#44:The God Gene (Part 5)
Multiple-person centric
Warning: Baekhyun’s sassy mouth is back.

Jongin wasn’t expecting Suho to break down in tears when he revealed his plans. Clearly Kris hadn’t either, but he stepped back and gave Jongin a look that clearly said ‘This is your problem to fix.’

“Hyung,” Jongin whispered as Suho tried to collect himself, “If you’re that mad at me then…”

Suho sobbed harder and threw his arms around Jongin’s shoulders. He was so short, Jongin realized for the first time. When had he gotten taller than his big brother?

“I’m not mad at you,” Suho whispered, his face buried in Jongin’s shoulder, one hand absently Jongin’s hair. “My Kai, my Jongin…I could never be angry with you.”

“Then why are you crying?” Jongin demanded as he hugged Suho back tightly, wishing with all his heart that he never had to see Suho cry again. He didn’t think he’d ever seen it happen before, and he didn’t like it at all.

Suho pulled back slightly and gave Jongin a sad smile. “Because…because I don’t…” he took a deep breath. “I never once regretted taking care of you, or Chen or Sehun. I don’t want you to feel like I lost anything, because I gained so much. I know you have other reasons for wanting this but…if you feel like you need to do this for me…” His voice broke. “Do you…did you ever feel like I thought of you as a burden?”

Jongin could see that this had gone very, very wrong. “No!” He cried, tears forming in his eyes. “Well, maybe at first but of course when I…when I realized that you weren’t lying to me and you wouldn’t leave me…it’s not because of anything that you did! You have to believe me…” Suho reached up to wipe Jongin’s tears away, and Jongin only cried harder. Even now when he was upset, Suho’s first priority was someone else. “Don’t,” Jongin whispered. “Hyung, please… just for one second, stop caring about me and think about yourself.”

Suho didn’t pull his hand back until he’d brushed Jongin’s face free of tears. Behind them, Kris cleared his throat. “Maybe you should both sit down.”

Suho pulled Jongin onto the bed and made him sit first. Jongin kept his eyes down and refused to meet Suho’s gaze.

“It’s not because I feel like…like I owe you,” Jongin explained quietly. “I do feel that way, but I know this isn’t the right way to repay you. It’s just…I pity you, and I know you’ll never understand why but the fact is that you should have been able to have a childhood, and you should have had someone who cared about you the way you cared about me…about us. We had you from the start and you didn’t have anyone to lean on for years.”

He heard Suho hiccup and sob at the same time. “Oh Jongin…” Suho hadn’t used his real name in years, now he’d used it twice in five minutes. It was different from when Jongdae said it—when Suho called him by his real name, Jongin wanted to pretend that he was five years old and falling asleep in Suho’s lap after a long day.

Jongin swallowed around the lump in his throat and tried to get a hold of himself. “I just don’t think it’s fair. They shouldn’t be able to get away with that.”

Suho laid his hand on the back of Jongin’s neck and tugged him forward until his head rested against Suho’s neck. “My beautiful, sweet, caring Jongin,” Suho sighed. “You always did have a very strong sense of justice.”

Jongin sniffled and inched closer. Their legs were touching, if he moved anymore he’d be in Suho’s lap. “Maybe part of it is for you,” he whispered. “But a lot of it is for all the other kids who could have been you.”

For a moment Suho didn’t speak. With one hand he continued to pet Jongin’s hair, and with the other he held Jongin’s hand in a loose grip. “Do you know what this reminds me of?” He asked suddenly.

Jongin could guess. “When I was younger?”

“Yes,” Suho sighed. “In the beginning, when you would get so worked up that you would cry for hours until you were so tired that you could barely hold yourself up. And when that happened…I’d hold you, just like this, and stay with you until you fell asleep. I would just tell you over and over that I wouldn’t hurt you, and that I loved you…even after you fell asleep I kept repeating it. I kept hoping that it would sink into your unconscious, make you trust me a little more.”

Jongin closed his eyes and thought back. He could remember it—how he’d tense up when Suho first tried to hold him. He just wasn’t used to it. He hadn’t remembered ever being held by his mother, and it took him a while to realize that human touch was meant to be soothing, not threatening or hurtful. But when he was half asleep and too tired to think, he was putty in Suho’s hands. He could even remember Suho’s steady mantra, ‘Shh, don’t cry. It’s okay, you’re safe with me. I love you, Jongin-ah.’

Jongin pulled himself back to the present and looked up at Suho. His eyes were already trained on Jongin’s face, and he was smiling. “You’ve grown up so nicely,” he sighed. “Look at you. You’re so strong, not just physically but emotionally. You suffered far more than I could have ever feared. But you fell in love, you found someone who completes you…you’ve gotten so smart, so mature. You’re…” He laughed a little. “It feels like you’re still my baby though, and all I want to do is protect you.”

Jongin started to cry again. “You don’t have to protect me.” He realized it wasn’t so easy to believe when he was curled up in Suho’s arms crying and wishing that he could be five, six, seven years old again, before everything got so complicated, but it was true.

Suho nodded. “I know,” he whispered. “It’s hard to let go…after so long, after you’ve been hurt so badly. But I can see that this is something you need to do, Jongin. So I’m not going to fight you on this. I just want you to promise me that you won’t try to hide anything from me, or Kris, and that you’ll let us help you.”

Jongin couldn’t help it—he cried again. He buried his face in Suho’s shoulder and sobbed like a child. He was happy that Suho trusted him, but he was also very sad that it had come down to this. Suho shouldn’t have had to feel like he needed to protect Jongin, even now. Jongin shouldn’t have been in a position to need protecting after all this time. This was all the fault of the Guardians, and if anything his conversation with Suho had only solidified that when he got home he would have some major to kick before he would be able to feel like justice had been carried out.

Baekhyun was near tears as he pleaded with Chanyeol. “You’re going to break your neck!” He shrieked, eyeing the distance between the roof Chanyeol stood on and the ground. “Just get down, please!”

From what Baekhyun could see, Chanyeol looked a little scared, but he shook his head. “I won’t get hurt!” He called back. “Just trust me!”

“It’s hard to trust you when you’re talking about jumping!” Baekhyun screeched. Where were his friends when he needed them? “Just please come down!”

“Just watch me,” Chanyeol yelled, and he took a step back.

“PARK CHANYEOL DON’T YOU DARE!”

Chanyeol leapt from the rooftop. Baekhyun didn’t even have the mental capacity to scream as he froze with fear, but his anxiety quickly changed to shock when two jets of fire shot from Chanyeol’s outstretches arms—no, not his arms…his back. And they weren’t jets, they were more like…wings. Chanyeol had wings of fire coming out of his back. Baekhyun’s jaw dropped and he sank to his knees, his head craned back to watch as Chanyeol soared over him, landing a good fifty feet away on the next rooftop.

It was took few minutes for Chanyeol to go inside the apartment and run down the stairs again, and in that time Baekhyun sat on the ground with his mouth hanging open and a blank look in his eyes. It wasn’t until he saw Chanyeol running towards him that he regained his senses. Chanyeol stood in front of him wearing a huge smile on his face.

“You can fly,” Baekhyun said weakly.

“Sort of,” Chanyeol laughed. “It’s more like I can jump really far and not fall, I can’t go from the ground to two hundred meters up the way Kris can, but isn’t it awesome?!”

Baekhyun struggled to stand up again, and Chanyeol bent down, grabbed him by the arms and lifted him to his feet. “I just couldn’t wait to show you,” Chanyeol gushed. “I haven’t told anyone yet, just you. I wondered how I could possibly get stronger, I think that this is because I was marked with the phoenix and—Baekhyun, are you okay?”

Baekhyun was staring at him blankly. After a moment’s consideration—how much did he like Chanyeol’s face? Enough not to hurt it—he pulled his fist back and punched Chanyeol in the shoulder as hard as he could. Chanyeol yelped and stumbled backwards. “Ow! Baekhyun-ah!”

Baekhyun promptly burst into tears. “You jerk!” Baekhyun shrieked. “You ing scared me to death, Park Chanyeol! How could you just leap off a building, oh my god you idiot!” He almost collapsed on his knees again, but Chanyeol grabbed him and held him up. He had the nerve to laugh.

“Don’t laugh at me!” Baekhyun screamed. He was going to go hoarse if he kept shouting. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?!” He punched Chanyeol again, weaker this time since he was crying so hard.

Chanyeol stopped laughing, but he was still grinning. “Baekhyun, I can’t die, remember?”

“Good thing too,” Baekhyun sobbed. “Because I’m seriously going to kill you…” He threw his arms around Chanyeol’s neck and cried into his shoulder. “I hate you, I hate you so much you idiot, you absolute moron, oh god do I hate you…”

“You love me,” Chanyeol countered. He rubbed Baekhyun’s back soothingly and rocked him from side to side. “And I love you.”

Baekhyun cried harder. “Stop making me love you, I’m mad at you.”

Chanyeol kissed Baekhyun’s cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you,” he said softly. “I didn’t think you’d be so scared—you know how hard it is for us to die, or get hurt now that we’re past Maturity. Even from that height I probably would have just twisted my ankle—it was only two stories.”

“Only two stories,” Baekhyun repeated weakly. “Silly me, thinking you could die…”

Chanyeol sighed and pulled back to kiss Baekhyun lightly on the lips. “I can fly, Baekhyun-ah. I’ve always wanted to fly.”

“I know,” Baekhyun said. “And I am happy for you…but for the sake of my heart, please don’t leap off any more roofs.”

Chanyeol hugged Baekhyun as tightly as he could. “I’ll try not to.”

It happened while they were kissing, which was pretty embarrassing if Tao was going to be honest—how old was he that this was happening still happening? He hadn’t lost control of his ability like that since…puberty, really. But this was different, because normally he knew right away if he’d screwed up and frozen time when he hadn’t meant to, and this time…nothing.

He, Kris and Suho were sharing a room (of course) and the two of them had been under a lot of stress recently, so Tao had taken it upon himself to help them relax. He’d gotten to Suho first, sneaking up behind him and massaging his shoulders, and it hadn’t taken long for Suho to relax, leaning into Tao’s touch and groaning slightly every time Tao’s fingers worked on another part of his neck or back. Kris had come into the room to find Tao kissing down Suho’s neck while Suho struggled to get Tao’s shirt ed.

“Really guys?” Kris asked. “You couldn’t wait ten minutes?”

Tao pulled back to grin at Kris. “You’re here now,” he said breathlessly as Suho struggled with the buttons. Tao had worn that shirt on purpose, he knew that the pair of them secretly liked when he would leave his shirt on but open.

Kris crawled onto the bed and ran his fingers through Tao’s hair, and Tao pulled away from Suho so that Kris could kiss him too. He could hear Suho swear softly next to them, and he smiled as Kris nipped at his lip. When Tao pulled back so Suho and Kris could have a moment, he realized what he had done.

“Oh my god!” he shrieked, skittering backwards, his eyes darting around the room.

Suho and Kris jumped apart and started at him. “What?” Kris asked breathlessly. “What’s wrong?”

Tao was speechless. He knew time had stopped—there was a stillness that he could feel, it went beyond the room, it encompassed the whole world. He could feel that everything had frozen, everything except himself and inexplicably two other people.

“I-I,” Tao stuttered. “I s-stopped…time. I stopped time.”

Kris immediately reached out to him. “Are you okay? Was it for very long?”

Tao shook his head. “No, Kris…it’s still stopped.”

They stared at him, eyes wide. “What did you say?” Suho asked.

Tao started to hyperventilate, and this time it had nothing to do with shadows creeping into his vision. “I don’t know,” he whimpered, looking around. “I know it’s stopped, I can feel it but somehow…I took the both of you with me.”

He looked back at the pair of them, and they gaped at him. “Are you sure?” Suho blurted.

“I’m positive,” Tao whispered. “Can’t you feel it?”

Kris had his hand on Tao’s arm, and Tao could feel a shiver go through Kris’ body. “Yeah, I can.”

Suho looked around. “How can this happen?”

Tao closed his eyes and concentrated on making time start again. Right away he could feel motion being restored to the world, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“I guess I’m a lot stronger than I thought I could be,” he whispered.

“Yixing.”

Xiumin winced as Yixing jumped about a foot in the air. He was so jittery these days, it was getting ridiculous. But that was a conversation for another day, right now Xiumin wanted to talk about something else. “She’s just a kitten, let her come close to you.”

Yixing’s eyes darted to Lucy, who was sitting a few feet away after Yixing had run from her yet again.

“I can’t,” he whispered. “I hate how she seems to want to be near to me. It’s like she knows.”

“That you saved her life?” Xiumin asked. “That’s silly.”

Yixing shook his head. “I didn’t save her life, I restored it. Xiumin…this isn’t normal cat behavior. She’s treating me like I’m some kind of…”

“You stop that right now,” Xiumin said firmly. “She’s a cat, she doesn’t have the mental capacity to acknowledge you as anything more than a fun playmate. And for your information it’s not like she clings to you all day every day, she just knows that she hasn’t scent marked you yet and it’s driving her crazy.”

Yixing smiled a little, but he didn’t look any more relaxed. “I swear she knows that there’s something about me that’s different.”

Xiumin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Okay, say you’re right. What are you afraid of?”

Yixing kept his eyes down. “Enslaving people.”

“Excuse me?” Xiumin demanded.

“If I did this to a person…I think they’d become totally dependent on me.”

Xiumin sighed and walked over to Lucy, picked her up and brought her over to Yixing. He flinched away as Xiumin held her out.

“It’s a cat,” Xiumin said firmly. “Not a person. You didn’t enslave this creature, Yixing, you gave her a chance to live. If she knows anything it’s that she’s thankful, maybe she’s a little drawn to you but she’s not going to commit murder on your behalf. Now stop over thinking this and say hello to the kitten!”

Xiumin had never raised his voice to Yixing before, and it seemed to shock him out of his worried state. Xiumin lowered his voice. “She’s just a baby. Just a kitten. That’s all, nothing more. I know it’s not her that you’re afraid of, it’s yourself. Stop being afraid of who you are, Yixing. There’s nothing you can do to change it, or what you’ve done. Accept it, learn from it and move on with your life.” Then he put Lucy down by Yixing’s foot and walked away.

When Yixing showed up again an hour later he was holding Lucy in his arms, petting her head and smiling. It seemed to Xiumin like Yixing was one step closer to forgiving himself, and that was all he could have asked for.

Tao had been jumpy over the last few days, and he was trying not to freak out the same way that Yixing did, but it was hard when all he could think about was that he could stop time any minute and accidentally take all his friends along with him. Admittedly having Kris and Suho with him last time made it a little less scary, but it wasn’t the shadows that Tao was afraid of anymore. It was realizing how very little he actually knew about his gift. He could stop time, but what else could he do with it? And he wasn’t the only one thinking about such things.

Tao was a little surprised when Kai asked to speak to him privately. The two were friends, but it was rare for them to ever do anything just the two of them, without Sehun. The youngest kids had to stick together and all that, but Kai didn’t ask Sehun to join them, and Sehun didn’t even seem to be paying attention when they walked off from the rest of the group.

They went a good distance away before Kai finally said something. “So, how have you been lately?”

Tao stared at him. “You didn’t lead me all the way over here to ask me that, did you?”

Kai shrugged. “I’m about to ask you something very serious, I wanted to start small. And I am curious. We don’t talk a lot anymore, you know? I mean we do, but…we don’t seem to talk about anything important.”

It’s true, but Tao didn’t want to admit it. “We’re still friends,” he said defensively.

“I never said we weren’t,” Kai pointed out. “I just said we haven’t talked.”

“So talk!” Tao laughed. “Why do we need to make it a big occasion?”

Kai shrugged again and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, and the moon was a sliver above their heads. “What do you think about all this stuff with our gifts?”

Tao’s stomach dropped and he forced himself to remain cool. “I don’t know what to think. I never expected this to happen.”

“Did you find out how you’ve become stronger?”

Tao didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to.

“I know you have. You’ve been acting odd lately. You’re skittish and quieter than usual, and you seem to be a voiding Kris and Suho.” He looked back at Tao. “Did you not tell them about it?”

Tao could tell there was no point in avoiding Kai. “They were with me when it happened,” he admitted. “I…I stopped time and I took them with me.”

Kai’s eyes widened a little bit. “Wow,” he breathed.

“What wow?” Tao asked crossly. “It happened while we were making out.”

Kai actually laughed at that. “God, that’s embarrassing!”

Tao blushed. “Oh, shut up,” he said maturely. “I know this isn’t about my love life.”

Kai suddenly turned serious. “You’re right, it isn’t. Listen Tao, I need your help, but you might not like what I have to say.”

That didn’t sound good. “Well then let’s just get it over with,” he suggested.

Kai took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened to us when we were young. How Suho and Kris raised us even though they were kids themselves and how hard it must have been—no offense to Kris, but it was especially hard for Suho. He had me, after all. And then Kris was nearly killed, and all this business with being kept in the dark by the older Guardians…it’s just not right, you know? And by the laws of our home planet, they can get away with it, and that doesn’t seem fair.”

Tao swallowed hard and looked down. “I know. You’re right, it’s not fair, but what can we do about it?”

Kai stepped a little closer. “I want to prosecute them.”

Tao found he wasn’t all that surprised to hear about it. “Did you tell Suho and Kris?”

Kai nodded. “They gave me their…well, not their blessing I suppose, but they promised not to interfere as long as I kept them in the loop and didn’t try to do anything too stupid.”

Tao laughed. “Like messing up the Hierarchy isn’t stupid? We may be Guardians but we’re the lowest of them, how do we expect to be taken seriously?” But he already knew the answer.

“By showing them how strong we are,” Kai said. “Or at least, that’s my plan. I have a list of everyone I want to confront, but I can’t do it alone. I need help, I need more power.”

“You want me to help you,” Tao said.

Kai nodded. “That’s the idea.”

Tao turned the idea over in his head. “It really isn’t fair, is it?” He sighed. “Assuming the Teachers who tried to poison Kris are still alive when we go home, I want to talk to them.”

Kai smiled. “They’re on my list, don’t worry.” Tao laughed at that, and Kai’s smile widened. “This was much easier than I thought it would be,” he mused. “I thought you would freak out, tell me it wasn’t my place to want this.”

Tao shrugged. “I don’t know, I think maybe it’s time to change things. We can’t be nice forever, and it’s not like we’re lashing out at innocent people.” He eyed Kai seriously. “So who else have you talked to besides me, Kris and Suho?”

“Chen,” Kai said. “And he’s the only other person who’s promised to help me.”

Tao rolled his eyes. “Some team we are.”

“I’m going after Baekhyun and Chanyeol next,” Kai said. “I’m not bothering to convince Yixing, I think he would just cry. I will tell him, but I’ll let him know that I don’t expect him to like it.”

The sun had almost set by that time, and it was getting dark. “We should go back,” Tao muttered.

Kai stood his ground. “Are you still afraid of the dark, after all this time?” He didn’t sound accusing, just curious.

“I am,” Tao said. “And of the shadows I see when I stop time. I swear something is there.”

Kai pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Don’t freak out,” he warned, “But I’m starting to think you may be right.”

Tao’s blood ran cold. “Wh-what?”

Kai leaned in and spoke softly, even though they were alone. “Did you ever wonder why Mama went after us all those years ago?” He asked.

Tao tried to deny it, but he couldn’t lie to his friend. “I did, but I don’t like to dwell on it.”

Kai moved even closer, they were almost nose to nose. “I think that we’re the key to stopping it.”

“How do you figure?” Tao demanded.

Kai pointed at Tao. “Time.” He pointed to himself. “Space.” He looked up again. “Both things that Mama seems to control. I don’t think it wants to kill anything, I genuinely believe that time has stopped back home and that thing rolls around the planet soaking in the feeling of having absolute control over time and space.”

Tao shuddered at the image of that thick, black fog enveloping the Sanctuary he grew up in, maybe winding around the frozen figure of a Guardian, permanently frozen mid-step. It was the creepiest thing he’d ever pictured. “So what? We can figure out what makes it tick or something?”

Kai looked back at Tao, a strange gleam in his eye. “Do you believe in alternate dimensions?”

Tao jumped. He hadn’t expected that question. “I don’t know.”

“Seven told me that she did,” Kai said. Tao was surprised once more, he’d almost forgotten how close Kai had briefly been with his fellow Teleporter. “She said that sometimes she could feel them, but she wasn’t strong or skilled enough to go into them.”

“Feel them?” Tao echoed.

“It’s strange,” Kai said thoughtfully. “Like running your fingers along the surface of the water and feeling wood, brick and cotton instead. Sometimes as I’m about to go off somewhere, I feel something different, but I had never been able to grab on to it before.”

Tao gasped. “And now you can?!”

Kai looked at him seriously. “I don’t know. I haven’t tried yet, but I want to. And I want you to come with me.”

Tao’s jaw dropped. “Me? But, but why? I’m not, I can’t…” he started to panic, thinking of all the things that could go wrong.

Kai held up his hand. “Calm down, I didn’t mean right now. Maybe not for a long time, yet. But eventually, I would like to try to explore my gift. I want you to come along in case something bad happens, so that you can stop the moment and I can correct myself. Tao, you do realize that together we’re about as safe as we can be, right?”

Tao forced a laugh. “I seriously doubt that.”

Kai looked him over thoughtfully. “How much thought have you given to the extent of your power?”

“None,” Tao admitted. “I can take people with me when I stop time, that’s all I know.”

Kai grinned. “I think you need to start considering how strong you might be. You know, time isn’t linear.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tao asked even as an idea started to form in his head. He had to admit that it wasn’t an idea he liked, but Kai either didn’t realize that or didn’t care.

“I think,” Kai said slowly, “That maybe you can go beyond freezing time. Maybe you can go backwards and forwards too.”

Wow, a lot happened in this part. The plot continues to thicken! And it keeps getting longer and longer! This thing will never be over with :D

Also come on guys, why so quiet? Did you all go back to school already or something?