“Forget about that security room down south, guys,” Luna demanded, taking said security map and ripping it to pieces, throwing it into the metal garbage can and lighting it, “We’re not going south. SangJung has heavier artillery down there because of Jonghyun. Down there is literally indestructible.”

Jonghyun groaned, slipping from the white bed to the floor, sprawling out and stretching, “Because of me? Really? It was so long ago!”

  “You expect him to let up on you?” Luna rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she leaned back on the sterilized counter, “It may’ve been a million years ago, but SangJung’s ancestors would of course take notes for future generations.”

Jonghyun, making a sour face, rolled around helplessly, “It’s not my fault, okay!”

He started barking slightly as he whined, rolling around to Luna, “Take it back!”

The woman scoffed, nudging the dog away with her foot, “Now isn’t the time to be a , dog.”

The two men inspecting the mapping they had left finally looked at each other with a blank, irritated stare, silently telling each other not to even bother.

  “So, we’re burning this place. . .” Onew muttered, pointing to the first floor of the mid-section of the building. Onew was able to retrieve a new map of the whole place by a miracle.

  “It’s the only way to rid of this forever,” Minho nodded, “The place has a furnace, or some central part for explosions?”

Onew bit his lip, scanning the area further, trying to spread out the rolling edges of the paper, “There’s a central, that I know of. But I don’t know what it is. There’s a whole furnace for sure, but I heard there was something below the lowest grounds we have. They’ve hidden it from everyone, so it can only be spoken of. Kapsoo once said if someone specifically went down there with a grudge, everyone would be unlucky. It could ‘potentially blow us all up’.”

  “Is it worth a shot to find?” Minho coughed, turning his head to his shoulder, fearing if he moved his arms he’d deal with extreme soreness.

What happened a week ago was extremely deteriorating to Minho’s health so he had to take it extremely easy. SangJung had already dealt with him; a good yelling and actually beat Minho to pulp until Luna and a few others came in to pull SangJung off of Minho.

Minho could barely remember anything from SangJung’s beating and shouting and scolding. Luna described it as something to be censored from the world, so it must’ve been bad. It left Minho in a more critical condition than before, so leaving the hospital wing was forbidden.

Minho still had to make the most out of it as he had been instructed to stay in the bed, unable to walk.

  “I don’t know if I want to risk it. I mean, if we’re burning the place, I just wanted to see the secret areas, you know? Like Area Fifty-One,” Onew shook his head, “We don’t have the map for the area though. I don’t know how to get there.”

  “But you’re inclined to,” Minho nodded, “And you know what, I want to set your curiosity at ease, even if it could jeopardize everything. If we have a chance to blow it up, I’ll take it.”

They two went on, discussing the various areas of what could be tampered with, what couldn’t be entered, what had high security, and all the sorts of problems.

The problem was mostly the guards. Like Jonghyun had said, they had weapons and indestructible forces. If Luna and Onew undergo suspicion, it could be all over for them.

Onew could conclude that someone may be able to even give him the information to get himself into duty down into the furnace areas. The furnace wasn’t some simple room, but a whole floor as long as the prison itself.  If Onew could have a job down there, he could spend time getting to know it all around, learning what shuts it on and off, and what makes everything go boom.

  “Luna would have to talk to some injured folks, too,” Onew circled his finger over at the east wing of the prison, “Folk who’ve been here a long while. They know the place inside out.”

  “What do we do when we have the information? What about Taemin?” Minho quickly brought up, circling the area Onew told him he was in.

 Onew no more than jumped at the mention of Taemin, moving Minho’s finger to a more eastern side of the map, “They moved him again. Another prisoner tried to get a hold of him.”

Minho noticed Onew’s jaw clenched as he spoke, his eyes about to burn holes into the map.

  “You okay?” Minho asked.

Onew looked up, loosing the temper in his face, shaking his head, “Yeah. Just bothered by it.”

Completely understanding, Minho patted Onew’s hand. Even though Onew didn’t know Taemin at all, he still had the concern like a father, protecting his child. It’s more than Minho could ask of a person in this place, and he was glad it was so easily given to him.

  “I haven’t heard news yet,” Luna in, sticking her tongue out at Jonghyun, “Only Taemin being moved. Kapsoo looked exceptionally pleased, so I . . .” she looked specifically at Jonghyun, “May be cautious with our time management. We may not have a lot left.”

Minho stared at Jonghyun, confused by all of this, “Time? What would happen?”

  “Remember what I told you from the beginning,” Onew reminded Minho, “If he consents, he’ll be able to forget everything.”

Minho groaned, slamming his head back on the bed, violently wincing afterward, “.”

  “What did I tell you?” Luna warned hastily, automatically checking his shoulders, “Do something like that again and your head might pop off your body, I tell you!”

Minho sighed, apologizing quickly as he set himself back on track, addressing everyone in the room.

Now reminded he had a time limit, he had to work faster, which meant he needed to heal faster. And that meant he needed to be good and let his body work itself out. As much as he hated sitting still, it had to be done.

  “Did Taemin consent?” Minho cautiously asked, afraid of the answer.

  “I don’t think he did, entirely,” Luna pulled up a stool, “He screamed half of it before he passed out. It was partial consent, but Kapsoo needs Taemin to have a clear head for a decision. Minho . . .” she grabbed his hand, forcing him to look at her, “What if Taemin really wants to forget? Would you stop him?”

Minho stared blankly at her.

Taemin couldn’t truly be thinking like that. Not after he’d come so far to even meet with Minho on the other side of the barrier. No, Taemin had to be giving Minho a chance. There were still reasons to be faithful to Taemin, reasons to push on and make himself apparent that he loved him more than he could ever do someone else. To escape from Hell to meet the angel outside the barrier. To redeem himself to become level with Taemin once again.

No, they had always been on the same level. Since forever.

But, if Taemin truly wanted to forget . . . Minho would want confirmation for himself. Taemin wasn’t weak; he was a strong willed mind. He would express his opinion openly when he was comfortable, and even though Minho wasn’t exactly comforting now, Taemin has the strength to at least scream at Minho he was forgetting.

But that would mean Minho would have failed to redeem himself; to explain everything Taemin wanted. Minho would never get that chance to change Taemin’s mind, no matter how selfish it would be if he had the opportunity.

He couldn’t let Taemin go so simply, or just let him make a decision like that on his own. So, a week ago wasn’t the best of meetings. If he had one more chance . . .

Minho still thought Taemin was still his own; his partner in crime. It takes two to make a decision, and Minho was still set on that path.

  “I have to keep trying,” Minho looked away, taking back his hand, “I have to keep trying until I’ve worn him out.”

  “Isn’t that selfish?” Luna pressed, getting closer.

  “Luna,” Onew interjected, staring her down, “Stop.”

Minho noticed the two having a heated stare down, silently communicating in their heads right in front of him, leaving him out of it.

  “But, Onew,” Luna kept pressing, “I’m not against anyone, but give it a thought.”

  “Luna,” Onew raised his brows testily, his mouth tight, eyes blazing, “Drop it.”

Minho waved his hand in front of Onew, shaking his head, “Calm down. She can be skeptic all she wants. I don’t understand why you’re so choleric over something simple for once.”

  “Minho, you don’t get it—”

Jonghyun stood up with a mad bark, focusing all the attention on him. The three pairs of eyes stared.

The Taerant realized the distraction his brought and shrank a little, rolling his eyes, “Quit the heat. It’s too hot in here with the Daegrent already. Now listen up.”

All three were surprised when the Taerant nonchalantly walked over and started pressing his fingers all over the map, “Taemin’s now here, which means he’s with the sick folk—the humans. There isn’t too much guarding around them, but just the perimeter. Someone getting in contact with Taemin shouldn’t be too hard as long as they’re human with a purpose,” he looked at Luna.

  “Now,” he refocused, “While Taemin is under questioning by someone, I overheard Onew would submit into the lower units of the building. Good intentions, hot as hell. All you need to do is find the right furnaces to blow. Some are half as old as I am and some are new. The newer ones will explode nicely, just to add.

  “The thing Kapsoo only speaks of would be found lower than the second basement, and hell, that’s really deep. I wonder if Jessica is still alive because, , oxygen isn’t so plentiful down there . . .” Jonghyun stopped talking for a second, staring blankly at the map.

Luna sighed, hitting him on the back of the head, “Don’t stop now.”

He barked again and stood straight up, shagging his hair, “My bad. Attention span wore out for a sec. Getting into my teenage years; it’ll get a whole lot worse,” he smiled, winking at Luna.

  “Tch,” she scoffed, “I swear, Jonghyun.”

  “I look good for a teenaged-five-hundred year old,” he nudged her with his elbow, “Eh?”

  “Jonghyun,” Minho interrupted.

Jonghyun returned his attention to the map, his game face instantly back on.

Talk about short attention span . . .

  “I haven’t heard much about it either, to be honest, but I actually know someone who may know more,” he referred back, “All I know is this building was built specifically over it to keep watch. This thing is really important, and hell, I think we should find out. If we do right, maybe it could come to advantage.

  “Once we’ve gathered information, we can all end up back together. By then, Minho and I would gather more Intel about the areas of the place. The greatest area of escape. Like I said, I’ve been here for years, but I’ve been limited. Got it?”

The three of them just stared at Jonghyun, absorbing all the intelligence that was showing.

  “Jonghyun . . .” Onew’s eyes bugged out, “. . . Never once have I heard you think so . . . intricately. I’m impressed.”

Jonghyun snorted and shoved Onew’s shoulder, “Don’t offend me now.”

Minho was just as impressed as Onew and gave Jonghyun a smile; a real one in a long time, truly. The pieces were falling into place, all thanks to Jonghyun finally thinking with his brain, “Jonghyun, I love you. I’ve never said that to anyone but Taemin, but I love you.”

Jonghyun warmly smiled at Minho, leaning on the table surface with his invisible tail wagging, “That means a lot to me. I haven’t heard that since Kibum said it.”

Minho raised his brows, the new information unfolding, the inquisitive characteristic overcoming Minho, “Kibum? Is that—”

  “Another day, Minho,” Jonghyun chuckled, “Later.”

  “I’m going to let go, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell me if you’re unbalanced.”

  “Okay.”

  “And if you feel dizzy or hurting, you tell me.”

  “. . . Okay.”

  “If you feel a tearing in your back—”

  “Luna, okay!” Minho groaned.

Luna stared at him with concern in her eyes for a good second, only assuring Minho that she really wanted to be careful.

  “. . . I’m sorry,” he apologized.

She smiled and let go of his waist, taking a few steps back, “Go on ahead.”

Without problem, Minho was walking around the hospital room, shoulders and arms a little stiff, but still able to walk around. No dizziness, no pain, no sickness.

  “I’m perfectly okay,” Minho shrugged a little, the soreness getting to him, “Decent enough.”

Luna stopped him from walking and ed the gown he wore from the back, letting it fall to the floor as she examined him.

  “I’m glad I have pants on.”

  “Shut up.”

She had her touch light on both of his shoulder, scanning her eyes around his marked back. Scars from recent and the past contrasting one another. His wing marks were dark blue, seeming to signal that his blood couldn’t breathe around the areas. The mark of her scalpel a deep red, but seemingly nothing threatening as it was healing over to be a scar.

He still had bits of crusted blood here and there from trying to toss in his sleep and causing the sensitive parts of his skin to irritate, surfacing some blood drawn from the stress it was under.

  “I’m going to touch some of these,” she warned, “You know what to do.”

Minho stared straight forward, holding his breath as he waited for some sort of pain to rise up at the touch of a finger.

Her fingers lightly pressed over the sensitive skin wounds, which slightly stung, but just felt like touching a fresh scrape to the knee; concluding as nothing bad.

She lightly skimmed her way up his back, touching the scalpel scar that felt like nothing but skin, thankfully.

When she touched the left wing mark, Minho hissed and pushed himself forward, away from her hand. It felt like the branding iron all over again.

  “I thought so,” she sighed, leaving Minho in his spot to look for medical supplies, “Your blood isn’t breathing around your wings. Because your one wing shifted—the one to your heart—it shifted more of your body than I thought. Your wings aren’t supported and are stressing underneath.”

  “Meaning?” Minho asked shakily.

  “Meaning,” she took a cotton ball covered in some yellow substance, tapping it onto the marks. Minho flinched and howled, trying to keep away, but she kept forcing herself back on, “Meaning—meaning your wings need to come back out again so they can realign. It may hurt to grow them out, but I can quickly put them in the correct place so they can breathe again.”

It was the last thing Minho could ever think could help him in the situation, but hell, if this worked, it would be all worth it to be up and going again, “What do I have to do?”

  “Face down on the bed and grow the ers out,” she motioned for the bed, “I have an alignment tool—and don’t worry, it’s not the scalpel.”

Minho followed suit to the bed, thankfully Luna had provided him a whole towel soaked in cold water just incase he felt like he was in the pit of hell again. He gripped the barriers of the bed, and waited for his visions to shift on command.

  “Don’t overdo it though,” Luna warned, “Take it easy and keep calm. Just pretend you’re showing Taemin your wings. Don’t turn into a Daegrent, just give me angel wings.”

When she said not to turn into a Daegrent, he quickly slowed his vision shift, trying to keep focus on his back instead; the blood rushing to the marks.

Just showing Taemin. Only showing Taemin.

He and Taemin were back at the camp sight. Joon didn't exist. SangJung didn't exist. It was just Taemin and Minho, in front of the tent they argued over building.

Minho felt his lips slightly quiver as he spoke slowly with calming hand gestures. He had no voice; he couldn't hear anything, but he knew exactly what he was saying.

Taemin was just as calm, rubbing his palms nervously as he was anxious to know what Minho was talking about.

Minho exhaled shakily, removing this shirt over his head, feeling embarrassed in the broad daylight.

Taemin's eyes flickered away, clenching his jaw as his face grew in embarrassment. Minho chuckled, only wondering what Taemin was thinking about.

The confidence was slowly melting away as Minho turned around, his wing marks facing Taemin.

He was only taking out his wings, not his Daegrent form. His Daegrent form may scare Taemin, and that would make everything harder. Just thing wings. Only the wings.

He quit breathing as he tried controlling himself, forbidding the Daegrent to pull through as his wings started poking at the inside of his back, the marks opening up to let them through.

Minho couldn't hear Taemin's reaction or if he ran away. His jaw trembled at the thought, but he forced himself to continue, a dull ache in his back broadening as the wings were slowly coming out, lightly swaying and flapping in the windy freedom of the mountain they were on and slowly, scared, Minho turned his head behind him.

Taemin wasn't screaming.

He could feel snapping, even hear it. Like someone jumping on a puddle over and over.

He could feel his heart rate go up and clutched the barriers harder, denting them in his fists. The towel Luna provided was now placed on his lower back, trying to get the cold to ease upwards.

  “Easy does it, now.”

Minho could feel his face getting red as he opposed from turning into a Daegrent and opposing from letting his wings just shoot out of his back, causing another incident. He could feel the tissue and blood coming together inside and hitting the roof of his back, and then the major heat started there.

  “F-,” Minho growled out, the wings pushing themselves out of his skin, and no doubt the wet that poured from his sides were from his insides, “F-.”

He started growling and yelling at the same time; the wings surely not cooperating with his body as they want to contract back in, becoming more painful than going out.

  “Luna, it hurts too much,” Minho groaned out, his wings taking a jolt outward, causing him to shout, “Luna!”

  “They have to come out, Minho,” she reminded him, carefully moving the towel higher, “I can’t do anything with them like this.”

, Minho cursed, breathing harshly on the bed, trying to force them out fast, but steadily.

It wasn’t pleasant at all when he felt them rip completely from his back, violent drips clashing with the floor surface. The weight of his blood was pulling down his wings until the fell to the sides, having their own pulse. The left wing stung specifically, still not healed from the tear.

  “Luna, do something!” Minho shouted.

She quickly grabbed her tools and carefully situated herself on top of Minho. Both wings’ bases weren’t aligned with the wing scars, but curved inward, opening the scar to be a wound. She pressed two of her tools on both sides of the left’s base and started pulling it up away from Minho’s heart, moving it to align with his scar.

Minho howled when there was a crunch noise to accompany the pain.

  “It’s fine! It’s fine! It’s back in place!” she informed in a shout, pressing on to the right wing, “Just this one and it won’t be painful, I promise!”

She followed suit with the other one, but it took awhile for the crunch and pain to come because it wouldn’t realign correctly. But once it did, the pain seemed to stop all at once, and the room was cooling again.

  “Oh good,” she breathed, getting off of Minho and throwing the tools into the sink.

Minho could see her out of the corner of his eyes, her hands once again painted in red, matching the color on his wings.

  “It’s over,” he whispered, letting go of the barriers, “It’s over.”

Luna shakily chuckling and washed her hands off, “Healing should be smooth sailing from now on, Minho. Maybe in an hour I can release you to your room.”

Minho scrunched his nose at the thought of the mattress compared to the bed he was in now. No way was he going to heal on that thing.

But now this meant he could help out with the new plan to speed things up.

  “Keep your wings out for today,” she smiled at him, helping him up from the bed, “They want to stretch out—on their own, as I see.”

Minho looked behind him, watching as the wings had minds of their own and slightly flapped and moved around, freely able to do as they please and no restriction.

  “What isn’t pleasant is red staining white,” she sarcastically remarked in distaste, “Get in the shower. You need it. I’ll get you clothes with holes in them while you're in there.”

Minho found a good reason to smile before heading off into the shower—a cold one, in fact.

Because now that things could get moving, he could start saving people.

And the positive thoughts just kept coming and coming and the red streaks kept going and going.

----Note~----

Okay. This is the third time I'm trying to update because AFF WON'T LOAD THE CHAPTER. PLEASE BE THE LAST TIME. >.>

But hi. c:

Third time making this within this hour omfg. I'm still trying to be hype about it.

But yeah.

I'M ONLY A DAY LATE!

It wasn't super busy of a day, but I turned seventeen yesterday. 8D

(Does the multicolors make the word look like it's curving? o.o )

I do and don't feel different at the same time.

I was gonna update last night, but I spend two hours in the dark outside with a little kitty who refuses to come in, and forbid me to go in by sleeping on me. I got a leg cramp and got tired. Hence why I just went to sleep. xD

But yeah. Jonghyun taking charge, right? Didn't expect something to come out of the dog and have it be a really good plan? Jonghyun's not dumb, he's just... yup, he's dumb. xD

But he really meant it too. Five hundred years old, looks in his mid twenties, and he's barely grazing his teenage years. The unrealistic nature of it entertains me. xD

And Onew got a little snippy, huh?

And YAY, Minho's wing is gonna be a-okay from now on. Don't worry, Sangjung's little beating didn't screw the healing process. Thank you to Luna for being a great fixer-er... yeah. xD

Don't kill me, but the next chapter is another important character introduction. I swear, this is the last one and if I do it again, someone hit me really hard because if I add another, it totally turns into a different story. I WON'T DO IT AGAIN.

But this character is actually mandatory, NOT FOR SHIPPING REASONS. Said character is going to be of great help.

With that said, the next chapter is actually lengthy, but full of info. The character's gonna answer a few questions, spill some things about the past few chapters, and talk about some progression here!

Anyone wanna take a guess who? It's a chica. ;D

/Why did I say chica; I don't speak Spanish.

But anyhow.

On another note.

I really, really, dearly love each and every one of you who's reading. This story was everything to me when I first got the idea. I have no idea how it came to be an actual plot, but it really is, and thanks to every view, sub, and comment, it gets me up to think 'I just HAVE to make another chapter because something HAS to happen!'.

I really planned on a Jongkey story to be my first long fic (a little spoiler? It's inititals is AoH) but for some reason I came out with Escape to Redemption. I've written this fic for about a year now, and less than half a year I've been posting it. Isn't that kinda sad? Idk.

But truly, I value you guys because, ETR isn't exactly written in the format I wanted. I swore it was gonna be like, ten-twelve pages a chapter, but it just never amounted to that. The progression slows and picks up the pace randomly, and I've never been really consistent, yet you guys are still here, increasing the views I get. 

I really don't care who has seen the fic because I thought it would never amount to what it is now, but I've been proved wrong. Really. I'm just so insanely grateful to all of you.

Including all the silent people. I just, really, encourage you to say at least the smallest comment (NOT "update soon" dear god NO) on it because I want to know. I'm only truly happy with what I write in ETR now if someone else is happy with it. If someone isn't, either I try to fix it, but to the point where it still going to keep the plot the same. If a quicker update makes you happy, I'll work on it, really. A question, suggestion, mini-comment, anything, I'm forever at your service because I'll answer back when I can.

Gosh, I got sentimental. I GOTTA STOP THAT.

Anyhow, I wanted to put up a BTS, but I haven't written anything. So I'm debating on posting the introductory chapter to Jonghyun's story. What do you think?? It doesn't reveal a lot, and for where we're at together in this plot, that's a good thing. So what do you say?

I'mma go do some other stuff now. Like the crap ton of homework I have... Or finish a chapter first. ;D

Anyhow, I love everyone and I hope you keep on staying with ETR!

BYE!

~FlaMinhoe