“And these people that you’ve been hanging out with—they’re good people?” he asked for what seemed like the 100th time. An Qi rolled her eyes as she dragged him along through the suburban streets. The area didn’t seem that nice all together, but perhaps that was just because it had been so long since he had lived anywhere near the city. Not since his parents…

            “Yes, Ma, they’re good people,” An Qi replied back dully. Her language had changed so much over the years, so much so that the current her, the blossoming, witty 18-year-old with a sassy attitude and the hair flips to match, seemed nothing like the rough, blunt 13-year-old he had first met. “C’mon, don’t be so judgmental; you’ll like them, I swear.”

            “And this… ‘cause’… of theirs?” he continued, still somewhat wary.

            “It’s not much really,” she quipped, though he couldn’t say he believed her much. “Nothing more than a youth group, really; just advocating for things like better law enforcement, students’ rights, and whatnot. Nothing to worry about.”

            He could only hope she was right.

{…}

            “You’re going too far, guys,” he tried reasoning, practically pleading them to stop and consider. Zheng Bai rolled his eyes at him.

            “You don’t get it, man,” he said as he slung a rifle over his shoulder. “It’s them who have gone too far this time.

            “We won’t let that damn city slug take over us anymore,” He Guo added with malice lacing her every word.

            Shaking his head desperately, the boy turned to An Qi, hoping his closest friend would be able to see sense in all this, but the girl simply sighed.

            “It’s our time to rise up, we can’t back down now,” she said, tossing him a hand gun, which he clumsily caught. “Li Ke Yang has tormented the poor for long enough; he deserves his fate.”The boy shook his head once more, when he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He looked back to see Dong Huan, a large, bulky sort of man, looking down at him.

            “It’s just this once,” he reassured, though the boy felt far from it. “This once, and never again. We simply need to make an example, to show we mean business, so they’ll stop ignoring our whims. C’mon, we need you. This is what we’ve always wanted, and if we have to take a few odd routes to get there, then so be it.”

            With a heavy heart, the boy nodded, and followed along. Just this once… just this… just…

{…}

            He wondered when the tears would stop coming, but it appeared like his body had an endless bounty of water today—odd, considering how water supplies had been almost entirely restricted to the countryside.

            “Those bastards!” Dong Huan screamed, slamming his fist into the wall without thinking, though no pain ran through his hand. Perhaps that was the charm of being such a brawny individual: impulsive, brute actions didn’t lead to a world of hurt.

            But the boy couldn’t pay attention to that. He was too busy staring at and sobbing over the bodies in front of him. No, no, nonono, this can’t be happening, why them, why this, what did they ever do to deserve this—

            He barely noticed when arms wrapped around him, but he immediately recognized the voice that spoke seconds afterwards. An Qi.

            “They will not pass in vain,” she said, and though he could hear the anger laced in her words, there was also the sort of soothing quality that she had always had mixed into her words. “We will make those scumbags pay for what they did, for the innocents they have slain... for the families they ruined.” The boy sniffled, but he knew she was right. That was all they could do now—prevent more of this from ever happening again.

            “They will pay,” he agreed, slowly standing up. The arms around his shoulders slowly slipped away, but the presence was still there. He had support, and now, he would support the rest; this was his duty. With one last glance at the corpses on the ground, he turned away, holding his hand open. “Mask.”

            He could feel the leather and metal, heavy in his hands, but he didn’t mind. This was the path he was to take, the world he was to fix.

            Dead was the crying, weak boy sheltered by his parents and grandparents, and born was the lonely leader, bound to bring storm to the world.

            Born was Lay, and dead was—

----------

            He woke with a start. Chest panting and face flushing, he looked around frantically, only to find himself in a plain white sleeping quarter, far from the haunting of the horrific past. Memories of riots, of his team, of Councils, of those damn Kings—

            He sighed, before looking around the room vaguely and thinking back to the present moment. That’s right, he had been sent to a secured room to stay overnight as those others planned what their next move would be. Luckily, even though Tao was out, no one felt the need to accompany him and watch over him for the night, meaning he was allowed at least some space. Now if only he could figure out what the was going on here.

            Ruffling his hair in exasperation, Lay could only hope they wouldn’t take that long to come fetch him.

----------

            If Suho had learned anything from the past few days, it would be that things never go as you expect them to, let alone as you’d like them to.

            His mind refused to fall into a proper sleep that night, leaving him with a restless night and a grumpy day. Though he seemed much better than the previous day, Tao still didn’t seem to be that well-recovered as of yet. And to top it all off, the Councils ended up having no idea of what to do with their little Lay-situation, and they ended up being faced with the one solution Suho had wanted to avoid as much as humanely possible.