It was passing midday in the quiet, tense prison.

It was normally silent in many of the halls; creatures were still sleeping if they had no chores or punishments to endure. But many were awake; the warning of the prison’s traitor stuck in their heads, alert of when their doors would open ceremoniously, screams to run for their lives in their ears before this was all over.

It was only a matter of time before the ability to set forth and initiate the escape would come.

Minho and Jonghyun sat on the floor against the wall, side by side, staring into the other side of the room. They hadn’t slept all night and hadn’t said a word the entire time.

In a way, it was like they were taking in the walls they’d been enclosed in for a long time. As if they needed to remember all of this. Even though the experience within these borders were Hell, there was something about it to reminisce; to miss.

To Minho, this place would always be his nightmare, despite it originally being a place to be excited and honored to be living in. But a large part of him after learning so much told him this place was still significant. He met others like him. Others that weren’t like him. Reality about what creatures are and aren’t. Things he wouldn’t have known with Seunghyun.

He was ready to go and do what he had to and end this place. This place that had buried honor beneath it and would be rebuilt after all of this came to a halt.

Nonetheless, he was still scared. Out of the many things that could go wrong, he could only hope his one way out would overweigh anything else.

Jonghyun started staring at the floor, slowly chewing on his lip. It was almost as though he started shaking from his thoughts.

Minho looked at his friend and place his arm around Jonghyun’s shoulders consolingly. It was the least he could do right now.

  “It’s going to work,” Minho was the first to break the hours of silence to assure him, “We’re getting out unharmed. Even if we are, we heal quick. Nothing to scar us. No one to take away from us.”

Jonghyun blinked as if bothered, but his eyes never left the floor, “Nah, I’m not worried about that at all. The plan’s going to work; we’ve all worked too hard for it not to in this past year. Just . . . worried about what I’ll be doing soon.”

Minho smiled, “That’s right, you’ve never gotten to know the twenty-first century, right? When it’s all over, if you want, you could come back to Namwon with us and get acquainted with what we’re all like now. I mean, you have the option to move on with us until Bom parts so she can go plan the empire’s construction and help out there. Or maybe you could even just go out exploring for yourself about what the world’s like now. I mean, to just go would be a little harder to get with the times, but hey, I know you’ve got it. It’s a huge world now, Jonghyun, you don’t even know how large. You’ve got seas to cross now and more land to run over.”

Jonghyun kept quiet, just barely shaking his head.

  “You’ll be fine,” Minho shook his a little.

Seconds following, the door opened with Onew and Luna walking in with large bags on their backs. The two paused as they looked at the creatures and Luna nodded her head with a small encouraging smile. The gesture brought the boys to their feet and ready to head out.

  “Trinity’s letting Bom out right about now,” Luna said, “I met with her while I grabbed Taemin’s things. She’s getting Bom into the furnace while we get him.”

  “Good,” Minho nodded, energy flowing in his veins about meeting back with Taemin.

Onew stared at Jonghyun while they spoke. Jonghyun was still on the floor.

  “Hyung, Bom has Kibum’s . . . stone,” Onew softly called. He shifted his bags before speaking again, “She wants to give you it while. . .”

Jonghyun looked up from the floor finally. He slowly stood, putting his hand on the wall. A thumb rubbing over its surface until he let his arm fall limply.

Minho figured Jonghyun was getting overwhelmed that this place he’s lived in for centuries is being blown over not too long from now.

  “Come on, Hyung,” Minho grabbed his hand, “We’ll get out.”

Onew turned away, readily heading out the door before Luna grabbed his arm.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she promised him, “You’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

Minho let how nervous everyone was settle in. They were all shaky in some way, even himself, but it was no excuse to stop now. They were finally moving forward. It was time.

  “Let’s go,” Onew took Luna’s hand rather quickly, looking back at the other two, “Stay really close. Hallways are empty and cameras are off, but you never know. Inconvenience could be around the corner.”

All four exited the room with that very door shutting for the last time. They were finally walking away from the bars of restriction; they were all walking away from what held them back as people. The silence of the hallway was the silent cheers of anticipation for the heroes to get the rest of them to freedom. Minho walked with more purpose than he ever had before and he was somewhat glad he was to be relied on so much. And with Daesung, he was positive he couldn’t mess up.

They proceeded down the empty hall quickly without a glance at the cameras or fear of another worker. Easily, they made it to the clean, spotless white wall at the end and ran through it into another wing. It was bright white and built as if in royalty. Minho knew this hallway went clearly untouched by the humans as if this were the only part of the building that persevered through the decay.

But luckily, it was still just as empty.

  “This is the upper rank’s dorm,” Onew explained in brevity, “They should all be out doing their dirty work. A few turns and we’ll find the wall into the east wing to the first floor; to Taemin.”

The mention of Taemin again wanted Minho to push on faster and get him out.

They all made a subtle run for it. The carpet floor took away the impact of their heavy footsteps and thankfully, all went undisturbed. Every corner, they’d stop to take a peek around until they were off again, nearing the teleporting wall once more.

  “Here,” Jonghyun took a few bags from Luna quietly, “I’ll carry Taemin’s things. Your things look heavy as it is.”

Luna put a finger to her lips as Onew checked another corner, mouthing a thank you with a smile until Onew pressed forward again.

I’m down here, Minho, Bom whispered.

Is everything okay? Daesung asked through him.

He’s just as beautiful as before, Minho. . . she trailed off.

Minho felt Bom relax and could hear the small splashes of the water and see it in his mind as she tread her hand through the water.

I’m waiting for all of you.

We’ll be there soon.

The wall was then just a few steps away and Onew froze in front of it.

  “. . . Onew?” Minho asked.

  “He’s fine,” Luna grabbed Onew, “Just a little frightened. Let’s go on, Onew,” she forced him through the wall without another word.

Minho looked at Jonghyun confused and Jonghyun pressed with the same concern, “Well, Minho, guessing it’s the stress again.”

The two entered through the wall, welcomed outside to an empty courtyard. Spurts of grass were entered through the cracks of decayed concrete. A broken fountain was crumbled and deprived of water. Wooden tables surround the fountain and around the entire barren courtyard with items Minho couldn’t distinguish. Minho hadn’t bothered looking at the scene too much. He didn’t want his memory of the entire old empire to be roughly tampered with. He’d rather have no memory of it at all than let it be ruined by the wrong hands.

  “He’s just ahead,” Luna quietly called behind her.

The group picked up the pace, jogging among the concrete floor until Luna slowed down in front of one of the normal metal doors labelled “Clear.”

Luna stopped from grabbing the knob and let Onew go. He walked to the pillar at the end of the elevated concrete walkway that held up the next floor. He let his bags down and put his hand on it,staring out to the courtyard with his face tense.

She momentarily looked at Onew with some determination in her eyes. Minho saw it before she looked at him and asked, “Do you want to open the door, Minho?”

Minho’s heart punched him in the chest and he could hear his fears whispered through him. Daesung tried his best to keep Minho calm but nothing could. This was Minho’s moment of truth. This was Minho’s epitome of life coming into his eyes.

  “No,” Minho shook his head, “You go in and get him. I think he’d be less overwhelmed.” Minho felt disappointed he couldn’t come in like a hero, but he knew he couldn’t push it, “If I come in on my own, he might get . . . I don’t know, I want to be careful.”

Luna nodded with a smile, “Then I’ll go in on my own. I’ll be back out in a minute, be careful out here. Onew. . .” he looked at him with worry on her face, “. . . Keep a look out.”

Luna knocked gently before opening the door and greeting the person in the room with a gentle smile, “Hey, Tae.”

The door shut and Minho walked next to Onew, “Hyung, what’s wrong?”

Onew looked at Minho briefly before shaking his head, “It’s nothing.”

Minho shook his head in return, “Clearly this isn’t stressing out about being caught. You’re not even looking out. You’re staring at the ground.”

  “Minho, I’m not trying to get us caught, if that’s what you’re trying to say,” Onew’s eyes snapped up and looked around the yard.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Just . . . wait.”

Minho’s brows furrowed, “Wait?”

The sound of the door opening caught Minho’s attention and he turned, his excitement peaking.

Luna smiled wide as she carried a few more of Taemin’s things with her.

  “Luna, I can take it,” Minho heard Taemin as he came out of the door.

Luna stepped aside and let Minho watch Taemin enter his view. Taemin looked at Minho and stopped walking, keeping his mouth shut.

They stared for a few seconds and Minho couldn’t even begin to describe it. Taemin’s hair was so long and lost of all the white blond color, tied back. He grew slightly taller by the looks of it and seemed like he lost considerable amounts of weight but he was still so . . . masculine.

He felt like it was the first day of going into a relationship with Taemin. Where he just wanted to show Taemin was his. Talk about everything. Resume on being close again.

Desires flowed from him but he had to resign them, at least for now. He had to be careful. He had to still come clean.

But he just felt the need of wanting Taemin destroy any other need in the world. How could he even explain this to himself? Even hold back?

Despite all of these feelings rushing through his blood, he remained as composed as he could. He couldn’t do anything sudden.

Taemin didn’t move and looked tense to the bone. He looked like he didn’t know what to do or even if he could say anything. He looked scared, but it was only his eyes. Minho couldn’t tell what held through the rest of his body.

  “. . . It’s Taemin, right?” Jonghyun piped up, taking a hand to subtly wave.

Thankfully Taemin didn’t flinch, but looked at Jonghyun slightly worried.

  “I know, I know, you’re still scared, right?” Jonghyun then held his hand up, “No problem. It’s a miracle you’ve already made it this far and be so calm about it. You’re really special, you know that?”

Luna and Minho looked at each other confused, but stared Jonghyun down.

  “Minho has said a lot about you to all of us. Luna’s told you, right?” he smiled wide, “And really, Taemin, you’ve got a lot of courage to be where you are. Well, you have confidence, period. The only time Minho gets giddy around here is when he talks about you. He even told me about this one time where like . . . he embarrassed himself in front of a crowd by trying to do two cartwheels for you? Because you dared him? Moron said he didn’t regret it, but the bruise on his head was surely not the greatest injury.”

Because Taemin’s face seemed to slightly lighten up at the memory, Minho now doesn’t regret sharing with the dog.

  “But look here, Taemin,” Jonghyun nodded, “I know you’re shaky about this. Maybe even still scared of Minho. But let me tell you, after all Luna, Onew, and I have been through, Minho is the most human of creatures we’ve ever met. He’s not vicious at all, like they’ve told you. He has set his entire time in here while you’ve both suffered dedicated to saving you. Not him. He wanted to mainly save you. You have to see, Taemin, despite I’m really bad at convincing people of things. . . Minho loves you, Taemin. So I’d greatly appreciate it if you take him back because that look on your face keeps saying no.”

The last comment seemed a little discouraging that Minho shot darts at him.

Luna walked up to Taemin and put her arms around him, ready to ask him if he was okay, but Taemin immediately shook her off and rushed forward.

Minho was caught off guard how Taemin almost made him fall back from the impact of clutching on to him by his hair. His eyes went wide with shock, his hands unsure of whether to let Taemin get it out of his system or put his arms around him like he wanted to.

He looked at Luna and she just nodded.

With the permission he wanted, his arms enclosed around Taemin’s muscular frame. He buried his face into Taemin’s neck, all of his relief exerting as if he could finally exhale after holding his breath for so long. Taemin’s smell never changed. Despite weight loss, his frame never changed. After everything, Taemin was the same. And the same was all Minho could ever ask for.

  “I told you . . .” Taemin gruffly said into Minho’s hair, “You look cute with a little ponytail when you have long hair.”

Minho couldn’t help his smile and laugh into Taemin’s neck, “Don’t worry, I have a spare hair tie.”

  “Good,” Taemin breathed shakily.

The two parted, but still held on to each other. The smiles were on both of their faces until Minho got a good look at Taemin’s face. His finger brushed over a few yellowed bruises on his skin and the almost-healed cut from his lip to his chin, “I can’t believe I did that to you . . . I’m so sorry.”

  “No,” Taemin shook his head, patting Minho’s face to get him to smile again, “These were from them. The stories they told me.”

Minho felt Jonghyun tense.

  “So don’t worry,” Taemin nodded now, “I’m okay. It was a long while ago, it’s alright. Just . . . just don’t get angry,” His smile grew a little uncertain by the mention of Minho’s anger.

Minho shook his head, “Never will I ever be angry enough to change. Taemin, you understand why I . . . why I did back with Joon, right?”

Taemin hugged Minho again with a small sniff barely audible, “I do.”

Minho breathed, “I love you so much. So incredibly much.”

Taemin huffed a little laugh, “I love you, too. . . when you put your hair up.”

The two slowly parted fully this time with Minho slightly chuckling, taking the hair tie from his wrist and pulling all of his hair back into a pretty decently lengthed ponytail, “Love me?”

Taemin nodded, “Love you.”

Minho slowly cut his gaze at Taemin to Luna, “Here,” he walked to her, “Let me take his things.”

  “Sure,” she agreed easily.

Taemin quickly spun to her, “Oh, so you give it to him but not me? I’m not a damn girl.”

Minho raised his brows and held his bag out, “Then take it, lady.”

Taemin’s eyes narrowed, snatching his bag, “You really haven’t changed, you .”

Minho flashed a teasing, sarcastic smile.

  “Okay,” Taemin pulled the bag straps over his shoulder. He pointed at Luna, “Human,” to Minho, “Daegrent,” Jonghyun, “Uh?”

  “Taerant . . . Just call me a dog.” Jonghyun rolled his eyes, slowly walking over to gently shake hands with Taemin.

  “Dog,” Taemin joked, turning to Onew, “And?”

 “Human,” Luna answered.

Taemin smiled again, “Onew, right?” He walked up to him, holding out his hand, “I’m Taemin.”

All of them watched as Onew didn’t turn around, tensing up as he could feel Taemin close behind him.

Luna called softly, “Onew-”

  “Yeah,” he said, ever so slowly turning around and started holding out his hand to shake Taemin’s, looking him straight in the face, but so hesitant.

Minho watched as Taemin’s face went from sincere to something else . . .

. . . Recognition.

His eyes widened, his mouth fell, and his brows pulled up and together. He slightly withdrew his hand, but took a small step forward, “Wha-what?”

Onew didn’t move an inch, but swallowed, and Minho could see the expression on Onew’s face almost. . . match . . . Taemin’s.

  “I know . . .” Taemin’s hand started reaching for Onew’s face, “I know who you . . . who you are.”

Onew clenched his jaw, slightly nodding to Taemin’s accusation.

 “You . . . Your face . . .” Taemin touched Onew’s cheek with just the tips of a few fingers, “I know . . . you.”

Inside Minho’s head, cogwheels were turning . . .

Taemin sounded like he started to cry, “I thought . . . I thought I lost you . . . and couldn’t find you . . . asylums . . . crazy places . . . institutes . . .”

  “. . . he wanted to live to find some lost brother of his. . . .”

  “He lost his brother when he was little.”

  “He was going to look for his brother . . .”

Minho’s eyes snapped to them, “Onew?”

Both of Taemin’s hands held on to Onew’s face, “I couldn’t remember your face or your
name . . . but when I look at you . . .”

Onew nodded again, looking down.

   "J. . . Jinki?”

Onew’s mouth watered and frowned as his own tears fell, “I’m so sorry.”

Taemin grabbed on to Onew and started sobbing into his chest. Onew’s arms closed around him and held him closely, shaking his head, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry!” Taemin cried, “Don’t be sorry!”

Minho and Jonghyun’s mouths dropped as they watched a reunion that was never even thought to happen.

  “Why . . . why was Onew so scared every time I mentioned . . . meeting Taemin?” Minho asked, still stunned into place.

  “He was afraid of Taemin being angry if he found him. Or screwing up Taemin even more than he ‘already did.’ He feels guilty,” Luna hushedly answered.

Onew’s tears grew more abundant and fell on to Taemin, “It’s my fault you’re here. If I’d just escaped them and came back for you . . . And even now, I thought if you got out of here without me and knew who I was, you’d be in worse position than before . . . I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re so wrong. I don’t . . . I don’t care, I just wanted to find you. You’re coming with me. I can’t let you go.” Taemin seemed to hold on to him tighter, “I can’t believe you were forced into here. But . . . the asylum . . .”

Onew held Taemin away, trying to speak as best as he could, “Don’t worry about it. Just . . . god, look at you,” Onew shook his head, “Just look at how big you are. You’re so . . . much older.”

  “You . . . you still look like my stuffed rabbit,” Taemin held on to him again, laughing in the midst of a cry.

You guys need to move, now. Bom warned. I can hear them all. Trinity’s under the suspicion radar. We could get caught any moment.

  “Alright,” Minho said, everyone calmed down, “We need to move, now. Things can fall apart in seconds now. Trinity’s about to get caught.”

Taemin turned from Onew, the smile on his face dimming down after wiping another tear from Onew, “How would you know?”

Minho poked the side of his head, “Luna taught you about bonding, right?”

  “Oh,” he remembered.

Jonghyun started picking up the bags he had from Luna, a shaky look across his face again, “Alright. Let’s go.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Minho asked.

  “Peachy.”

Taemin grabbed Onew’s hand and started leading him, “Let’s go, Jinki.”

Luna walked up to the pair and looked at Onew with a smile, “Can I finally call you Jinki in front of everyone?”

Onew rubbed his red eyes with the nod of his head, “Thank you, too. For telling me what to do,” he laughed for a moment before kissing her.

Taemin’s eyes widened and turned to Minho, mouthing, ‘They’re dating?!’

Minho nodded, ‘Planning kids, too.’

Looking a little reluctant, Taemin slipped away from Onew and found his way to Minho’s side, holding on to his hand, “I’ll just . . . keep to here.”

Minho laughed and kissed the side of Taemin’s head, “Alright, alright. Let’s go, guys. We’ve got things to blow up.”

All of them gathered composure, heading off from the courtyard and looking for the first wall they needed to teleport.

   “. . . Walls?” Taemin asked.

----Note~----

Alright, here we go.

Tried getting this up for the past hour ;sdjkfh;urfgb;ujsdnb;.

The computer I was using couldn't copy paste so I came to my computer and it's frozen and corrupted, formatting was wrong so I fixed it too. >.> Don't be put off if the font/spacing/indents look weird.

But finally I've gotten the chapter up.

But what I'm really pissed off with is that my BTS word doc has corrupted and all my well-written chapters are now GONE.

I'm so angry right now. I thought I saved one as a hidden chapter on here but apparently not sdjfnhL>:IRGNB;sDFJNH

But yeah, I can't do much but complain right now, and I'd rather not keep doing it, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I'm gonna go see if my flash drive has the recent BTS on it. Otherwise, I'm set back AGAIN.

But yeah, thank you to everyone! The end is near!

EDIT:

Alright, hiiiiii. I'm sorry that note was awful, being in a bad mood and whatnot, but I'll just keep it there.

I rewrote the BTS chapter already so check it out!

Nonetheless, I hope the chapter has done well! The emotional moments I kind of... I don't know. I don't feel satsfied but I do? If I go back to edit, I'll tell you guys in the next chapter for you to look back if you wanted.

But did ANY OF YOU see that coming?!?!!?!?!??!?!

OnTae was the plan from the BEGINNING. Planned from the very moment this story started. Hence why I'm not too happy with the way I wrote their reunion, so I'll most likely make that edit. 

BUT THERE WAS SO MANY SUBTLE CLUES YOU CAN PASS OVER EASILY. xD

I thought it got really obvious, but apparently it wasn't. xD

But yeah, brothers!

Hope that was okay. xD

NEXT CHAPTER WE'RE HEADING INTO THE FURNACE! 

It was supposed to be this chapter but the length was getting... lengthy.

So I believe THE NEXT CHAPTER should be the LONGEST out of them all. I know it'll at least pass ten or twelve pages because I have events I need to now combine from what I didn't put in this chapter. So I hope you keep up.

... and if it goes the way it's supposed to, you get a... shock in the next one.

BUT YEAH, I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU GUYS!

Bye! <3

~FlaMinhoe

(I'd appreciate if you read this blog post too.)