When Sunggyu and Woohyun arrive at Red Dawn, the mission has already been started. Gunshots and explosions are the only sounds that can be heard with occasional shouting of soldiers.

The building is not very tall but is extremely huge and wide. Unlike most electrical companies, Red Dawn was built in a middle of nowhere, reducing the possibility of unwanted trespassing. But even with its large exterior, it finds difficulty in hiding from the eyes of the skies. The two gatekeepers can also see the art of the soldier’s destructive prowess as nearly half of the building was already been blown off – work of missiles.

A man approaches the two and briefly introduces himself as the commanding officer for this operation. He briefs the two on their task at hand. They are to infiltrate the facility and recover the third gatekeeper. The numbers of enemies within the building exceeds their own, and the only solution they could do now is to defend and hold their position until Sunggyu and Woohyun extracts their target.

Understanding their task at hand, the officer wishes them the best of luck before sending commands through a speaker device that is attached to his ear. With the signal to proceed and a path opened for them to enter, Woohyun grabs hold of Sunggyu’s hand and turns the both of them invisible.

With the front door engaged with heavy firings, their only option is to enter via another entrance – one that was created from explosions. Despite their rough entrance, the keepers are grateful that the corridor is empty of soldiers but the lack of illumination gives Woohyun the creeps, as if stepping into a horror survival game.

With his precise memory, Woohyun mainly takes the lead, leading the small army of two towards the place where the Nexus believes the third gatekeeper is while Sunggyu covers Woohyun’s back and keeps a look out for any enemies. Woohyun makes sure that he has one of his hands attached to the other as the darkness creeps him out.

When Woohyun sudden yells out from stepping over a dead body, a wandering soldier happens to prowl by, by chance. The soldier opens fire without any warnings into the direction of the gatekeepers however the bullets did not reach them. Sunggyu waves up a wall of force, causing the incoming bullets to suspend in midair the moment it hits the wall. He then does a twist motion with his fingers, changing the direction of the ammunition back at the soldier before firing.

“Y-You killed someone!” Woohyun exclaims as he points at the now dead soldier.

“Keep quiet! If you make any more noise, I’ll have to kill even more.” Sunggyu whispers loudly. Woohyun clamps his hands over his own mouth and stares at the elder with wide but yet obedient eyes.

“Go on, lead the way.” Sunggyu instructs. Woohyun gives a nod before advancing ahead of the elder.

They journey is momentarily cut short when they felt an invisible force pushing them backwards and even felt the building shake a little. They could feel pure emotions within that force and from that point; the map is no longer required. They could feel a surge of power just ahead of them and it felt as if it is attracting both of the gatekeepers.

The power feels trustable but at the same time, depressing.

They approach the source of the power but stops when the two identical looking man walking out from the room. Sunggyu finds it weird but that mentally changes when he spots the bloodlust within their eyes. Having the two gatekeepers locked on, they charges towards the two boys with ferocity.

However, such close range combat tactics are of no use for someone whose powers are meant to ward off such things. With a push motion, Sunggyu releases a wave of force towards the men, causing them to fly backwards and crush into the debris at the end. Normally, such impact will cause someone to either lose conscious or die but the scene before them negates such thoughts.

Woohyun’s breath hitches when he sees the two man starting to get back up on their feet, while trembling with visible aches. They could see cuts from the hurling and even bone protrusion out from their flesh but yet they did not scream once or even wince in pain. They just continued to charge, though with a much slower speed at the gatekeepers.

No matter how many times Sunggyu sends them back, the clones will continue to pick themselves up. Seeing how force doesn’t to the trick, Woohyun quickly strategizes and takes a risk by enveloping Sunggyu and himself with invisibility. The strategy works when the two hostiles stop their charging and wanders off elsewhere.

Releasing a sigh of relief, both males pick themselves up and slowly creep towards their destination. When they arrived at the entrance, a wave of anguish hits them and cause the two of them to tumble from the impact. Still invisible, they rebalance themselves before entering the brightly lit room.

The room is in a mess, with broken shards of glass all over the place. There are also wires being piled on top of one another, making moving difficult. But that is the least of their problems when they spot something even more dangerous. In the same room as they are, are people moving aimlessly. Some walks in circles, while others just simple stand there and rocks their body on the stop. But what makes it creepier is how all of them look identical in shape, size and even looks.

In the center of the room is a blue transparent dome of energy that contains two individual. One of them has are identical with the mindless clones in the room, though Sunggyu is able to see the difference as how this male is wearing clothes. However, spotting the red hole on the male’s forehead, he knows that the boy is dead.

Another male is kneeling before the dead body, crying his eyes out. The slim boy clings onto the body, shaking it with desperation as if wishing to wake the boy up. But what is done, is done as there is no bringing the dead back to life.

Woohyun looks at the crying boy and almost instantly, a wave of sadness hits him, causing him to lower the invisibility veil. With their presence no longer hidden, the clones turn their attention to the two intruders. Bloodlust fills their eyes as almost up to hundreds or possibly thousands of them charges towards them. As an act of defense, Sunggyu waves up a force shield, shaped as a dome to protect Woohyun and himself. He is able to keep them away, but is just separated by that thin film of energy.

However, Woohyun is still entranced by the sadness. He could feel the feelings radiating from the crying boy and a part of Woohyun wants to help the other.

“Don’t cry.” He says through the dome.

“B-but he’s dead… it’s my fault that he’s dead. He left me alone!” The boy says is an echo voice as a shockwave of anger pushes him back, but he did not tumble too far. Woohyun moves back to the dome and places both his hands on it.

“It’s not your fault. He didn’t leave you alone!” Woohyun yells out.

“H-he hasn’t?” The boy repeats as he looks up at Woohyun. The boy’s eyes are glowing white and there are tears streaking down his cheeks. The dome’s durability falters and Woohyun takes this opportunity to break it open with his fist, not caring the warm liquid that flows caused by the impact. He moves towards the tall boy and embraces him into a warm and loving hug.

“No he hasn’t left you. Your friend’s is dead but his soul will always be inside there, in your heart. If you cry like that, in front of him – you’ll only make him sad. You don’t want him to be sad, do you?” Woohyun exclaims.

“But he’s my only friend! I have no one left if he’s gone…”

“Then I’ll be your friend. Although I will not be able to replace him but I’ll try my best to continue his work. I promise you.

The crying boy nods his head as he tightens the hug. The boy then releases himself from Woohyun and places a kiss on the dead boy’s forehead.

“I know I’m not going to move on anytime soon but I’ll try.” The boy promises as he closes his eyes and connects both their foreheads together. Woohyun smiles grimly as he watches the scene before him. He could feel the closeness between the boys, probably even close than Sunggyu and himself. All the boy needs is a console and to move on, even if it proves to be difficult for him.

As if on cue, the blue dome dissipates and the walking clones starts to fall one by one, like robots losing their power. Sunggyu falls on his and heaves for oxygen, sweating heavily from holding out too long with the force shield but he is glad all is over.

The battle is over.

-

With the soldiers working for Red Dawn all taken down, and the building swept clean for remaining hostiles and survivors, the place continues to be buzzing with people – mostly medics and soldiers carrying people out and assisting the doctors. Both sides indeed have suffered substantial amounts of damage but the mission is complete nonetheless.

Sunggyu sits inside of an ambulance, with Woohyun snuggling onto his arm beside him. He chuckles slightly when he notices a drool forming on the younger’s lips and makes effort to clean it away. He makes a mental note to tease Woohyun afterwards.

His own affection staring gets cut short with the intrusion of the same man that approached them back in Korea. The man chuckles slightly at the sight of Woohyun before congratulating the elder on the success of the operation.

“How’s the third gatekeeper?” Sunggyu asks.

“Not so good. What happens in the Manufacturing room, it does seems that we will never find out since the security cameras are all offline. Now, Sungyeol lays unconscious and from the doctor’s report, there might be a possibility of a brain injury from that outburst of his own powers.” The man explains while looking through a file.

“What is going to happen to him?”

“Under the best scenario, he may be in a coma, not knowing when he might wake up. As for the worst scenario, he’ll be brain dead permanently.”

“What about those clones we saw?”

“It’s just a nasty experiment of Red Dawn. We’ve uncovered many research data from their labs. It does seems that those clones over there, are clones of what we thing belongs to a gatekeeper.” The man states.

“What makes you think so?”

“From the years of our research, we have come to a conclusion that you gatekeepers have a connection with each other, one that will allow you to lower your guard for the other because of that unknown bond. I believe Red Dawn has come to the same conclusion and tries containing Sungyeol with a clone of a gatekeeper.”

“Why contain Sungyeol? They could just take his blood and open the gate. What about that gatekeeper? Is he also captured by Red Dawn?” Sunggyu asks, with more enthusiasm as many unanswered questions fills his mind.

“Because of Sungyeol’s power. From our analysis of the data, our friend is able to see into the future and as well as control the minds of others. You may see it as a power that concerns the mind. Not only so, Sungyeol also has a sensing ability to find the other gatekeepers. Red Dawn most probably thinks this ability can be harnessed, in which they capture and contains him here. However, what I believe is they are only keeping him here until they find a way to do so, in which they have not. As for the third gate, it has already been opened. I’ve receive news that it happened just minutes before the start of the operation. What’s done is done and we cannot do anything about it.”

“And the other gatekeeper?”

“He is not captured by Red Dawn, that’s for sure as there are files signifying his escape. It seems that they manage to capture him momentarily; before he escapes I believe that it is then they manage to get hold onto his DNA, which results in the cloning though he isn’t the only one being cloned. In the zone where they kept Sungyeol, the people within are all clones as well – created to keep Sungyeol from suspecting a thing. What’s worst is how they are so skilled in manufacturing false memories for everyone, just to make it look realistic.”

Sunggyu nods as he exhales a sigh. He has never thought someone else’s life to be so tragic and fake at the same time.

“So, where do we go from here?” Sunggyu asks.

“Well, we think that the only way to get Sungyeol awake is to seek help from someone else. There is this man, whom we think is a gatekeeper and is possibly the same keeper that is being cloned. He may be able to bring Sungyeol back into this world again, but it is all just baseless guesses. Problem now is the find him. We have difficult searching for that guy as he never appears on our radars.” The man exclaims as he hops of the ambulance.

“Wait, what’s his name?” Sunggyu asks one last time. The man turns around and shrugs his shoulders.

“We do not know his name but we gave him a coded name to keep it in check.”

“Code name: L”

To be continued in Chapter 22: H

A/N

Awful chapter I think :/ My battle scenes are really horrible >_< I think I might do better with angst and fluffs :X 

But I think this should do quite well ... at the least. 

If there are any questions or still confused about Sungyeol's plot, don't hesitate to ask me! I'll be glad to answer! :D

(Didn't proof read soo.... I think it's alright to kill me @@)