Minseok had made a mistake. A terrible mistake. In a moment of anger, he had let his guard down, had dared to cry tears of frustration in front of Lu Han. He hated appearing weak, especially in front of someone he needed to maintain the upper hand with always. It was foolish, to let the anger dominate him.

“Sir, what do you plan to do?” Yixing questioned after the incident with Lu Han, once Minseok had dragged himself from the sleeping adventurer’s room and back to his laboratory. His cheeks were still stained his tears, his eyes dark and unreadable. He was anguished, angry...confused.

“Baekhyun said he failed,” Minseok repeated what he had been told on the beach, what had sparked his intense anger, what had facilitated the attack. “And yet Lu Han says that I claimed he succeeded. Who should I trust...who should I trust. No one, probably no one.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. A dear old friend or this adventurer he knew little of. Perhaps it was an easier decision than he thought...but no. It was never easy. Not when there were as many versions of Baekhyun as there were of him. Trust no one.

A few hours later, after much debate, Minseok had made up his mind. His decision was not supported by his faithful servant who immediately tried to talk him out of it. “Sir, you know what can happen. You know--”

Minseok waved his hand dismissively. “That was before.”

Yixing stared at his master, an incredulous look on his face. “Before?! Sir, I fail to see how anything has radically changed.”

“He met me. Yixing, he met me the first time. He spoke to me, is that not a sign?” Through all the experiments this was the first time that someone had met him on the first go. After much debate Minseok took that as a sign, regardless of the success or failure of the overall mission, because of that he could not be certain.

“Random chance, sir,” Yixing continued to try to talk him out of his insane idea. “And he could have lied.”

“More reason to do this, to make sure he is not lying,” Minseok seized the logic.

Yixing out of anyone who had met Minseok knew him the best. He knew he was not going to talk the man out of something when he set his mind to it. The servant acquiesced, giving up his protests and shifting towards how to make the plan a success. “Tell me what you need me to do, sir.”

“At the first sign of trouble, kill him,” Minseok ordered.

“Yes, sir, very well.”

The haunting portrait of Kim Junmyeon was the natural place for Minseok to gravitate towards after making such a potentially disastrous decision. Junmyeon, after all, was the first person Minseok had met when the curse had descended on him, the first ancestor to speak to him, to explain and to give some clarity. He had never met Kim Junmyeon again and much, much later he had learned how damaging the man had been to him.

“Perhaps we shall meet soon,” Minseok whispered, staring into the vacant eyes of the man, the portrait painted long after the curse had seeped into him. “I think I should like that.”

That was where Lu Han found him, standing in front of the large painting.

And from there Minseok learned what Lu Han had experienced, during their walk to the laboratory. It furthered Minseok’s resolve to go through with his plan. Not only had Lu Han met him but he had gone to the same place, the same beach, that Minseok had visited last. Surely this was a sign of some sort.

Minseok sensed the undercurrent of fear and apprehension in the adventurer as he was once again strapped to the machine. It gave Minseok a sense of erse pleasure to know that he was not the only one in this strange business partnership to let his weakness show.

Minseok set the calibration per his latest calculation, flipping the lever the machine began to hum. A few minutes later, after he was certain Lu Han was now hovering between consciousness and that other state that was sleep but not, Minseok called for Yixing. It was time.

He delighted that Lu Han hadn’t noticed the small bed in the corner of the laboratory, a new addition. It saved him from having to answer any questions on its purpose.

Minseok walked to the bed, slipping off his shoes he climbed onto the mattress. It was firm, but he wasn’t using it for comfort. No, his purpose was to enter that dark and shadowy world that frightened him for years, that place that was of this world but not. A place he avoided at all costs, a place that drove him to insanity, to fits of rage. A place that took from him little by little until there was nothing left.

It was the reason he needed someone to help him. Someone like Lu Han, who had a lesser chance of falling victim to the curse. Someone who could succeed where Minseok could not. None of his ancestors could succeed, could end the vicious plague that had befallen them. For this curse that sent them into a thousand different truths also tore them apart, leaving a version everywhere they touched until they were fragmented beyond repair, unable to live anymore, their humanity torn from them. Gone, but not -- not entirely because they never could be whole yet they would never cease to exist. Existing in many places, with many motivations, but never truly at peace. Shells of a person, pieces of what made one human, scattered for reasons unknown.

Minseok was the first who had developed a way for others to enter these worlds, these moments in time and space via his glorious machine. He was the first of his family to recognize how futile it was to chase after the truth himself, across infinite realities, for each one he visited he lost more of himself. It would only happen if another did the work for them, destroying whoever had started the curse. A man, Minseok knew from the pieces he had gathered, but what man and when and where he dwelled remained a mystery.  Only that his death was key to freedom.

The ones before Lu Han hadn’t been strong enough. In time, they fell victim like Minseok’s family, albeit with effects rooted more definitely in this world. This place where the Kim family were once great nobles, where this rundown manor home spoke of former glories is where they bore the effects of their journey. Their brains addled they disappeared, Minseok ensuring they would cause no problems.

Yet Minseok was ready to be foolish, entering again this dark and desolate place, to observe, to see if Lu Han had promise that the others did not. It was the first time in years he had taken a chance like this, had any thought to accompany the person he strapped into his glorious machine. But Lu Han was different, he thought, something was different this time. It had to be.

“The pill, Yixing.” Minseok held out his hand. He could no longer sleep of his own free will, his mind too terrified, too traumatized. Yixing had the tranquilizers prescribed by the village doctor, which he produced and handed to his master.

Minseok eagerly pushed the pill into his mouth, then drank the water that Yixing gave him.

He laid back, waiting. Within two minutes he was enveloped in darkness.

The foul odor was the first thing Minseok registered, followed by the pain that surrounded him. He opened his eyes, groaning at the thunderous headache he had developed. He put his hand on his head, wincing.

“By order of his majesty you shall meet your death tomorrow, in punishment for slandering the most righteous of men, his majesty...” a voice rattled off somewhere nearby. Minseok glanced around, seeing a heavy wooden door with a barred window on it. Torchlight cast shadows against the wall across from him. When he looked down he saw a dirt floor littered with hay.

Across the small room, in the opposite corner, there was a figure sitting, dressed in coarse white pants and a shirt, smeared with dirt, blood on his face.

“M-minseok?” a small voice asked from the corner.

It was Lu Han.

“It worked,” Minseok smiled. By god, they had travelled to the same place! He could remember taking the pill, he could understand this was his goal and it had worked!

Minseok was foolishly elated, completely ignoring the death sentence that the guards had just communicated.