned face hovering over him, asking him to hold on and stay alive.

He’d lived.

He’d been changed.

And he hadn’t seen his savior until this day.

“Captain?” Chen asks, breaking into his reverie. “We’re ready.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head and looks at his team. He needs to focus. No matter how much his heart accelerates and his mind wanders at the thought of Kai, this is no time to be distracted. “Yes, sorry. Tao, you said you had a new vision.”

“Last night.” Tao is one of the youngest soldiers in the team, but also one of the most skilled. His time power is the biggest asset in XO, but it’s his visions which have saved them countless times. “I didn’t understand it though. I think the omega was messing with me again.”

Kyungsoo nods. “What did you see?”

“It took me over the mountains first, lingered in the forests, and then down into Seoul. A rush of streets…then Gyeongbokgung Palace. But then it all went dark and I was somewhere underground, like a cave. A huge cave and the omega was there.”

“So, is it under the mountains or under the palace?” Lay asks. He’s sitting on the table, lotus style, munching on some cookies. Kyungsoo stopped trying to make him behave a long time ago. As long as the man got serious when it was time to heal, his eccentricities could be overlooked.

“There shouldn’t be anything under the palace.” Xiumin works the table screen and brings up a 3D map of the palace and the surrounding areas. Kyungsoo still hasn’t gotten used to the lavender hair, so he stares openly until Min flips him the bird. “Seoul doesn’t have underground tunnels or caves. Unless you count the metro.”

“The cave looked bigger than the metro tunnels,” Tao says, focused on the map. “It wasn’t man made. It was just…a big hole.”

“Guys, think about it,” Baek moves closer to the table and works the screen, his lithe finger typing and scrolling fast. He brings up a satellite map of the city, what was left of it anyways. “They bombed Seoul when the mimics reached the East. What if the beasts used one of the craters to reach deeper underground? They might have found a cave or created one.”

It makes sense, but Soo really hopes that’s not the case. A cave would be hard to reach and who knew how many mimics would be inside. He knew going after the omega would be difficult, but not this level of suicidal.

Baek zooms in on the site where the palace should be, only now all the map shows are remains of the palace. But there is a crater nearby. Rubble, cars, and bigger chunks of buildings seem to have been pushed onto part of it. “See.”

Kyungsoo clenches his fists as he looks at the image. Fuck. “It’s a fucking nest.”

“Shit.” Chen leans closer and moves the map around. “How the fuck are we getting in there? There must be thousands of mimics waiting inside and around the area.”

No shit, Sherlock,Kyungsoo thinks.

“Can’t land in the city proper,” Xiumin says, running a hand though his hair, messing up the lavender strands. “Mimics would be on our asses before we even touched ground.”

“The mountains,” Lay says.

Tao nods. “Bukhansan. We drop there.”

Chen groans. “And hike all the way to the city?”

“Mimics stay away from rocky areas,” Tao explains. “If we drop near Insubong Peak and trek down the mountain walls—”

“That’s a great idea,” Kyungsoo says.

“No. Bad idea.” Chen shakes his head like a kid throwing a tantrum. “This is insane. Please tell wushu-time boy he is insane. There must be mimics buried all over the bottom of the mountains. We might land fine, but as soon as we step anywhere near civilization, we are done for.”

Tao smacks his hand on the table. “We can do this. We’ve done worse before.”

And they have done riskier things in the past, but it was right alongside the main army. Like the time they dropped into ocean waters outside of Hong Kong and used Suho’s power to push the waters around them, creating an air bubble, so they could infiltrate the city. Or the time they let Xiumin freeze the entire bay just so they could run out of Shanghai to the waiting boats. Or the time he’d cracked the earth and created an earthquake to flood Quindao and eliminate all the mimics there.

XO was good at what they did. Good but dangerous. After their first year as a unit, the army had decided for XO to become an unknown entity within the ranks, and assigned General Wu to oversee their division as more and more soldiers got infected with mimic blood. For anyone outside, XO didn’t exist. That way if they screwed up, the army could clean their hands of the whole mess.

“You mean better. We’ve done better.” Lay eats another cookie.

“We have,” Baek says. “But now we’re taking a new soldier with us.”

Xiumin nods. “Not only is he untrained, but as we all saw, he doesn’t want to be here. How is he going to learn to control his power in time?”

Chen grins and turns to Kyungsoo. “Unless you’re going to teach him.”

Chanyeol opens the door and leans against it. “Sir.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at the suggestion even as his heart skips a beat at the thought of working one on one with Kai. “Do I have to do everything myself? I thought being a master sergeant meant that I could order people to do stuff for me.”

Chanyeol clears his throat. “Permission to speak, sir.”

“Are you finished with the demonstration?” Kyungsoo asks.

“No—”

Kyungsoo points away. “Then get back to it.”

“Think about it, captain,” Lay says. “You take no BS from anyone and everyone is helpless against your stare. You’re the only one who could train him and get anywhere.”

“You had me control the lightning in less than a week,” Chen says. “I mean, there is no greatest achievement than that.”

“Sad, but true,” Tao says and Chen sticks out his tongue.

Kyungsoo would do it, but he needs to focus on leading XO on this crazy ass mission. And he won’t be able to do that if he needs to keep a constant eye on Kai. “I think Sehun should take over Kai’s training,” he says.

Tao crosses his arms. “Hunhun can’t even control his power when he sneezes! I had to make him sleep on the floor since the last time he flipped our bunk beds.”

Chanyeol moves closer to the table. “Sir, you really need to—”

Baek laughs. “That was hilarious. Yeol and I thought you had finally broken the bed.”

Tao rolls his eyes.

Lay crumples up his empty cookie bag. “I’m sure that was an accident. Otherwise, Sehunnie has excellent control. After all, he learned from General Wu himself.”

“Pft. General Wu,” Tao makes a face. “What does he know about mastering powers? All he does is sit behind his desk and give orders.”

Baek nods. “Agree.”

“No insulting higher ups in front of,” Kyungsoo points to himself, “higher ups.”

Tao looks away. “You know it’s true!”

Chanyeol raises his voice. “Sir, if you could just—”

Lay frowns. “Are you bitter because he pushed you away when you tried to kiss him during the last victory party?”

Tao growls. “He did not push me away! I stopped kissing him on my own! I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing. Besides, Sehun and I are in an open relationship.”

Chen laughs. “That’s not what I heard.”

Kyungsoo massages his temples. Fights are common enough in XO, but he so does not need one now. “Guys….”

Tao puts both hands on the table and narrows his eyes. “Who has been talking about me?”

“Sehun,” Chen says.

“What? What did he say?” Tao seems taken aback by the revelation and Kyungsoo wants to hit Chen because, why would he open this particularly nasty can of relationship issues now?

“Oh nothing serious.” Chen checks his fingernails and rubs them against his jacket.

“Tell me!” Tao yells.

“Calm down, Taozi,” Kyungsoo says. “He’s just messing with you, aren’t you Chen?”

“No, he’s not,” Baek cuts in. “Sehun did say that he hates having nothing serious in his life.”

Tao looks like he’s about to cry and Kyungsoo wants to knock all their heads together and leave them unconscious.

Chanyeol stomps his foot. “Sir!”

“WHAT?” Kyungsoo barks.

“It’s the new soldier,” Yeol says through gritted teeth. “He escaped.”



12:00 Trapped.

Kai had been ready to go along with whatever demonstration they wanted to show him. After, he would’ve politely declined the offer to join again and gone back to his own squad. But the moment fire sprouted from Chanyeol’s hands and water gathered around Suho’s outstretched arms, Kai panicked.

He didn’t scream or take off running. He was better trained than that. He simply thought ‘fuck this’ and suddenly he was outside the warehouse, the sun beating down on him.

He had teleported outside.

Teleported.

As in gone from one place and landed in another place in the blink of an eye.

“Shit!” Kai slams his hand on the Jeep’s steering wheel and tries not to think of what he did fifteen minutes ago. He pushes harder on the pedal and races back to base. He needs to speak to General Wu. If what the captain said is true and the military has been experimenting with mimic blood, then they must have a cure for this…whatever it is that he has.

Kai signed up to be a soldier, not a mutant superhero. He likes to be in the field with hundreds of others, knowing he’s insignificant, but powerful at the same time. He can rally others in the field, he saves lives and protects those around him. But if he’s in XO, he’ll have to leave all of that behind. They’re basically ghost assassins who work to eliminate a single target—the omega—and while Kai understands their mission, he doesn’t think it’s his mission.

He’s so troubled by the last hour’s events that he doesn’t notice the soldier standing in the middle of the road until the last second. Kai grabs the wheel and swerves hard to the side. He checks the rearview mirror but the road is empty.

“What the fuck was that?”

In front of him, dust and debris start to circle and spin. Thin funnels drop from the sky right in the middle of his path.

“What the fuck is that!”

There’s no way to avoid the twisters. The Jeep slides hard and stops in a screech of breaks and gravel. He grabs the stick and puts it in reverse, but before he presses the pedal, a strong gust of wind crashes against the Jeep’s side.

Kai holds on tight to the wheel as the Jeep is battered from all sides, even lifting up on two wheels with a particularly hard buffet of wind. As soon as it starts, the whole thing stops, the funnels disappearing into the sky.

He unbuckles and presses a hand against his chest where the belt dug in. “Ugh. What the—”

“Hello.”

Kai jumps.

The soldier named Sehun leans on the Jeep’s door. His bored expression seems to be the norm, but Kai can hear the glee in his next words, “Going somewhere?”

“H-how did you—”

“—get here so fast?” Sehun asks. “If you’d stayed around to see my power, you would know.”

Kai keeps his face blank and reaches for the ignition, but as his fingers brush the keys, a gust of wind throws him across the front seats. The driver-side door opens with a blast of air and he’s pulled out by his boots. He hits the ground with a huff, but recovers quickly by rolling around and rising to a defensive crouch.

Sehun stands some feet in front of him, arms crossed, lips quirked down into a turtle frown. A second Jeep rumbles to a stop nearby and the young man looks away, frown disappearing. Captain D.O. and Luhan jump out.

“Good job, Sehunnie,” Luhan says clapping Sehun on the shoulder.

The captain stares down at Kai, dark eyes unreadable. “I hope you got it all out of your system.”

Not quite, Kai wants to say, but keeps his mouth shut. It wouldn’t do to test the man. Who knew what power the man wielded and if it was just as dangerous as the others. He doesn’t belong here. Kai is certain of that. There must be a mistake somewhere because he refuses to believe he has powers. Teleporting earlier had been a fluke. It had to be.

He doesn’t know how it happens. One moment he’s in a crouch in front of the captain, the next he’s five feet away. Ok, so it isn’t a fluke.

“Lulu!” D.O. yells.

Kai’s body locks up like it had in the conference room. Even when he tries teleporting—he’s not quite sure how it happens, but he figures that just thinking and wanting to be elsewhere should work—nothing happens.

The captain kneels in front of him. “Let me make something very clear, soldier. Recklessness is what got you into this mess, but I will not tolerate any more misbehavior. We are hours away from a mission into enemy territory and I do not have time to coddle your panicked ass. Now get up and pull yourself together.”

“I can’t when you keep restraining me like this, sir,” Kai says, knowing he shouldn’t sass his new captain like that, but doing it anyways.

D.O. lifts a single brow and his lips twitch. “We’ve all gone through this. None of us chose to be this way, to have these powers, but we’ve made peace with it.” He rises and nods to Luhan who releases the hold. “You need to do the same and do it quick. XO needs you.”

Kai gets to his feet and dusts his pants. “Sir, I respectfully disagree. I have no control over my…my—”

“Power,” Luhan says, followed by Sehun who adds, “The word you’re looking for is power.”

He glares at the two soldiers who are leaning against each other, before glancing back at the captain. He has to convince the man, somehow, that he doesn’t belong with them. “I have no control over my power. I’m a liability. It would be best if I returned to base so they can undo whatever this…this whole thing is.”

The look in the captain’s eyes has Kai’s stomach dropping somewhere around his feet. “There is no cure.”

“But you said…the experiments…there must be—” His body starts to blink in and out. He wants to be gone. He wants to be far, far away from all this madness.

Captain D.O. grips his uniform and shakes him. “Stop that. There is no cure. This is not a disease. This is who you are now. Embrace this chance at a new life.”

Kai pulls back. He is very glad to have survived, but this is not who or what he wants to be. “I’m a national hero. I save people. People look up to me. I can’t just disappear.”

“You already did,” D.O. says. “The news of your death made world news last week. Your military record reads deceased and has been closed. You are no longer Full Metal Kai or the Hero of Seoul. You’re just Kim Kai now, new soldier of XO.”

Kai shakes his head. His entire life has been upturned yet again; the first time when mimics took over his city and killed his family. He’d survived the grief by immersing himself in the war, by making reckless moves, yes, but at least it had been his choice. Only this time people are making all the decisions for him. And he doesn’t like it. At all.

The captain narrows his eyes. “Luhan.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got—”

Kai teleports again before they can trap him. But it goes wrong and he lands on top of Captain D.O.. They topple onto the ground and grapple around.

As they fight, he looks down at D.O. and the image overlaps with a memory in his head, something he’d forgotten or that his mind had shut away. Years ago, on a rainy day in the middle of a battle. He’d just killed a mimic and noticed the body lying nearby. The soldier was small, his body covered in blue alien blood that had eaten away at his torso like acid. Blood that wouldn’t have sprayed onto him if Kai had been more careful.

The young man was still alive, his big, round eyes pleading. Kai had knelt by him and held his hand, told him to hang on even though he’d known it was a lost cause. But it hadn’t been, because that soldier was beneath him right now.

That soldier was Captain D.O.. As in Do Kyungsoo.

“It…it’s you,” Kai breathes out.

Kyungsoo’s fist connects with his jaw and he blacks out.



03:00, Day 2. Mission time.

“Good morning, ladies,” Sehun’s voice comes over the speakers. “Make sure you are buckled in tight, because my co-pilot today is Handsome Tao and he is not happy with being woken up at this hour.”

“You asshole,” Tao grumbles. “Just shut up and put this thing in the air.”

Sehun laughs. “Roger that. We’ll be at the mountains in forty-five minutes.”

“If all goes well,” Baek mutters at Kyungsoo’s side.

“It’ll be fine!” Chanyeol yells. “We are the best, remember?”

Baek grins. “We are!”

XO team responds with a resounding. “One!”

A corner of Kyungsoo’s lips draws up. Then he props his chin on his chest and lowers his black cap, letting his teammates chatter lull him.

The change in altitude wakes Kyungsoo up. They must be reaching the mountains. He stretches his arms up and shrugs the sleep off him, before checking what XO is up to. The chatter has gone down, the others speaking in low voices between them, or simply sitting calmly in silence.

Their newest member though, isn’t that calm. Kai shifts in his seat again and again, no doubt trying to get comfortable, but the rope securing him to the plane’s seat is too tight and doesn’t afford much movement. Soo knows, because he knotted it himself while trying not to get all flustered and red at being so close to the younger man. He might’ve tightened it a bit too much. “Save your energy,” he says.

Kai pulls, grunts, and then stills. There’s a wicked pleasure in having Kai follow his command so fast. The thought shocks Kyungsoo and he looks away. His admiration for the young man who saved his life is getting out of hand. This is no time to be having those kinds of thoughts.

He turns to the side only to see Suho is frowning again, deep lines marring his pale forehead. He hadn’t been on board with treating Kai like a prisoner. But after Kai tried to escape a second and third time, there was no other way. They’d tried showing him their powers again, tried talking to him, and tried to get him to practice. But nothing had changed his mind about XO.

It was mission time and they couldn’t keep waiting for him to get a grip and behave. So, he’d bound Kai in ropes and set Luhan keep an eye on him at all times. Kyungsoo will start training him as soon as they land, by force if need be. He finds it very disappointing that the other hasn’t recognized him, but it’s no surprise. Back then he was no one; just another lowly soldier thrown into battle too early.

Of course Kai wouldn’t remember him.

“You’ll need to release me before landing, sir,” Kai says. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to move. Lack of blood to the limbs will do that.”

“Oh, we’re not landing,” Chen says helpfully. He’s sitting beside Kai, legs swinging back and forth like an overexcited kid.

Kai frowns. “What?”

At Kyungsoo’s right, Lay laughs. “We’re jumping off and crashing the plane!”

Kai stares at them with wide eyes before he struggles once again, but it’s futile. However, his body starts to fade in and out.

Kyungsoo sighs. “Luhan….”

But Luhan is already on it. He reaches over Chen and grasps Kai’s thigh. Touch isn’t necessary for his power to work, but when he does, the stop effect lasts longer.

The glare in Kai’s chocolate eyes is deadly. “You are all insane!”

Baek stops chatting with Yeol and turns to his side to get a good look at Kai. “No. We are geniuses!”

Chen crosses his arms and arches a brow. “Excuse me? Why are you taking credit for my and Xiumin’s plan?”

But Baek is not paying attention to Chen, he’s animatedly telling Kai the plan. “We’ll jump off near the peak and let the plane crash kilometers away. The explosion will no doubt draw the mimics and our landing area should be pretty much clear. See? Genius.”

It wasn’t exactly genius, but it was a great plan; one that General Wu would never have approved of if he’d known they planned to crash one of his precious transport planes. Kyungsoo had conveniently left that part out.

“Mimics burrow into the earth,” Kai says. “Do you really think that one little distraction will draw them all away?”

“Of course not,” Chanyeol says over Baek’s shoulder.

“That’s why he said pretty much not completely clear,” Chen says.

Kai opens his mouth, no doubt to retort something back, but it gets cut off when the plane lurches hard.

Suho’s head smacks hard against the back and he curses out loud, then blushes. He’s as foul mouthed as the rest, but it’s rare to hear him like that as he prefers to be way too proper all the time.

Lay reaches over behind Kyungsoo and brushes his fingers against Suho’s nape. “Better?”

“Thanks.”

Another hard swerve and then Tao’s voice is yelling over the com. “Captain, we’re getting heat from below.”

“They weren’t supposed to notice us so soon,” Xiumin says, eyes wide.

“So much for your plan!” Kai’s face goes red as he no doubt tries to break Luhan’s hold.

“Headsets on!” Kyungsoo says and reaches for the button at his ear. “Tao, how far are we from the peaks?”

“ETA is ten minutes, but we—” Static interrupts his words. “Sir, we’re still too high. And before you ask why, let me just say it’s Sehun’s fault.”

“Don’t you dare blame me! You were distracting me!”

“I don’t care whose fault is it! Fix it now,” Kyungsoo snaps. A dual chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and his stomach swoops as the plane changes altitude fast. He unbuckles and stands, grabbing onto the net on the wall to keep steady. Making a jump at night from so high is dangerous, but staying on the plane while mimics shoot them down is suicide. They’ll have to take the risk. “Get ready!”

Everyone takes time to unbuckle, stand, adjust their packs, tighten their parachutes, and get in line to await the order. Is at moments like these that Kyungsoo feels proud. He remembers how disorganized they’d been during the first missions, everyone trying to do their own thing instead of working as a team. But not now. Now they are one. And as one, they conquer. His only hope is that Kai can see that too and stop trying to play his one-man campaign.

A blinding light. Heat flashing across his face. The acrid smell of ozone and burning. Then wind blasting it all away. When Kyungsoo regains his senses, his heart races impossibly fast.

Over the sudden roar in the atmosphere he hears Tao. “We’re hit! We’re hit!”

“Yes, we can see the fucking hole, Tao!” Chen screams.

Half of the loading-bay door is gone. All but three of the exosuits they’d brought had fallen out. The electric goo the mimics shot clings to the jagged edges. There’s no way they can jump out that way now. Kyungsoo takes a moment to asses. Time for Plan B.

He waits for the plane to stabilize a bit and then jumps across the space. He knocks onto Yeol who quickly rights him up. “Help me with this.”

The side door is locked tight. Even with Chanyeol’s strong arms, it’s impossible. All the moving and lurching and swaying of the plane just makes things harder. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall again and focuses his power. “Stand back!”

The kick sends the door flying out onto the land below.

His team whoops and claps. Not even in dire situations do the idiots take anything serious.

“Tao! Distance?”

“Three minutes!”

“All right! Let’s go people! Jump!”

One by one the members of XO walk up to the door and then jump. Baek and Yeol go first giving a cheeky salute before disappearing, followed by Suho, who closes his eyes, and Lay, who jumps backwards. He will smack some sense into those two soon enough. Xiumin and Chen go next, diving expertly. Last ones to go are Luhan and Kai. But Lu is having trouble getting the younger man out of the ropes.

Kyungsoo moves forward. “I’ve got this. Make the jump.”

Luhan nods, takes a running start, and dives.

Kai stares back at him, face serious, but there’s fear in his eyes and in the way his hands cling onto Kyungsoo’s arm.

Kyungsoo grabs the big hunting knife from his belt and makes short work of the ropes around Kai’s legs. He massages the calves when he sees Kai cringing. Yeah, he shouldn’t have tightened them so much. When he starts sawing through the ones around Kai’s chest, the plane jumps and the knife almost embeds into the young man’s chest.

“Fuck!” Kai looks really afraid now. “Watch where you stick that thing!”

Kyungsoo puts the knife away and grabs hold of the ropes. “Hold on.”

The ropes part with a resounding rip, but so do the straps of Kai’s parachute.

They stare at each other for a second too long and then Kyungsoo is standing up. Plan C. “Take mine.”

He helps Kai stand when he wobbles on his feet, and then straps him into the parachute. They go to the open side door. Kai looks down and swallows hard. “Sir, what about you?”

“There’s a spare one up front! Now go!”

“But—”

Another direct hit, this time to the plane’s left wing. She’s going down.

“Jump, dammit!” Kyungsoo roars.

Kai stands a second longer and then flings himself out the door.

Kyungsoo tumbles his way back into the cockpit. Sehun has the control wheel in a tight grip, while Tao is struggling to put on his chute. Kyungsoo helps him with it. The plane lurches to the side, almost throwing him and Tao onto the floor.

Sehun curses long and loud, but stabilizes the plane. “I can’t keep her up any longer, sir!”

“Set course over the peaks and then jump!”

Tao steadies himself by grabbing the pilot’s seat. “Yes, sir!”

“We’ve got this, sir,” Sehun yells.

Kyungsoo grips his shoulder. “I’ll see you below.”

He grabs the spare parachute from underneath the pilot seat and moves away. The wind is blasting with enough force that Kyungsoo can’t even walk upright. The cargo door is now completely gone, and even more electric acid drips and eats away at the entire backspace. Kyungsoo grabs onto the net on the wall and pulls himself to the open side-door. He looks down and swallows. Nothing but darkness below.

As he steps to the edge to make the jump, the plane lurches again. Blinding pain shoots along his forehead when it connects to the edge of the open doorway, and then he’s free falling. He’s weightless.

It’s cold.

It is so cold.

He can’t see anything. There’s darkness below and darkness above.

A comet of fire speeds by and a part of him panics because the plane wasn’t supposed to catch fire yet. Did Sehun and Tao make it out?

The wind whistles in his ears and Kyungsoo vaguely thinks he’s forgetting something. It hurts to think. Shouldn’t there be a Plan D? Or is it Plan E? His head feels full of cotton, and there’s no space to form his thoughts.

Something tightens around his chest and he’s yanked back, hard. “I’ve got you,” a voice screams right into his ear. “Hold on!”

Kyungsoo doesn’t know what happens next. But the wind stops and there are things brushing all over him, scratching at his face. There’s a swinging motion and he feels sick. His head bobs from side to side. The smell of blood hits him and he wonders if he got shot or stabbed. What?

“Captain…captain….”

Silence. And then his body relaxes against solid ground. Something soft is propped underneath his head.

“You’ve got to hold on, okay…”

He hisses at the sudden pressure against his temple.

“Stay awake…Kyungsoo, stay alive…don’t do this to me…not again….”

Kyungsoo smiles as he recognizes the voice. He wants to do what it says, but like the last time, he can’t.



05:00, Day 2. Insubong’s Shadow.

Cold drops pit-patter in front of him, lifting tiny bits of dirt that cling to the edges of his boots. The cluster of oak trees is the best shelter he could find nearby as he was reluctant to move the hurt captain too much.

Kyungsoo was the first soldier he ever saw die up close. The image of his decaying and melting body is as fresh in Kai’s mind as it was all those years ago. He’d suppressed all thoughts of that first battle, but seeing Kyungsoo all bloodied and hurt again, brought back the guilt he’d felt that day at not being able to save the man’s life. The way Kyungsoo’s hand had tightened around his before relaxing and letting go completely is something he’ll never forget.

A raindrop lands on his nose and he shakes his head. He brushes the water off with the sleeve of his jacket and then twists back to look down at the unconscious captain. After checking the man didn’t have a concussion, Kai let him sleep with the rule that he would wake him up every hour to check on his condition. Kyungsoo sleeps soundly, pillowy lips parted, letting small whimpers escape every once in a while. It makes him look younger, inexperienced and lost, like that day in battle. It doesn’t matter that he’s older; Kai feels a renewed impulse of protecting him.

Maybe this time he could actually do it.

Kai leans closer. How could he have forgotten this face? He’d stared for long minutes after Kyungsoo had died that day, memorizing every single detail. There are new lines now and tiny battle scars on Kyungsoo’s skin. His hair is cut different too, close to his head, showing off his angular jaw, thick brows and wide eyes.

Wide eyes looking back at him.

Kai jerks back and clears his throat.

“Stop staring, soldier,” Kyungsoo’s faint voice breaks the silence of the forest.

Shit! “I-I wasn’t. How are you feeling?” The captain doesn’t answer and instead struggles to sit up. Kai helps. He keeps a hand hovering at Kyungsoo’s back just in case.

“Report.”

Kai rolls his eyes. Of course, those would be the first words out of the captain’s lips. “We’re halfway down the mountains. A couple of hours walk should get us to lower ground where the temples are.”

Kyungsoo sways. Kai grabs him by the shoulders and is surprised when the other doesn’t push him away, but instead holds on tight. “We need to find one of the temples and wait there,” he says. “Or if we can make it to the fortress.”

Kai doesn’t think the captain can make the hike up to the fortress, not in the condition he’s in. “Shouldn’t we try to locate the others first? I tried the headpieces and either they got damaged or the others lost theirs.”

“Damn. We’ll just have to—” Kyungsoo touches his forehead and flinches. After cleaning the blood, Kai had held pressure down on the wound until it sealed up. Now there’s only a nasty dark purple bump with a red line across. “I can find them. I just…need to rest a bit more. Maybe they’ll even find us along the way.”

Rest? What he needs is a medic. “That’s not a very good plan, captain,” Kai says.

“It’s the only one I can think of right now.” The captain looks way too tired and weak, so Kai shuts up. But being semi-lost in the middle of Bukhansan National Park with a hardass injured captain who keeps his mind unfocused and his heart skipping beats with just a look is not ideal.

After much discussion, Kyungsoo decides they should at least try to find one of the temples. He is able to walk with the help of a sturdy broken branch, but Kai still keeps an eye on him just in case the other swoons in a dizzy spell or trips. Navigating the forest is difficult enough in broad daylight, much more so in the weak light of dawn with a light drizzle of rain. At least walking keeps some of the cold away. But he keeps hitting rocks and stuff he doesn’t see in his path. It’s a miracle Kyungsoo hasn’t fallen yet.

“Are you okay? We can stop if—”

“I’m fine,” Kyungsoo says. “Keep going.”

Kai bites his lip and frowns. The man is so damn stubborn, even when he’s clearly in pain and exhausted.

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “Move.”

Clenching his side, he groans. “Oh man, I’m so out of breath. I think I need to sit for a moment.”

Kyungsoo heaves a big sigh. “Fine. But if we’re stopping for completely unnecessary reasons, then you are training.”

“Wait, what?”

“Use your power to scout ahead.”

“I don’t…know how.” And he really isn’t that eager to find out. The last three times he’s used this strange power it leaves behind the weird feeling of his body not being completely part of this world.

Kyungsoo blinks his big eyes slowly. “You teleported mid-air and caught me while I was freefalling at speed, and you don’t know how?”

“Um, I got lucky?” They both had been lucky. After he’d grabbed onto Kyungsoo, the parachute hadn’t worked that well because of the extra weight. Unable to even glide it to direct their landing, they’d crashed into the dark canopy of trees below. Only Kai’s quick reflexes and teleportation had gotten them safely down on the ground. But if he told the captain that, he would be expected to actually use the power in this crazy ass mission.

A big sigh. “How did it feel to use it before?”

Kai thinks back to when he’s done the disappearing trick. “It was like I didn’t want to be in the place? I wanted to be elsewhere and…suddenly I was.”

“Perfect.” Kyungsoo searches around for a moment. Not finding whatever he’s looking for, he kicks the ground. A mound of rock and dirt springs up in front of him and he takes a seat. Kai gapes at him. “Get over it. Now, think you don’t want to be here, think you want to be over there by that fallen tree.”

Kai shakes his head. He really should stop being surprised at the powers. He’d survived the worst shock yet. Nothing was scarier than seeing Chanyeol light up like a human torch. “I thought we we’re resting, sir.”

“And I thought we’d talked about this,” Kyungsoo snaps. “You need to take control of this power now if you hope to survive. There’s no going back from this.”

Kai clenches his jaw. He can feel the buzz of his power along his skin as he thinks over and over how he doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to be part of any of this. He fades in and out, until a swooping sensation overtakes him.

He’s five feet in the air on the opposite direction of the fallen tree. And then he falls. “Shit.”

Kyungsoo calls him over with his hand. “You can use it that’s for sure. But you need to think ahead. Don’t just wish to move forward or backward. Know where you want to go, where you want to land. Our powers come from the blood of mimics. Their accelerated synapses make it hard for our slower bodies and minds to adjust.” He touches his temple. “You have to think smart and think fast. Try again.”

So he does. Again and again and again. Because though he doesn’t like this new twist in his life and having this power, he can’t deny the rush of adrenaline at getting this teleportation thing right. Kyungsoo’s praises when he gets it right, are even more rewarding.

They spend some time practicing until, fooling around, he ends up hanging upside-down from a branch. Kyungsoo decides it’s time to continue moving.

It’s only by chance that Kai finds one of the trails. Overgrown by years of disuse, it’s still a better path to walk than going through the forest itself. Their pace increases when the skies grow darker and heavier grey clouds roll in overhead.

“We should be getting close to the temples,” Kyungsoo says, a little out of breath. The captain wipes sweat from his temple and winces.

If he asks for another rest time, Kyungsoo will probably whack him over the head with his walking stick. But the captain shouldn’t be exerting himself so much. Not after that nasty bump to the head.

“Come on.” Kyungsoo walks past him.

Unable to come up with an excuse to stop, Kai follows. But this time, he sticks close to Kyungsoo’s side.

As luck would have it, they come across a stream shortly after that. Kai stops to drink both to make Kyungsoo rest and to quench his thirst. He splashes his face and neck with the cold water, too, and it revives him a little bit. The captain curses and Kai looks to the side to see him struggling. Kyungsoo’s hands shake too much as he cups the water to drink.

Kai goes over and kneels in front of him, getting his pants soaked but not caring. He cups his hands into the river, raises them, and offers the water to Kyungsoo.

Naturally big eyes open up even more and a faint rosy tint spreads across Kyungsoo’s cheeks. His gaze lowers and he hesitantly moves forward to drink out of Kai’s hands.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says. And the softness of his voice, brushes against Kai, making his chest ache in a good way.



06:00, Day 2. XO! Assemble!

Barely anything is left of the old temple. The outer buildings have crumpled to the ground. The temple itself remains standing, but half of its roof is caved in and the rest looks unstable. However, the heavy rain that opens up makes Kyungsoo decide to risk it. If the temple has stood there for hundreds of years, then it shouldn’t come down over their heads in the next few hours.

There’s a mess inside, no doubt a result of a mimic passing by. The broken roof makes sense.

“We should stay by the door, just in case,” Soo says.

Jongin hums in agreement and plunks his pack down before sprawling on the dirt floor.

Kyungsoo’s head throbs when he settles down. He hates it. He feels weak and miserable, but all that is nothing compared to the worry growing inside him, gnawing at his insides. Had they landed all right? Had Tao and Sehun jumped on time? Had any of them run into mimics?

“Stop worrying,” Kai says. “You said you could find them, right?”

He grunts. “Rest first.”

“I’m hungry.”

It’s like traveling with a little kid. He points at Kai’s pack. His own had been lost when he fell out of the plane. “There should be food in there. At least, I hope Lay remembered to pack some this time.”

Kai digs around for a while and finally pulls out two medium-sized bento boxes. “What the hell kind of army rations are these?”

Kyungsoo chuckles. “Lay doesn’t believe in rations. Besides, this is a 24hr mission. We don’t really need rations when two full bento meals will do.”

They eat everything—rice, pieces of chicken, cooked vegetables, and even packets of juice—in silence. By the end of the meal, Kyungsoo can feel himself steady enough to try out his power once the rain stops. Water always messes with his senses.

For now, he rests against the nearest wall and tries to ignore the cold creeping in from the outside. He wishes Chanyeol and Baekhyun were here to keep the atmosphere warm. As it is, he can only hope not to freeze too much as his clothes dry.

Kyungsoo looks at the young man sitting in front of him and frowns. Jongin has wrapped himself in a thick, army-issued blanket and continues to dig through the pack. “What are you looking for?”

“A second blanket,” Kai says. “Can’t have you freezing to death. You’re the only one who can find the others. Hmm. I guess we’ll have to share.”

Before Kyungsoo can decline the offer, Kai crawls over to his side and drapes the blanket over them. And suddenly it’s too hot, or it feels that way. Kai’s body rests against his right side from shoulder to hip, thigh, and ankle. His pulse picks up speed, and he’s pretty sure he’s blushing, so thank god it’s dark.

“I’m not dying, soldier,” Kyungsoo says, trying to keep his commanding voice strong. “You can stop with the babying.”

“I-I’m not…It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?” Kyungsoo tries to move away, but it only makes the blanket fall.

Kai leans in closer again and fixes it. “The day I became the Hero of Seoul, they say I saved millions. But there was one soldier I couldn’t save. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Thousands died on that battlefield and even more civilians got slaughtered while trying to flee. What makes this one death different?”

Kyungsoo isn’t sure he’s still breathing, so he takes a deep breath.

Kai fiddles some more with the blanket before continuing. “I’d never stayed with anyone as they died. I…I didn’t know it could be so sad, so heartbreaking, seeing the light go out of someone’s eyes. And I couldn’t turn away. I couldn’t do anything.

“I blame myself for his death,” Kai says and Soo’s stomach flips. “I couldn’t sleep right for an entire year. Your face kept appearing in my dreams, turning them into nightmares.”

Kyungsoo flinches at the revelation. To think that he had stayed in Kai’s mind as a nightmare, when Kai had only become the fantasy in his. His kind savior who had stayed with him—his corpse—all the way back to base. Soo had lost count of the times he’d relieved those last few minutes of life spent looking at Kai’s handsome face, no regrets whatsoever. He’d feared one day the memory would be just another blur about the war.

And then Kai appeared.

Kai who saw him and saw a nightmare.

“You look tired,” Kyungsoo says when he’s sure he won’t choke up the words. “Get some sleep.”

Kai stares at him for a second too long and then looks away, his lips twitching into a soft smile. “Yeah, all right.”

The young man settles back and closes his eyes, his profile illuminated by soft light. Straight nose, plump lips, strong cheeks, chiseled jaw. The urge to touch is too much, so Kyungsoo turns his eyes to the rain outside.

Kai shuffles a bit more before settling down, each time digging closer to Kyungsoo’s side. He is glad when the rain intensifies, the droplets making a ruckus on the slate roof tiles. It helps disguise the loud sound of his racing heartbeat.

“I’m glad you survived.” Kai’s words are barely a whisper, but he hears them loud and clear.

The rain has stopped when Kyungsoo starts awake. He hadn’t planned on dozing off for so long. Now his clothes are mostly dry under the warm blanket, and his right side is numb from the weight that’s settled on top of it.

Kai’s head rests on his shoulder. The younger’s mouth is open and a bit of drool has leaked out. How he can rest so fully in the middle of a mission, is a mystery to Kyungsoo. Kai looks years younger, way too young to be in the middle of this ugly war. But Soo knows better. Kai is the Hero of Seoul. He’s been in the middle of it all since the very beginning; has probably seen and done things Kyungsoo can’t even imagine.

Without thinking too much about it, Kyungsoo reaches out and cards his fingers through the younger’s hair. It’s as soft as it looks. Kai sighs contently in his sleep, but doesn’t wake up. The only reason he will allow himself this closeness is because after this, there won’t be any more chances for it. There’s no guarantee they will survive the encounter with the omega.

After a while he moves away and leaves Kai resting peacefully on the floor. He’s feeling much stronger, so he leaves the cane and walks outside. Judging by the sun’s position behind the clouds, it’s somewhere around noon.

The ground is still wet and muddy from the earlier rain, so he picks his way around, until he finds some stepping-stones to sit on. He breathes and steadies his heartbeat, then casts his power out. He can feel every moving thing in the forest—foxes, deer, wolves, boars, and even some mimics who have burrowed into the earth. He brings in the search closer, refining his senses, until he finds three of them.

Closer movement alerts him and he pulls back in case of danger. But it’s only Kai. Kyungsoo senses as the other moves slowly in his direction, almost soundless on his feet. Kai walks around him once and then sits right in front.

Kyungsoo wonders what the other is doing, sitting there without saying anything. He feels a blush coming on, so he speaks up. “Xiumin, Chen, and Luhan are about twenty minutes north of here.”

“How did you know?”

“I can sense things that move over the earth in a specific area. And I’ve learned to recognize their steps.” After years of practice and living with the group, Kyungsoo was attuned to them.

Kai tilt’s his head. “How big of an area? A mile? Further away?”

“Try the radius of Seoul.”

“Holy shit.”

He smirks. “You need to go find them.”

“You want me to walk around in the forest?”

Kyungsoo bops Kai’s head. “Teleport.”

“How would that even work? I can’t sense them like you do,” Kai says. “I’d be just appearing and disappearing everywhere for no reason.”

“You teleport in that direction,” Kyungsoo points, “then come back, and I’ll tell you how to adjust position. We’ll do that until you find them.”

“That’s…I don’t even have a handle on this.” Kai stands. “You’re asking for too much. Me tripping all over the forest can attract mimics. We shouldn’t—”

“That was an order, soldier,” Kyungsoo doesn’t even bother to stand, he can very well be effective looking up at the other, “not a suggestion.”

Kai’s bottom lip pushes out and Kyungsoo is both annoyed that a grown ass man, the fucking Hero of Seoul, is pouting at him, and distracted because he kinda looks cute, dammit. “Get going.”

One moment he’s there, the next he vanishes. It’s an incredible sight to see every time, but it always makes Kyungsoo’s pulse jump. He doesn’t want to think of Kai disappearing and not returning. So, it’s a relief when the younger returns a minute later.

“Well?”

“Too fast,” he says. “You need to give me a minute or two to find you.”

“You could’ve said that before!” Kai poofs out again.

They repeat the action again and again until Kyungsoo senses Kai some fifty feet away from the others. The sun is beating down on him by then and thirst claws at his throat. He figures it’ll be a while until Kai can bring them back, so he gets up and walks away in search of the nearby creek he sensed.

The water is clear and cold. The grass and trees around it alive and vibrant green. It’s peaceful. It’s everything the mimics will destroy if they’re allowed to win. Everyone is depending on them. They have to complete this mission successfully.

Kyungsoo kneels and splashes water on his face. The bump on his head still hurts, but the headache is gone. He cups more water but when he raises it to his lips, it floats out of his palm in one big glop.

Kyungsoo snaps his head up and sees Suho and Lay wading up the creek. No wonder he hadn’t sensed them; things inside the water are hard to pick up. The other cross in big splashes and they clap his back in greeting. Lay immediately notices the wound and gets to work. The medic places his hand over it, and he feels his forehead warm up momentarily as the healing takes effect.

“Report.”

“Yes, sir. We met with Chanyeol and Baekhyun about four hours ago,” Suho says. “They decided to go after Tao and Sehun. Sir, we didn’t see them jump.”

Kyungsoo curses. He regrets it quickly after when Lay and Suho’s expression falls. He can’t break down over this. “Tao and Sehun are capable soldiers. I’m sure they got out in time,” he says, and wills himself to believe it.

Lay grips his shoulder. “We’re set to meet Yeol and Baek at the fortress.”

“Then let’s get moving.” He senses the earth. “Kai and the others are waiting back at camp.”

Kyungsoo stops suddenly and turns back. He smacks each of them on the side of the head.

“What was that for!” Suho says, fixing his hair.

“Closing your eyes when jumping out of a plane, you idiot.” He turns to Lay.
“And you! You know what you did.”

Lay grins until his dimples make an appearance, and Kyungsoo hates when he feels the anger leave him. It’s cheating and Lay knows it. “I hate your evolved powers.”

Lay giggles.



15:00, Day 2. New Bonds.

As soon as they sight the fortress wall, the team picks up the pace. They’re all anxious to get up top and see if the others are there. The tension in each one of them is almost visible. They’re all quiet and serious, and Kai would be too if it were his teammates. But among them he feels like an outsider. So, when a blast of fire arcs up ahead, they all start to run except for him, who takes a moment too long to react.

He teleports forward, on Xiumin and Chen’s heels, almost making them trip. They shout at him to move and get out of their way, and continue running.

A battle rages up top. Two mimics zip and zoom around the courtyard battling Chanyeol and Baekhyun, who keep sending flares of light and fire to keep the beasts away. It takes less than a second for XO to spring into action.

Suho runs a circle around the fight and calls up water from the nearby pond, wielding it like a whip against the mimic closest to him. Baekhyun uses the opportunity to open his long fingers and shine light and heat onto the beast, causing it to further retreat.

Luhan and Chen are there waiting for it. Luhan holds his hands out and the beast pauses. Its limbs still moving but slower now. It seems his power is unable to fully stop a mimic. “Get it!”

Chen raises a hand to the heavens and a lightning bolt arches clean through the beast’s head, exploding it to pieces. Acid blood sprays around, but Suho turns the whip into a sheet of water and shields the others.

A scream comes from the other side of the courtyard. Chanyeol is sprawled on the ground, the mimic’s tentacle wrapped tight around his ankle. He touches it and the appendage catches fire and melts. But a second tentacle knocks him back down.

A string of water circles the mimic’s head, like a collar. No matter how much the beast shakes, it stays there. Xiumin takes a running slide under the beast and freezes the water, before he too is knocked aside by the tentacles. But Chen is there, lightning in his hands. He sends two shots at the ice. The beast’s head comes clean off and rolls over the courtyard.

Now Kai understands why only Lay carried a real weapon. The others had no need of them. Not with these powers.

The beast’s body staggers back, tentacles still alive. Kyungsoo stands with Lay, not moving out of the decapitated mimic’s way. The medic raises his rifle, but Kyungsoo pushes him away. The captain shoots rock after rock at the thing, but it’s not effective at all. The alien beast lumbers closer.

Kai screams at him to move, but the other fails to hear him. Before he can think better of it, he teleports in front of his captain and knocks him aside, seconds before the tentacles lash out and destroy the ground where they had previously stood. They fall hard, and he hears something pop.

Searing pain comes from his shoulder as Kyungsoo pushes him off. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Another lighting strike, followed by the roar of a fireball, and Kai sees the second mimic’s body explode.

“I had him, you idiot!” Kyungsoo’s eyes are wide and red floods his face.

“I just…I couldn’t—” See you get hurt again, Kai thinks, but doesn’t say it.

“I don’t need to be protected,” Kyungsoo yells. “You need to work with us. Not save us. When we fight, your priority is to help bring the mimics down. No matter who falls or dies, you stick to the plan.”

Seeing you die once was enough, Kai thinks. “I won’t do it again,” he says.

Kyungsoo growls and punches him on his good arm. Kai bites back a scream as it reverberates to his other arm. “Lay! Fix this idiot up.”

Kai wants to go after him, but decides it’s better to get his dislocated arm fixed first in case the captain decided to fix it for him or just break his other arm. The medic is busy with the rest of the team, so Kai take a seat among the rocks at the edge of the fortress. The landscape in front of him is a haunting view of Seoul. With the sun making its way down the last portion of sky, casting everything in shadows.

It’s eerie and sort of depressing. However, nothing can get his mood lower than Kyungsoo hating his guts. He had suspected the other didn’t like him, but he’d entertained the idea of apologizing, of showing the other how sorry he was for what he’d done in that battlefield years ago. Now apologizing seemed…pointless.

“Don’t look so gloomy.” Lay sits down beside him. “Soo isn’t really angry. He’s just worried.”

“He looked pretty pissed to me,” Kai says.

“I’m going to touch your arm now, okay? It’s gonna hurt.” Lay reaches out to him. “You know, they give us categories to distinguish how strong or important our powers are. My healing makes me a four. Tao’s time tricks make him a five. Captain is a two. In terms of power, his is more common, less important. But you…you are a six.”

Kai doesn’t know where the conversation is going. “Okay?”

“Hah. You should’ve heard General Wu speaking about you,” Lay pitches his voice lower, “‘He will help us win this war. His is our star.’ Haha.”

First he wakes up with super powers, then he gets assigned to an insane group where the man who literally haunted his dreams is the captain, and now he’s supposed to be the savior of them all? Kai wasn’t even sure he would survive against a mimic alone. Run from it? Yes. Destroy it like the other’s had done? No.

Kai shakes his head. “No pressure at all.”

Lay’s smile is soft. “Tell that to the captain. He’s in charge of all of us.”

Kyungsoo’s anger had been out of worry for his team? Maybe even for him? No other captain or commanding officer had ever reacted like that when he gambled his life away on the battlefield. They just didn’t give a damn.

A strong pressure and a pop make him jerk back, but Lay’s grip on his shoulder is strong. “How’s the arm? Better?”

Kai hadn’t felt a thing. “I thought this was going to be painful.”

“I was only joking,” Lay says. “I’m using my power to numb you. Unless, you do want to feel the pain—”

“No, no. I’m good.” Kai moves the arm experimentally, but it still feels weird.

Lay stops him. “Not done yet. I still need to soothe the inflamed muscle and strengthen it, then you’re all set.”

Kai nods. The guy really is a fantastic medic.

“The captain has it harder than anyone of us,” Lay says, apparently continuing their conversation. “His previous team got slaughtered because they didn’t have control of their powers. That’s why he’s such a hard ass with us all. He cares too much. He doesn’t want to see anyone else die. But at the same time…you know…that’s impossible. As long as the mimics exist, death is closer to us all.”

It’s true. Death comes at any time in the war. After Kyungsoo’s death, Kai had been pretty much in the same mindset. He’d turned zealous in trying to protect the teams assigned to him, only to become depressed when their numbers dwindled with time. His second approach had been to become numb and blind to everything around him. It was better not to feel.

But now….The thought of loosing Kyungsoo again has his anxiety levels rising. His heart almost carved itself out of his chest when he’d seen the mimic approaching Kyungsoo. How did this happen? How did he come to feel so much? He’d only just met the man less than 24 hours ago. Granted, he’d spent the past six years fantasizing about him.

But still.

What are these…feelings?

“You okay, man?” Luhan walks over.

Kai is surprised to see the others behind him. “Um, yeah. I’m fine.” He smiles a bit. “Lay fixed me.”

“He fixes us all,” Xiumin says. “It’s the only reason we keep him around.”

“Hey!” Lay throws a fake jab at the other. “Next time, I’m gonna leave you to heal last.”

Xiumin groans. “Aww. Come on.”

“Kai should’ve gotten healed first. He rescued Soo,” Chen says, and winks at Kai.

The others make sounds of agreement.

“Thanks for that,” Baekhyun says. “The captain can be a bit careless when it comes to his own life.”

Chanyeol claps his back. “So thanks for keeping an eye out.”

Suho nods fervently and smiles at him.

Kai’s smile turns into a grin as the heavy feeling of being an outsider fades away. Maybe one didn’t need months or years to become close to others. Maybe one just needed a good reason. Or in this case, one person who brought them all together.

Kyungsoo splashes water to his face and tries to get his thoughts under control.

After six years of following news of Kai’s many exploits in the field, Kyungsoo had felt as if he already knew the famous Hero of Seoul. Kai was always portrayed as rash and cocky, but Kyungsoo had always seen more to him. Like when Kai had broken ranks and left his unit one man short. The move had been strategic. Kai had lured the horde of mimics away from the shore, giving new troops the opportunity to land safely. Or that other time Kai had refused to get on the carrier that would transport them out of the battlefield. Everyone had thought Kai just wanted more time to shine, but no one saw how his delay had allowed five other soldiers to arrive at the carrier on time. No one was left stranded that day.

In the past hours, Kyungsoo had only confirmed what he’d always known. That Kai was a good man. That even though it was his carelessness which had brought about Soo’s death, Kai had stayed with him. He had cared enough not to walk away and let him die alone.

Kyungsoo was grateful and a little bit in love with this man who kept caring for him and saving his life. It was irrational, inexplicable to feel like this for someone he barely knew, but it was true.

“Dammit!” He slaps the pond water. They need to get ready for the next part of their plan, and he has no time to be wondering about what ifs.

19:00

The sun sets fully and the sky begins to turn a deep indigo on the opposite side. It’s time to move again, but Sehun and Tao never arrived. Kyungsoo has tried sensing them with no luck. He’s already hardened his heart to the fact that his two youngest might not be coming at all.

When the first stars make their appearance, Kyungsoo stands. “We can’t stay here forever,” he says. “We’ve got a mission to complete and time is running out.”

Baek stands too. “Tao and Sehun—”

“Are not here,” he says, silencing everyone. “I can’t sense them either. If they are alive, they’ll be heading the same way we are. They might still catch up.”

Suho nods. “Captain is right, everyone. Time to go.”

Chanyeol scuffs his boots against the ground. “Can’t we wait for a bit more?”

“Captain,” Chen interrupts, “you should do a final scan of the area—”

Chanyeol nods. “Just to make sure.”

“He gave the order,” Suho says. “Let’s move—”

“Cool it with the attitude.” Luhan spits at Suho, and Kyungsoo thinks he’s won and they’re letting this go. Anymore pleading and he will cave in. Then Lu says to him, “But I agree with them. We should wait.”

“I said move—” Something nudges at his senses and casts his power wider. Two medium-sized mimics are approaching the fortress gate. Shit! How had he not sensed them! “Mimics incoming!”

Everyone snaps to attention, getting ready to defend themselves against the threat. They wait and wait, never taking their eyes off the gate. Kyungsoo hones his senses. There’s something wrong with the way the beasts are moving. They’re too slow. Too clumsy. Two shadows emerge around the side before stepping fully through the gate’s arch.

Lay is the first one to break into a run, followed by Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Chen. Tao and Sehun, jump off their metal exoskeleton suits and run to them, too. They all clash in the middle in a chorus of shouts and laughs. Suho and Xiumin walk quickly to them and another round of hugs ensues.

Kyungsoo’s breath stalls, and though he feels like a full weight has been lifted off of him, his feet look to be full of cement. He almost left them. He’d given the order and almost left Sehun and Tao behind, and now he can’t move forward. So, he steps back and back and back. And then he turns away and heads in the direction of the pond.

He’s hyperventilating when he reaches it, so he grips the nearby pillar and stands immobile next to the water. There’s a knot on his throat and a bigger one tightening around his chest. A sob escapes his lips and he slaps a hand over his mouth. His shoulders tremble slightly. Sehun and Tao survived. They’re alive. It’s okay. They’re okay. He repeats the words over and over again.

Kyungsoo hiccups when a hand comes to rest on his back. Kai stands next to him in silence, staring at the pond and pretending not to notice the tears running down his captain’s face. Kyungsoo knows he should push the other away, but he doesn’t. He breathes deep and works to control his emotions as Kai rubs small circles on his back, soothing him like nothing and no one else could.



22:00, Day 2. The Nest

With Bukhansan well behind them, XO circles around the edges of the city, keeping to the forested areas. It slow going with the exosuits and the run-ins with hidden mimics, but they eventually sight the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds. As the satellite image indicated, there’s a wide crater near the center. Pieces of nearby buildings and all types of junk have been pushed together around it and on top of half of it, creating the nest.

Kyungsoo touches the ground and closes his eyes, extending his senses far and wide. What he finds underneath the palace grounds is not good. “Fuck. It’s a maze down there.”

“Captain?”

“Think of them like ants,” he says surveying the area. “The crater is the point of entry, but the mimics have created tunnels underneath. My guess is the omega sits in the deepest one.”

“Great.” Chen kneels by his side and peeks over the edge. “We go in, you sense the omega, we feed him the bomb, and then get out. What’s the problem?”

There’s no getting out, Kyungsoo thinks. Even if they move fast enough to avoid the blast, the tunnels would collapse on top of them. But that’s not the problem. The problem is the hordes of mimics crawling by and no doubt inside. There’s no way they can make their way in undetected.

“Operation Deliverance started an hour ago, so the majority of the mimics should be away fighting the main army,” Xiumin says.

“There are millions of them. I’m pretty sure they left some behind in case we dropped by,” Chanyeol whispers, voicing Kyungsoo’s own worries. “They’re definitely going to notice the whole lot of us.”

“Then we split up,” Baek says.

Sehun turns his deadpan face towards the smaller man. “Really? You think you and Chanyeol alone can make a stand against the hordes of mimics? That’s very optimistic of you.”

Chanyeol grabs Baek’s collar to prevent him from jumping and smacking the younger.

“Guys, cool it,” Tao hisses. “This is no time to fight.”

Suho shakes his head. “I think we should stick together, too.”

As always, when XO finally calms down, they all turn to look at their captain. At him. It’s a good thing he always has a plan. “All right! This is what we’re going to do.” Kyungsoo outlines his idea carefully, making sure everyone understands. “If someone falls, let Lay handle it and adjust formation accordingly.”

“Sir, what about you and—”

“Kai and I will be the only ones going down,” Kyungsoo says, taking the bomb from the pack Tao and Sehun had brought. He straps hit to the pouch on his waist. “He can teleport us in while you’re drawing attention away.”

Kai raises his hand. “Excuse me. Don’t I get a say in this?”

“You can’t be serious,” Luhan says, his pretty eyes blinking fast.

Yeol keeps shaking his head. “It’s suicide. You can’t.”

“I can and I will,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m the one who can sense the omega. And Kai can teleport us both through the tunnels until we find it. We’ll go in, set the bomb, and come out to help. This is the best plan.” He doesn’t mention that they might not make it back out, but the others seem to understand the risks.

“Dammit, Kyungsoo. You can’t just sacrifice yourself like—you can’t!” Chen walks away. Suho follows him and throws an arm around his shoulders only to be pushed away.

Tao and Sehun hold hands, but they nod when he looks at them. “We’re ready, captain.” They might’ve been the youngest of the group, but they never disappoint when it comes to following orders. He gives them a brief smile.

Xiumin and Luhan are solemn. They’re the eldest and he hopes they understand his reasoning. Baekhyun and Chanyeol both refuse to meet his gaze. Maybe it’s for the best, since he’s sure the two are holding back tears. Lay remains attentive but expressionless, his vibrancy gone.

Kyungsoo hates that he’s turned them to this, but this missions needs to be done. “Destroying the omega will end the war in our country. This is bigger than all of us.” He looks around at his team. His family in all things that matter. He glances at Kai, who in less than 24hours has made him feel alive again. If only they had more time.

“It’s time to end this XO.” Kyungsoo places his hand in the middle. “We are….”

Chen and Suho return then. They are the first to place their hands on top. The others follow too and the chorus comes, if a bit late and subdued. “One.”

They go in running.

Tao and Lay take the exosuits and lead the charge. The first mimics begin to emerge from the nest and the areas around, rising up from their burrows. There are hundreds of them, maybe even more, and for a second Kyungsoo doubts everything. What if the plan goes wrong? What if the team can’t hold on? What if one of them gets killed before he and Kai can set the bomb and eliminate the omega?

An explosion draws his eye again to the commotion below. The guys have reached the gate and gotten into formation. Tao and Lay stay in the center back to back, ready to assist anyone who falls. Baek and Chen stay five feet out, circling them. A shot of lightning arches out, bounces off a mimic and hits 2 more. Chen’s getting better.

Chanyeol, Sehun, Luhan, and Xiumin, work hard to keep a perimeter around the four. The alien corpses start to pile up and it’s getting harder for them to fight back. They wait for a lull in the battle and then Sehun gives the signal. Everyone retreats to the middle and huddles. The wind picks up and starts to circle them. Sehun dances in the center directing the gusts and with a scream pushes out. Corpses go flying outward and knock out the waves of incoming mimics hurtling towards them. He and Sehun had come up with that move. Kyungsoo couldn’t feel prouder.

“Let’s go,” Kai says. “No more are coming out of the nest.”

Kyungsoo looks back at his team, but he knows the longer he delays, the longer they’ll have to fight. So when Kai grabs his hand, he nods. It’s the strangest feeling falling through the void.



23:00, Day 2. Downfall.

The tunnels are mostly empty. No more than three smaller class mimics cross their path and they quickly dispatch them. They stop at a corner so Kyungsoo can sense the direction of the omega again before continuing.

Kai keeps an eye out for any movement, shinning the light attached to his wrist guard. The other hand he has on the trigger of the automatic rifle Tao gave him. Everything is dark and silent except for the slow beeps of the bomb at Kyungsoo’s hip. The captain had turned it on once they’d entered the nest. He said it was best to have it ready for when they found the omega. Jongin wonders how fast he’ll have to be when throwing it to the alien beast. He’d be teleporting Kyungsoo and himself out, and he still didn’t have much practice carrying another person like that. It usually took him a few seconds to get it right.

“There’s two more levels down,” Kyungsoo says. “We need to get there.”

Kai grabs his hand, but the other shrugs it away.

“No. Save your energy,” he says. “Let’s see if there’s a way down.”

They move down the tunnel until they reach a dead end. There’s a hole the size of a basketball court leading down. Kai peers over the edge, but there’s nothing but darkness below. “That’s too deep for ropes. I’m going to have to teleport us anyway.”

“Fine, let’s—Look out!”

Kyungsoo pushes him into the hole. He’s so stunned that he free falls for seconds before he teleports back up. The captain battles with an alpha mimic. The beasts blue fire—unlike the orange of the smaller ones—is a live thing that spews out of the alien beast’s maw. Boulder after boulder detaches from the wall and hurls itself at the alpha. Kyungsoo is barely keeping it away from himself.

Kai struggles with what to do. The riffle will only annoy the beast, but it won’t actually kill it. And he could teleport to Kyungsoo and get them out, but if he times it wrong, the beast could easily get him or he could get his captain killed.

Kyungsoo screams something to him, but it’s hard to hear over the alpha’s mighty roar when it’s knocked down by half a wall collapsing on him. The captain takes his chance and runs. Only he doesn’t run towards Kai.

He runs to the hole and jumps.

Kai’s heart drops to his stomach. He lets go of the rifle, letting it hang from his back, runs after Kyungsoo and dives, just as the alpha re-emerges. He spots the falling light of the bomb attached to Kyungsoo and aims for it. Kyungsoo grunts as they collide, still falling. He wraps his arms around the older and tries to teleport to the bottom. But it doesn’t work. They keep falling.

“Kai…Kai, the floor!” Kyungsoo exclaims. “The floor!”

Kai screams and teleports them both at less than twenty feet from pulverizing against the cave’s floor. The landing is still rough and they both end up coughing, trying to get air back into their lungs.

“We have to move.” Kyungsoo’s breathing is harsh in the darkness. “The omega is on this level. I can feel it.”

They stagger to their feet and start running down the tunnel. The wrist guard lights don’t illuminate much, so they notice the sudden lightening the further they go down. What they find up ahead is both beautiful and terrifying. The size of a building, the omega illuminates the entire cave with ethereal luminescence. Its tentacles sway softly, in time with some unheard song.

Kyungsoo grabs the bomb and sets the timer. 10 seconds. No time for error. “Stay here.”

What? “Sir, I don’t think that’s wise. I might not have enough time to get you.”

“It’s fine. The two of us don’t have to die,” Kyungsoo says. “If anything goes wrong, you have to promise me you’ll teleport out. Leave me and go help the others.”

Kai grits his teeth. So this had been the plan all along? Kyungsoo sacrificing himself. The idiot. “What happened to ‘we are one’?”

“We won’t be anything if this thing doesn’t die,” Kyungsoo hisses. “Now stay. And cover me.”

He doesn’t like this, but there’s no arguing against Soo who simply turns and moved towards the omega. Kai brings his rifle to the front and watches. The captain tries to be stealthy, stepping carefully to avoid any kind of noise. The omega gives no indication that it knows they’re there. It doesn’t pause its tentacle dance. It doesn’t change glow intensity.

But the ground starts to shake.

Chasms opens up all over the ground.

Tentacles snap up into the air.

Twenty alphas rise.

“Kyungsoo!”

Kai fires, drawing attention to him. But it’s too late. One alpha moves and impales Kyungsoo in one of its tentacles, raising him high above like a macabre trophy.

“NO!”

The tentacle retracts with a sickening sound. Kyungsoo throws the bomb as he falls to the cave floor, a bloody hole in his chest. Jongin teleports to him before the captain hits the ground and then takes them away. It’s the fastest he’s ever teleported.

They’re on a street up top. Which one? Kai doesn’t know and doesn’t care. The ground heaves as the explosion goes off leagues underneath the earth. The city buildings around them shake and groan, and Kai throws himself over Kyungsoo in case something falls.

When things steady, he leans back.

“I feel…cold…Jongin.” Kyungsoo’s voice cracks.

“You know my name? Kyungsoo, how—”

A bloodied smile. “It’s in…your record…idiot.”

Jongin laughs. If the captain is making jokes, then everything will be all right. But then Soo starts to cough blood. “Shit. Hold on. We need to find Lay.”

Kyungsoo grabs his hand and smiles. “It’s too late.”

“What? No. No it’s not.” Kai looks around, trying to find a street sign that will tell him where the fuck they are. “I just need to get you back to the palace and then we’ll—”

Soo brushes his bloody fingertips over Kai’s lips. “In our next lives…you better say yes when I ask you out.”

“I’m saying yes now!” Kai screams and teleports them to another street. Kyungsoo coughs again, harder. “Soo, you better not die on me.”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says. “For saving me….”

“Kyungsoo….” No response. “Soo…please, don’t….”

Kyungsoo lies still in his arms, the splashes of his own blood standing out against the paleness. There’s no air left in Jongin’s lungs; not to cry out, not to sob.



Reset

Static crackles in his ear and he jumps. Muted voices whisper over the comm. The others. XO. His team.

He’s not alone.

Jongin clicks the button on his watch to countdown five minutes. He slides an arm under Kyungsoo’s legs and picks him up. “Tao, can you hear me?”

“Kai, where are you? The captain isn’t responding.”

“We’re on a street. I don’t know—” Jongin pants as he runs towards the collapsed stairs and the hole in the ceiling.

“We’re up top where you left us,” Tao says.

“Stay where you are.” He visualizes the destroyed plaza. “I’m coming to you.”

Jongin teleports twice before he gets to where the squad is. Tao, Lay, and Suho wait by the edge of the chasm, and they all turn when his boots scuff the floor. Their faces are grim as they take in the scene.

“He’s dead,” he says without preamble. “I need you to reset time so I can save him.”

Tao and Suho exchange a glance, before the later approaches. “Kai…”

Jongin steps back. Why is no one moving? Why is no one reacting? “I can do it! I can save him, I know I can! Just reset the fucking time!”

Tao shakes his head and backs away. “I’m sorry. Captain’s orders. He told us to keep the timeline intact if he ever…even if he wasn’t with us.”

“Orders? His orders?” Jongin strides forward and grips Tao’s vest. He can’t fucking believe this. “The captain isn’t here you asshole! He’s dead! He’s dead and the only way to bring him back is if you reset!”

Suho and Lay grab his arms and shove him off. The rest of the squad has made their way to them and they watch with somber eyes from the sidelines. They’re not disagreeing either.

Jongin breathes hard. “How can you all just stand there and do nothing? You have the power to save him and you won't?”

“It’s not that simple,” Chen says. “Altering the timeline could cause all kinds of mistakes. The mimics could get to you before you set off the bomb. The bomb could malfunction and not explode. The omega could kill you instead of him.”

“Then let him kill me!” The seconds tick by and no one moves. Jongin slumps to the floor once again. “Please. Let me save him. Let me try. Please, I beg you….”

The watch’s beep for time up echoes across the grounds. Jongin’s anguished howl crackles through the night as he pours his everything into it. He kneels beside Kyungsoo and drags his body into his lap. He sobs into the elder’s bloody shirt, wishing that his ability would be more useful. That he could actually teleport not only across space, but across time.

Because he doesn’t want to be here.

He doesn’t want to live in this world.

In a world without Kyungsoo.

He doesn’t—

“Kai, don’t!”

The words echo into the distance and stretch across time.

Jongin blinks slowly. His body feels weightless for a second and then he’s back in the cave. A scraping noise makes him look up to see Kyungsoo approaching the omega. He doesn’t think. He acts.

Jongin teleports.

He grabs Kyungsoo around the waist. The elder drops the bomb in surprise and Jongin kicks it away. A tentacle scrapes his back and then he’s somewhere else. The pavement is hard underneath him and the looming shadows of buildings tower above. They’re outside.

Kyungsoo elbows him and escapes from his embrace. “You idiot! What the fuck did you do!”

And Jongin has never been so grateful to hear an insult directed at him in his entire life. He strides forward and wraps his arms around the other, squeezing tight. Kyungsoo’s fist rain down on his sides and back, but he doesn’t let go.

“You died,” Jongin says.

Kyungsoo stops.

“You died and you asked to stay dead,” Jongin pulls back, his heart clenching tight at the sight of the other, “but I couldn’t let you do that.”

“You risked the entire operation, the fate of the world to save me?”

“I couldn’t see you die,” Jongin says, and reaches out to Kyungsoo. “I saw it once and I couldn’t bear to do it again.”

Kyungsoo hits Jongin’s chest, making him stumble back. “You insubordinate—” smack “reckless—” smack “—piece of shit!” smack, smack.

Jongin grabs Kyungsoo by his jacket and pulls him in, sealing their lips together in a hard kiss. After a moment’s hesitation, the elder’s small hands grab at Jongin’s hair and hold tight. When they separate, Jongin notices the tear tracks on Kyungsoo’s cheeks. He wipes them away with his thumbs and then kisses the other one more time, slow and sweet.

The ground heaves and shakes as the bomb goes off miles below them.

“It worked,” Kyungsoo says, his eyes wide.

Jongin grins. “We won. Again.” He grabs the elder’s hand. “And this time it’s perfect.”

Color rises in Kyungsoo’s cheeks, but he laces his fingers with Jongin’s. “Let’s go find the others.”

Jongin nods and teleports them back to the destroyed courtyard. But then something unexpected happens. He sees the squad and sees himself screaming at them.

“I can do it! I know I can! Just reset the fucking time!”

He pulls Kyungsoo back around the corner. The two hide behind a wall and Jongin sees his spectacle unfold for the second time. How he’d grabbed onto Tao, the heartbroken faces of the squad—he hadn’t noticed Sehun and Baek crying in the background—,the moment his watch had called game over, him falling on his knees and crying. The only difference was, there was no body for his other self to cry onto this time.

Kyungsoo’s hand is squeezing his too tightly, but he doesn’t let go and he doesn’t ask the other to ease up. When his other-self teleports out, Jongin sees the shocked faces and hears the gasps.

“Where did he go?” Chanyeol says, holding a crying Baek close.

“Did he teleport out?” Luhan asks.

Suho walks over to where other-Kai had disappeared. “Guys…I think he went back.”

“That’s impossible,” Tao says.

“We’re fighting aliens and we have supernatural powers,” Min says. “Nothing is impossible.”

Kyungsoo tugs at his arm. “Come on.”

When the two emerge from behind the wall, there is complete and total silence. Jongin understands that he and Kyungsoo have technically returned from the dead and are holding hands like a couple but, is it too much to ask for a little bit of cheer? “I think we broke them, captain,” he mock-whispers. “Maybe the hand-holding was too much.”

His captain shoves him away with a smile, before turning to address the squad. “Good job, guys. I’m sure there’ll be promotions all around.”

“What the fuck just happened,” Baekhyun says.

“I’ve no idea,” Chanyeol answers, still gaping at them.

Lay shakes his head and Chen comes to stand beside him. “This is so confusing,” he complains.

Tao just smiles.

“Well, as much as I’d love to hear your story,” Xiumin says, “I think we all rather get the hell out of here and go home.”

Luhan nods. “Agreed.”

Jongin stands beside Kyungsoo, and the elder glances up at him. “Take us home, soldier.”

Jongin’s salute is all sorts of boyish mischief. He locks eyes with each one of them, and with a simple blink, they all vanish into the air.