(A/N: This chapter is likely to be very painful, whether because of the drama going on now with Kris or for those of you who have/have had or know people who have/have had an eating disorder. I want to warn you that if you think you can't read this for any of those reasons, then please do not put yourself through reading this. If you've read other things I've written then you know what kind of an ending to expect, but this is not the ending. This could actually make you very sad indeed.)

Kris' POV

The instinct to hold Yixing's hand as it trembled and fidgeted in wait for Sehun's transformation in the pod to end was overwhelming, but I held back. That hand wasn't for me to hold anymore. I cared about Yixing and didn't like seeing him so worried. Because of what we did, I couldn't even be a friend to him; it just wouldn't be fair to Joonmyun, to Sehun, and to Yixing himself, who was lucky enough to have such a forgiving partner. Gently, I nudged Luhan in Yixing's direction and looked away while he processed my silent request.

Luhan's hand lay itself down gently on the man's shoulder, who smiled warmly at the touch. Those smiles used to mean a lot to me, back when they weren't so sincere. His fake smiles of the past when we were both left without hope had carried me up and kept me going, because I believed that if he was hurting like I was and still enduring out the years, then I could do that too. It was selfish of me to enjoy his fake smiles like that, even more selfish to wish his smiles would go back to being fake just I could feel a little better about my own pain.

“It's opening,” Yixing whispered excitedly, squeezing Luhan's hand as the dark cube in front of us hissed and opened up layer by layer. Behind me and to my left, Kyungsoo was readying the injections.

The golden form that appeared before us was so small compared to what it had been when Sehun stepped in. Going back through twelve years of growth, he had lost a lot of height, but more than that, he looked-

“Cute!” Yixing's smile grew impossibly wide as his seventeen-year-old alien boyfriend stepped out of the pod, shorter, with fuller cheeks, and sporting big eyes that were overflowing with innocent charm. “You're little again, Sehunnie!” he chuckled.

Sehun looked down at himself, scowling. “I waited so long for that ing growth spurt too.”

“Don't swear-” Luhan and Yixing said in unison before breaking out in laughter.

“Go to hell.”

“Now, now,” Kyungsoo stepped in front of the pod, positively beaming with a needle in each hand. “You can't already be at the irritable stage if I haven't even given you the shot yet.”

“I can be irritable when I want.” the young alien said, just barely moving backwards, away from the needles.

Without being told to do so, Luhan walked behind Sehun and suddenly yanked the boy's arms behind his back, holding them steady. “Do your thing, Soo.”

“This'll hurt.” Kyungsoo warned him before smiling bright and leaving no time for the poor kid to brace himself as the man stuck in the first and second needle.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sight of the alien filling with golden light and convulsing with pain even when I could hear Xiumin's voice urging me to follow him. Before leaving, I glanced back at Yixing and saw the guilt and regret I remembered clearly from after our nights together in those twelve years as he watched his boyfriend slump in Luhan's arms.

“Sehu-”

The door shut behind me and Xiumin and I missed the rest of that soft voice speaking another man's name.

Yixing was never meant for me, and I loved Joonmyun more than anything, but... there was the smallest twinge in my chest that remembered the one who clung to my side and numbed the pain of our sorrow in hot kisses lined down my flesh.

I made this the moment I said goodbye and good luck to the one who carried me through and helped me endure, because from then on, I was determined to do so on my own.

***

Tao's POV

“So you didn't just wait for us, but you took matters into your own hands and tried to bring us back yourselves.” Chanyeol said in wonder for perhaps the fourth time after a while of walking (well, he walked and I tried my best to make my legs move forward as he half-carried me) through a wide, dried up plain where nothing grew and there was no water to be found. The ground was cracked and the dust we kicked up with each step stuck to the sweat on our skin. “You humans are amazing.”

Talking was burdensome, so I stayed silent, trying not to cringe at how dry my throat began to feel. We already took a break not long ago, but it was damn hot out. Even my little hyena buddy was feeling the heat, having taken to clinging onto the underside of my backpack for the meager shade it provided.

“What would you have done if you hadn't met Kai?” he asked and the answer of “nothing” felt to be correct until a small memory of a dream I had as a kid stood up and called itself the real truth in my head.

“Don't laugh.” I warned him first before hesitantly replying, “I wanted to be a rapper. And an action movie star. And a singer. And possibly a spy.”

“What does that mean, rapper? Do you wrap things like in a factory?”

“No,” I said in surprise. “You were on Earth for five years and you've never heard of rap?”

“I was in my pod for one and a half years and the rest of the time I was pretty pre-occupied carrying out our mission.” he panted, adjusting my weight leaning on his shoulder. “So what's rap? Is it something you eat?”

“It's kind of like singing-” I stopped to cough and he suggested we take another break. “No, we need to keep going.” We had to. Kai was out there waiting for us somewhere. “Anyways, instead of using melody when you say the lyrics, you use rhythm and keep the beat-”

“Rap for me.”

“I don't think- I mean, I haven't rapped in years- my throat is dry-”

“Please?”

I silently cursed his hopeful look and started, breathy and quiet from my rasping throat, surprising myself with how easily the lyrics came to mind even after years of being abandoned. Despite the couple mistakes I made, Chanyeol's face considerably brightened, asking me to teach him how to rap too.

“No way, you'll learn it too quickly and you'll get better than me.”

He laughed openly and I tried to convince myself to do the same, but it all came out as a sigh. Even though I said no, I found myself teaching Chanyeol the basics and watching him master them instantaneously when the horizon before us turned white and yellow.

“There it is! Once we get past the daisy field, we'll be right where Kai and the others were headed.”

“When you say daisies,” I started cautiously. “do you mean three meter tall venus fly trap things that spit acid and just happen to be white like Earth daisies?”

He snorted. “Where would get an idea like that?”

Hey, that was perfectly plausible on a planet like this.

“No, these are actually just daisies.” he stated simply in his deep voice.

I looked at him in confusion and he smiled as he walked us further towards our goal.

“There was a plant that developed on our planet that would eat everything within it's reach whether it be meaty or leafy, and then when it died, it would stain the ground in toxins that no other plant could grow in. It lay waste to long expanses of our world and we almost thought we'd never find a way to stop it. After some experimenting around in the lab, we found that those toxic plants wouldn't eat Earth daisies. Kai's theory was that those plants couldn't stand to eat something that looked so harmless because everything else the plant ate had defenses like thorns or-” he shrugged. “-acid, like you said.”

“Kai's kind of a romantic.” I told him sadly. “I guess he has me to blame for that after sticking him in front of the TV nearly every day.”

“I think he was on to something.” Chanyeol said with a determined look on his face. “The creatures of our planet aren't like yours and- I don't know.” he admitted, eyes downcast but a short moment before looking brightly ahead again. “He has a deep understanding of this world, somehow.”

But sparing something because it's harmless? From the stories I've heard of this planet, that sounded like complete bull.

Still, I had a single golden feather in my backpack that said otherwise.

***

Kai's POV

“Kai, I'm serious.” Suho begged me, tears pooling in his eyes. “Eat, please. You're losing too much weight.”

The Anonymous that held us captive had stopped again, some splitting out in different directions in the forest like they sometimes did, as if looking for something. In this time, we were normally fed or taken out one by one to relieve ourselves.

“Shove it down his throat.” suggested Kibum, unable to keep away from the situation any longer. “Or I'll do it; hand it to me.”

He really handed the fruit over. Traitor! Big hands tried to force my mouth open and I gagged as the food touched my tongue and grated against my teeth.

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. Why didn't they understand that?

I felt sick and weak. My vision became spotty if I moved to quickly and head felt too heavy to carry up. Still, eating food felt like an impossible task. What was more, I didn't even feel hunger pains anymore. My body seemed to have decided that it wasn't meant to eat.

“Please, Kai-” Listening to Suho begin to sob for me was heartbreaking. I wanted to eat this for him; I just didn't have any confidence that I could.

Steadily, I pushed myself up on shaking arms until I was sitting up against the metal bars of our cage. They were heated from our star's bright rays and burned a little at my back, but I couldn't stay up without them. I held out a hand for the fruit and Suho sniffed before handing over a small piece.

I can do this, I thought as I brought it closer to my lips. I can do this-

The smell of the fruit hit my nostrils and a wave of nausea went over me. I couldn't do it, not even with this small piece. My hand fell back down and I felt ashamed to have to refuse eating again, wishing I could hide away from the disappointed faces around me.

“I'm sorry.”

“You can't, even to have the energy to see Tao again?” Suho asked me.

It hurt. It hurt too much. I wanted to see Tao more than anything, but it seemed like I would die before ever having the chance. Not giving myself the time to think about the smell or the taste or the feeling of food in my stomach, I stuck the piece of fruit in my mouth and tried my hardest to swallow it down quickly, only to be conflicted when I couldn't find the ability to do so.

My face was heating up and I could feel myself starting to reject the food when something poked me in the back between the bars of the cage. I turned and just barely processed the Anonymous member with a mole on his neck offering up his own water container. Suho took it from him and hurriedly guided my throat into accepting the onslaught of water he poured in my mouth.

It was uncomfortable, but I succeeded in keeping the tiny piece of fruit down.

When I could breathe again, Suho put his arms around me and began praising me for doing so well in a voice that trembled.

“Thank you.” he whispered over my shoulder to the man with a mole on his neck. The man looked away quickly.

***

Tao's POV

Daisies. Real daisies, all around us. It was like walking into a dream. These daisies were perfectly ordinary, white petals, yellow middle, green stem and leaves, absolutely no bite-y parts or prickly parts anywhere. Real daisies.

Chanyeol smiled at them like they were his long lost friends, before composing his own rap piece about them out of nowhere. He really had picked up the talent in an instant. I was jealous, but only a little, because when I stopped being shy about it and messed around with him, I could feel myself improving too. We had occasional rap battles as we walked about the stupidest things and it was almost-

Was it fun? Was I having fun again? I couldn't even tell. It felt weird and I wasn't sure if I liked it.

When did I start walking on my own?

His newest piece went on about daisy-petal-white skin and a soul like starlight and I had to fight back laughter at the cheesy lyrics when Chanyeol suddenly stopped and looked as if his every hope and dream had disappeared. It was frightening, considering nothing we had ever come across made him lose his smile.

“What's wrong?” I asked, pausing in my tracks to look back at him.

He looked up slowly and put a hand to his helmet, eyes flicking back and forth as he thought. “Tao,” he said in a scared voice and I leaned in closer to listen. “Tao, I forgot Baekhyun.”

***

Kris' POV

It had been a week and a half before Kyungsoo let Yixing visit Sehun, saying it was best to keep him isolated like Tao to recreate his condition before trying to find a way to reverse it.

In that time, I had made friends with many other aliens from buildings both close and far away from ours. Xiumin would introduce me and help keep those I talked to interested in our story, remembering to tell them why it would be beneficial to them to help us and how it would help save the planet. I was there to organize what needed to be done, when it needed to be done, and how it should all be carried out.

I was actually acting like a leader. I didn't think I could do it, but here I was, guiding an alien species into preparing themselves for the worst and setting up a small army to get to what our friends called the “Anonymous”.

The Anonymous were essentially a group of aliens who didn't agree with messing around with genetics to solve the planet's problems. Xiumin seemed really surprised when I told him I understood without having to be told much more, after all, there were people like that on Earth too. These aliens were called the Anonymous because they refused to have names, even before everyone began taking up Earth names. They preferred a life where they weren't special, where they were a seamless part of a large group and not a single one was different from another. They were also usually peaceful protesters, but somehow they had become very dangerous, and this was partially why so many people were desperate to leave.

The civilians still tried their best to get in, but couldn't reach the main room at all. A few rooms connected to the hall had been compromised and everything inside disposed of, but nothing major had happened in our security.

Speaking of which, the Super Junior division was supposed to stand guard in those rooms, but they all seemed to be missing. Unsure of what this meant for us, I asked Xiumin about it and we went out searching the building for them.

They were nowhere to be found.

“Let's check in with the VIXX division and make sure they are ready to house us all in the event of an evacuation.” I suggested, heart pounding.

“Good idea.” Xiumin nodded and headed towards the main room. I started to follow when a door opened next to me and Yixing came running out, eyes streaming with tears.

“Lay? What's going on?” Carefully, I tried to politely keep him at a distance.

“H-He doesn't-” Yixing gulped and I feared that Sehun might have scared him with his new depression.

“It's okay," I assured him. "He won't be like that for long. Kyungsoo said that if he can't find a way to reverse the depression naturally that he'll administer the shot.”

Yixing shook his head. “It's not that.” he cried, his lips turning swollen like they always do when he cries. It felt strange, looking at him and not being able to do anything about his pain. I couldn't just kiss it away like usual. Gaining some composure, Yixing went on, “H-he looked at me and didn't recognize me. Not at all! Sehunnie doesn't know who I am anymore, Kris! What do I do?”

“He doesn't remember you?”

I reached around the crying man and opened the door behind him with a press of fingertips. The door made way to reveal a small, pale figure curled in a ball in the middle of clear cage just like the ones in the creature lab that housed things both mild and dangerous.

The boy looked up, emotionless and empty, not a spark of the feisty little brat I remembered from just days ago showing in his features. Not even blinking at us, he lay his chin on his knees once more, looking at nothing.