Title: drenched, drownded

pg-13, adventure, hurt/comfort
(MAMA!AU) After a mission on earth gone horribly wrong, EXO-K is missing and feared dead. EXO-M is tasked with the impossible; to bring the 12 back together and come out of Earth alive. What makes it worse - EXO-K's powers are now corrupted, and they would stop at nothing to kill EXO-M. 

Even if it hurts, pretending as it’s nothing

Even if tears fall, knowing how to hide them

-          Cho Kyuhyun, The Way To Break Up

Chapter 10

Chaos.

Chaos is a situation in which everything is confused and in a mess.

While chaos ensued in the depths of the forest, there was an odd sense of peace in the clearing. There was a small, perfect circle where the grass had been flattened and the shed was a pile of sticks, thanks to the explosion of wind from before. As the birds took to the air, making a cacophony of high-pitched calls, Luhan was just sitting cross-legged, staring openly at Sehun. Sehun had bunched his limbs in a sort of self-hug – knees to chest, his shoulders hunched over – and his body tilting forwards in sleep. He had his back towards Luhan, but Luhan had since scooted over when he ascertained Sehun was sleeping.

It was not long before a burnt smell wafted under their noses. Luhan raised his chin, his curiosity piqued. Casting a glance at Sehun, to remind himself the younger boy was still there, he dug his fingers into the ground for purchase and turned around. It was too far away to hear footsteps, but he could make out a disfigured shape of a human coming towards their direction.

Instantly, Luhan scrambled up, standing over Sehun. Not fear but anxiety squeezed his heart. He recalled how his power had continuously failed him since landing on Earth. Luhan grabbed the sturdiest pole on the ground, probably one of the supporting structures of the shed, and held it like a baseball bat. It was heavy in his arms. Behind him, Luhan could feel Sehun stirring in his sleep. He tightened his grip on the pole.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Nothing, go back to sleep Sehun.” There was a soft indignant huff.

One second, Luhan and Sehun were staring at each other. The next second, there was a ripple in the air and Tao tumbled out from the haze, the eye bags under his eyes darker. He scanned the area urgently. His eyes narrowed slightly when he spotted Chen, sitting away from the other two for privacy. “This is important,” he said confidently, before grabbing Chen by the sleeve tightly. Before anyone could react, they disappeared.

Luhan could have sworn he only blinked once afterwards, before there were sounds of people exclaiming coming from the edge of the forest.

Not so helpfully, Sehun was muttering “stupid time-bending panda” under his breath when Kris came crashing down to the clearing. He was running at them, with someone hanging off his back; long limbs evidently making it difficult for Kris to hold on to. Sweat poured from Kris, causing bloodied slashes on his face. His jacket flapped in the wind as he ran. Kris’s t-shirt had large holes in the fabric. When Kris got close enough, he dumped the person on the ground unceremoniously before collapsing onto his knees himself. All energy was spent. It took a lot to exhaust a dragon and the accumulated stress was shutting him down.

Luhan had dropped the pole. He was by Kris’ side in a flash. “Where’s Lay?” he exclaimed, eyeing the half-healed, shiny pink burns that spotted his pale skin. They were healing and Luhan knew they must have looked worse when fresh.

“He’s coming,” he replied. He sat down hard on his bottom. He opened his mouth to comment but instead, he asked tiredly, “Where’s Chen?” Kris brought the heel of his right hand to rub his eyes, but he let out a hiss of pain as he touched a tender bruise. “Don’t bother him,” he snarled suddenly, looking behind Luhan’s legs. Luhan turned back.

That was when he recognised Chanyeol for the first time. Sehun was bent over Chanyeol, ignoring Kris. Sometimes, Sehun was the bravest out of all of them. “He looks worse,” he remarked critically. Then, the wind suddenly picked up. It slapped their faces and pinched their skin.

“His wings!” cried Sehun.

Exhaustion.

Exhaustion is the feeling of being extremely tired and without energy. “Look at Chanyeol, just look,” Sehun kept saying, batting off Luhan’s hand. He adamantly refused to let Luhan touch him. Alarm was written on Sehun’s face. There were fresh tears in his eyes.

“Stop it!” Luhan had to shout to make him heard. Seeing that being gentle did not work, Luhan tried to shove Sehun’s shoulder but he side-stepped it. “You need to calm down first!”

The shouts between the two merely increased to an incomprehensible level of noise, when Lay and Xiu Min turned up, carrying Baekhyun’s unconscious form between the two of them. Lay was white to the point of looking sickly, with crusts of blood wiped onto his sleeve where his nose had bled. He was talking very quickly, trying to figure out what was wrong with Baekhyun. Sehun was wailing and Luhan was alternating between getting him to shut up and answering Kris that Tao had appeared for a measly one minute to grab Chen and disappeared back into time again.

Blood pounded into Kris’s head. This was getting nowhere. In normal circumstances in Exoplanet, by now, Suho would have been halfway through a mantra to get them to “Be quiet, be quiet” before Kris would helpfully yell at them, or Chanyeol would be his willing microphone. Kris looked around with his good eye. It was very unsettling to see everyone in a mess, and nobody trying to stop it. Kris caught Xiu Min’s expectant gaze. What are you waiting for? The eldest seemed to say.

“EVERYONE, JUST – STOP, JUST STOP.”

Kris turned his stern gaze to Sehun. The maknae had obeyed the command instinctively. Luhan grabbed the opportunity to grip him tightly by the waist from behind, holding him down. Kris must have looked angrier than he felt because Sehun’s response was to hold onto Luhan’s arms for comfort, like a child.

Guilty for frightening him, when it was not his intention to, Kris turned his attention elsewhere. Lay was the only one who did not listen to him. He was making Baekhyun more comfortable on the ground; taking out his jacket and folding it into a neat square to put it under his head. The guilt intensified for a moment, seeing how he had dumped Chanyeol, but then he remembered how Chanyeol had attacked him without reservation and all was good.

“Not now, Sehun,” Luhan whispered fiercely.

Sehun was squirming in Luhan’s grasp. “What happened to Chanyeol?” he asked, hitting straight to the point. “He wasn’t like that when he showed up before. He was pure phoenix.”

“Chanyeol showed up before?” Lay asked, with the tone of a doctor probing a patient for more information to reach a prognosis.

“Chanyeol mentioned he fought Jongin, and Sehun and Kyungsoo were present,” answered Kris. “He’s in his half-form. He says he can’t change into his phoenix form anymore.”

“Why not?” Lay wanted to know.

“He says ‘one more time’ and ‘end of cycle’.”

Sehun was the only one who managed to project ‘are you dumb’ to Kris. The boy had guts. The rest, excluding Kris, remained confused.

“It means that the phoenix is literally at the end of his cycle,” Kris explained. Without Jongin, he was the only other member of the South facility, and the only one to have seen Chanyeol’s phoenix at the end of his cycle before. In fact, he wondered how Sehun knew. Jongin must have told him. “Every ten years, his phoenix dies. There’s a process. It needs to release a lot of energy, so he needs to have energy first to convert the energy to be released.”

“He’s malnourished,” murmured Lay.

“Not just food. The phoenix is attracted to light. They were training Baekhyun to give the phoenix the energy. That’s why…” Kris hesitated, “despite his deficiencies, he’s still in training as a Guardian.”

“I think Chanyeol is stalling his end of cycle,” Kris continued. “Without any facility equipment, or Baekhyun’s light energy, his phoenix will not be reborn.” And he will die.

They were quiet.    

XXX

Flashback

They had tested their skills before, one against eleven. It was all simulation, of course – it was hard enough to get Sehun to use his power yet alone hurt Luhan; and Chanyeol refused to be in close proximity to Baekhyun whenever he used his powers.

Baekhyun had stood in front of the large, empty white room. He was strapped into a chair, the Velcro belts holding him down firmly. It would have been child’s play for someone like Luhan or even Kyungsoo to escape; the pragmatic Kyungsoo would have patiently stretched in precise manners, until the Velcro belt loosened enough. For Baekhyun though, he waited for the test, morbidly curious as to what his simulation would be like.

It might as well have been punishment.

The lights were switched off suddenly, causing Baekhyun to jerk his head up and blink warily at his surroundings. He slid into his night vision as easily as transiting a different lens into a camera. However, he started feeling lethargic. Baekhyun stifled a yawn.

It started with small bursts of electricity at his joints. It was merely uncomfortable in the beginning. Then, when Baekhyun’s vision swirled into darkness as he succumbed to exhaustion that seemed bone-deep, the electric shock was akin to a sharp knife plunging into his skin, pain multiplied.

Baekhyun didn’t make a sound. Yet, the veins along his temple and neck popped out, as he arched his back and exposed his throat. In the pitch darkness, it was like his subconscious was jolted awake for a split-second before dismissing the pain and settling back to sleep. So the pain came, again and again.

And they found out that the Light Guardian was useless in the dark.

(Never mind battling the other eleven. He had already failed.)

XXX

“Baekhyun is fine on the outside,” Lay said, interrupting the pensive silence. “I mistook his… sleeping problem as a concussion. He was completely in the dark under the forest cover, even during day time. He’ll wake up in the morning.” Nothing is going to happen to Chanyeol.

“That’s good,” Kris approved. He looked tired. He made one last-ditch attempt at being leader before he was calling it quits, and start prioritizing finding a place for them to sleep. Caring for the members was more of Suho’s forte. “Can you do anything about Chanyeol?”

“No.”

“Okay-”

Lay looked down at his hands. There was a note of self-disgust in his face. “I can’t heal anymore.”

“That was the worst possible news I’ve heard since this project started,” mourned Xiu Min, when nobody seemed inclined to break the shocked silence.

“It seems like Luhan lost his powers too.”

Eyes were drawn to Luhan who wanted to defend himself, but could not. Helpless, Luhan turned up his glare on Kris. The leader noticed everything.

“Okay,” amended Xiu Min, the horror of the news sneaking into his forced nonchalant voice. “Then the last thing we need is Tao losing his powers and getting stuck in goodness knows where.” Sehun was starting to look physically sick. “But I suppose we can’t do anything about that.”

It was getting ridiculous. Sehun was dangerous. Luhan and Lay lost their powers. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were unconscious. Kris was teetering at the edge of falling into unconsciousness any minute.

“I’m going to find food while it’s dark and not many people can see me,” Xiu Min announced. (“So ‘find’ means steal,” rephrased Luhan, raising an eyebrow.) “All of you need to recuperate.” Kris opened his good eye and shot Xiu Min a grateful glance. He would defer to Xiu Min for now. “If something happens, Sehun we trust you, do you understand me.”

Trust me to what, was on the tip of Sehun’s tongue, but he understood. He was the only one who was both physically fit and with a power – though a corrupted one. At all costs, he had to hold it inside and not endanger anyone. He mentally cursed for telling Xiu Min, Chen and Tao that he had accomplished it before. He had not told them what happened a few days afterwards.

He would deal with the repercussions later. Sehun nodded his assent.

“Let’s get comfortable,” Kris wrapped up grimly. “We’re camping outdoors tonight.”

XXX

The next day was one of Suho’s clear-headed days. Hunger drove him out of his hideout. He knew where the others were – just a few days ago, Suho had seen EXO-M’s spaceship crash – and he purposely walked the opposite direction. If crashing EXO-K’s spaceship was not enough of an embarrassment, his self-doubt to control his corrupted power if he met any of the guardians was enough reason.

The pale-skinned boy stood awkwardly in the middle of the street. At the back of his mind, he wondered how the rest was. Suho had heard the animalistic roars, felt the explosion of wind, and seen the unnatural lightning. His hideout was not far from the forest. It had quietened down since. They must have made peace. He made a mental note not to return to the warehouse. If Kris thought of scouting the ground, and he would eventually, Suho would be found.

His stomach rumbled loudly.

“Ah… are you hungry?”

Suho turned around defensively. There was a shorter boy standing near him with a small smile on his face. For a moment, there was a nagging feeling that he recognized the boy. It faded.

The boy’s face lit up when Suho responded by shaking his head. He pulled out a lollipop from the back pocket of his jeans. It was cola-flavored. “Here,” he offered. “It’s good.”

Cautiously, Suho closed the gap between them. “Thanks,” he said quietly, accepting the candy.

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

Suho’s fingers were quick to unwrap the plastic. At the question, he stilled. He could not reveal too much about himself. The question was laughable though. That was one way of describing his situation. “Do I look foreign?”

The boy’s eyes widened. “No!” he said hurriedly, as if worried he had offended Suho. “You just look… lonely.”

The boy was being too perceptive for Suho’s liking. “I need to be going,” Suho said abruptly. He hesitated. He owed the boy some manners, in return for his kindness. “Thanks for the lollipop. It’s my friend’s favorite flavor.”

There was nothing to do but watch Suho walk away. “I know,” Jino said to himself.

Then, Jino focused his gaze on the street opposite, where Chen and Tao had reappeared through a time rip just after Jino had offered the lollipop. Jino was watching them through his peripheral vision. They had seen Suho, and had since run away. Jino breathed a sigh of relief. It was too soon for Suho to meet Chen yet. Overseeing project exo was a tougher job than the intern had ever imagined. He shook his fist to the air. He deserved a pay rise.

Jino was forgetting something. He shook out his jacket sleeve to reveal a smooth patch of arm that had pen scribbles on it. Bring EXO-M to EXO-K, check. Prevent the premature meeting of Suho and Chen, check. Ah there we go. Stop Kyungsoo from dying.

With a quick turn of his feet, he disappeared.

XXX

It was mid-morning. Not many of them were awake yet. Lay, one of the early risers, saw no reason to disturb their sleep. He let them have some escape from biting reality, just for that little while more. It was the only thing he could do for them right then.

The quiet whimpers had stopped.

Lay looked up, trying not to move too much. Tao was sleeping on his lap. He had returned earlier that day, with Chen; both looking haggard. Chen had succumbed to the lure of sleep within seconds of lying down on his side. That had said something – he was right beside Chanyeol and did not even comment on Chanyeol’s state. For all Lay knew, they could have had been awake for days at its end.

Baekhyun had rolled over to his side, using his left elbow to prop himself up. He had bed hair, with tiny leaves stuck onto his hair and face. He yawned audibly, stretching out his hands. He looked around, blinking sleep from his eyes.

He looked left, and looked right, and looked left again.

“Hello?” Baekhyun whispered softly. “Is anybody there?”

“Baekhyun, you’re awake,” groaned Kris, from beside him.

It took a moment for Baekhyun to recognize the raspy voice, from the way he tilted his head and then muttered a soft “ah”. “I can’t see you,” Baekhyun stated, frowning. “In fact, I can’t see anything.”

Right then, Baekhyun was staring straight at Lay. There was a milky film that covered his brown eyes.

XXX

A/N: One of my readers guifeng is deactivating her account. She has left comments on nearly every chapter, something I cannot thank reviewers enough for. Though I'd like to write a much meatier chapter, it's nearly 3K and I've run out of battery after two days without sleep. We could label this as a filler chapter - but uh, something happened? .__. I think the story has a few more chapters left, when happens. Like, Kyungsoo dying and Chanyeol's phoenix dying and and Sehun losing his and Suho meeting the gang - though not necessarily in that order.  

Thanks for still reading the story. Comment, subscribe and rec the fic n__n