Hi guys! I realised i havent actually written much from Chen's POV, (sorry everyone who has a Chen bias) so this one is probably one of the longest chapters ive written so far :) enjoy!!

Chen

During the day the forest becomes hot. I mean hot hot. I’d long since abandoned my shirt and instead tied it around my head as some sort of makeshift hat while also keeping my hair out of my eyes. Sweat glistened on my body, and every time I wipe off my arms I’m reminded of the dotted scars from Himchan’s barbed wire, still etched around my muscles. My skin stings from all the cuts scattered along my arms and abdomen, places where needles were jabbed into my skin out of curiosity or knives driven into my gut out of rage.

I’ve been walking for hours, yet found nothing of worth. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, but there’s no signs of roads or people or even the edge of the forest. No signs of the other protectors. I do know where one road is, but I would much prefer to keep a wide berth of the compound where I’d been held captive.

While I hadn’t come across any civilization, I still met plenty of life. As the morning rose so did the day creatures of the jungle, little rodents that scampered across my path and brightly colored birds that chirped overhead. I liked to appreciate the life, the tiny stick insects that twitched as they climbed over sheets of bark, and the comical little frogs that hid on the underside of wet leaves and created dotty shadows where their fingers touched the surface. In a way it was a kind of meditation, a time to enjoy the momentary peace, a world seemingly unaffected by the imbalance in chaos and order.

While I loved the protectors unconditionally, I cherished my time alone. Even though the others always spoke of me as a key member of the group, ‘There can only ever be the twelve of us, not thirteen, not eleven’, I always felt a little bit on the outside. I don’t have a relationship like Baekhyun and Chanyeol, or Tao and Kris. I wasn’t a leader like Suho, and I definitely wasn’t famous like Yixing. I never put myself in the spotlight, yet the others knew they can count on me when they needed. Even my dreams that connected me with the Dark disappeared after we defeated him the first time. I guess I’ve always been kind of accepted as a fact, just one of the teammates who gets along with everyone but never with one person in particular. 

I didn’t mind. I’ve always loved my time alone. I’ve been used to it, with my bad history, running between homes and keeping my belongings in a small duffel bag. At first I thought that joining a family of eleven other boys was going to be too big a big change for me to handle, but I soon realized that in such a large group it became easier to make myself at peace, to find some time on the outside to relax and think.

I love meditation. I’m not religious, any doubts I had about Gods and powers were destroyed when I met the only two Gods in person: the Darkness and the Tree. But by moving around so often, I came into contact with many different religions. I had to admit, every single one was appealing. It would be so easy to fall into a bible or a temple and just devote myself to their ways, but I felt that it would be lying to myself about who I am as a protector. I admired the religions nonetheless. While some people like to focus on all the extremist terrorists and warped laws that come from religion, I like to break them down to the very core. I didn’t bother learning the stories of Buddha or Jesus or any of the others. I don’t mean any disrespect, I just found more appealing features of the religions.

I loved how religion conveyed messages of respect. It taught people how to love, to appreciate life in all its forms, and to live life without hurting others. These, in my mind, are just basic must-dos for a happy life. If by devoting themselves to a religion helps people to follow these values, then the religion has my respect. Sure, I have broken some of these rules in the past, but I never felt good about hurting someone. Besides, I’ve always had a reason to use my powers. And if I’m chosen by the ‘God’ of Light to do her bidding, then I guess that makes me one-twelfth of the equivalent of Jesus. It’s kind of cool, I guess.

The meditation is good too, learning from spiritual monks or families knelt over pews in a church, the silence and calmness that overcomes a body is therapeutic and relaxing. I’d found myself learning as much as I can from frequent visits to mosques and temples. I’d even learned breathing techniques from YouTube videos and books.

I certainly wouldn’t have survived this far in my world without this knowledge.

Clamped to a board with metal shackles, scorched from drops of lava as Yongguk’s fierce scowl etched itself into my eyelids. My body convulses every time I think of the blood seeping out of the gashes up my arms, the blades that were stuck into my arm and left, the tip of each knife jammed into the board behind me. My fingers drag across messy staples in my stomach, stuck into my body from the time that Himchan got too carried away and my insides started to fall out of my body. I’ve seen my own insides, pale bloody tubes and pulsing brown sacks that I will never try to identify. Emergency doctors had to rush inside and stich me up before I died. They did not want me dead yet.

Breathe in through my nose for four seconds. One. Two. Three. Four.

Hold it in for seven. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Let it out through my mouth for eight. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

I flutter open my eyes as my heart rate drops back to a calmer rate. For now, it’s best I do not dwell on the events during my captivity. For my own sanity.

I drop to the ground like a ragdoll instinctively as I hear the crunch of gravel under tires. My cheek pressed into dirt, my eyes trained onto a disgruntled frog that balloons its neck back at me and I wait for the vehicle to pass.

. I didn’t even realize there was a dirt road not meters away from my path, hidden behind the thick ferns and vines.

I lift my head from the dirt to catch a glimpse the back end of the vehicle. I exhale a sigh of relief as I note the white paint job on the back of the van, the large red phone number painted onto the back window and a load of tourists peering out the glass, cameras held ready like cowboys itching to draw pistols.

It’s not the B.A.P. It’s just a bunch of tourists, driven into the forests to check out the famous Cambodian landscapes and heritage.

“Oh .” I say aloud as I realize where they are headed. “Kai.”

The frog stares back at me with unsettling, unblinking eyes and croaks.

--- -- -- ----

If I thought that walking through the jungle was pleasant, sprinting through it is hell. Somehow I managed to find the densest path of vines and roots to run through, tangling myself as I hopelessly raced against the van of tourists. Ferns slapped against me like the jungle wanted a pillow fight, and vines reached across my neck and stomach with malicious intent. My knees felt the dirt plenty of times, collecting rocks and roots with my toes.

Its times like this I wish that I had one of the other powers. Tao would be able to get through this easily, or Kai’s teleporting. Luhan could just clear a path, or Chanyeol would burn through the vines. But in this scenario, my electricity is useless. I briefly consider jumping onto the road and trying to zap the van before it drives out of sight, in attempt to fry the engine and stall the tourists, but I know how that would really play out; It wouldn’t be pretty, just a steaming carcass of a van with electrified vacationers inside.

The road starts to curl away and I know I’m reaching my destination from the sounds of boots stepping out of the vehicle, loud flashes and bumbled chatter coming from a nearby clearing. I step out into a lesser dense part of the forest and start to notice the rocks becoming bigger, more angular and moss covered.

I’m getting closer.

The temple is a small one, mostly fallen down and pulled apart by vines and roots. The uneven bricks that have long since tumbled down the hill create rough stairs leading up to the more impressive structures and ruins. This is where I hid Kai.

I raise my legs to awkward heights to get up the stairs, ending up walking like a gangly spider. My boots slide on the moss, uncovering worn down carvings of people and patterns on the bricks. Panting and clutching my sides, I reach the top of the hill.

I duck inside just as the tourists start their slower ascent up the bricks. I hear the American accent of a woman complaining about getting her chinos dirty, and the rough giggles of boys as they clamber over the rocks like an obstacle course. Trying to make my footsteps as quiet as possible, I run over to the hidden corner of the temple where I left the sleeping Kai.

Kai is left the exact same as he was a few hours ago. The scowl etched into his face in discomfort as he lies propped up on a backrest of vines and temple wall. His arm is curled instinctively over his stomach as if he had just eaten bad Mexican food, fingers intertwined in the edges of the bandage I wrapped around his torso to cover his stab wound.

There was a knife sticking out of him when we left the battle. An entire knife, buried half way to the hilt. I recognized it as Youngjae’s blade, one that I dodged many times. After pulling the blade out and treating Kai’s wounds I’d left the knife within reach, just in case he woke up and needed to defend himself.

I knelt down next to Kai and crouched down beside him, shaking him awake. He lets out a low groan, feeling the pain of movement.

“Kai we have to go, now.” I say, my voice lowered just slightly.

Kai groans in response, trying to lift up his head from the wall.

“Can you teleport?” I say, my voice getting more and more hurried.

Kai turns his head to the side, allowing gravity to take over and pull his head all the way to his shoulder. He lifts himself up again and shakes his head.

I’ll take that as a no.

I start to feel myself get more agitated. I reach down to pick Kai up and stop myself just in time, noticing the tiny electrical sparks dancing down my knuckles with anticipation.

Breathe in for four seconds. One. Two. Three. Four.

Hold it in for seven. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Let it out for eight. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

The sparks stop dancing, disappearing beneath my skin. Satisfied that my hands are safe, I scoop up the groaning Kai and start to carry him to safety.

I spin around on my hill as I see the wide brimmed hat poke over the top of the hill. The tourists are here.

“.” I mutter, looking for a place to hide.

I quickly shove Kai into a gap in a pile of fallen bricks, unceremoniously poking his limbs as far as they can go to make more room for me. Hurriedly I squeeze in after him, carefully trying not to step on his injuries. Once we’re settled in I pull down a blanket of leaves and vines, covering as much of our bodies as I can.

“Wha-“ Kai tries to sleepily say, interrupted by my hand clamping over his chin.

The tourists climb over the temple, ignoring the facts spewed out by their guide in a thick Cambodian accent.

“Careful boys!” The mother would yell from her perch on a brick, cooling herself with a painted fan souvenir.

A younger couple set up a tripod and spent most of the time posing and kissing in front of the most impressive doorway, forgetting to look around at the other parts of the temple.

A small Chinese woman with a backpack almost twice her size hiked around the site with the air of determination, pulling out her camera to take snaps of the structures as if she were documenting an important folio.

I let in a sharp gasp as a sandaled foot climbs on the bricks above my head, close enough to see the grimy toenails and muddy heels. The shoes were size four.

“Daddy! Take a photo of me here!” The boy above me yelled. His father complied hurriedly, brandishing the family camera as he scurried between family members. The toes above me wiggled, kicking up a small trickle of dirt into my face. As my heart rate increases I become hyper aware of my skin touching Kai’s. This is not a good position to get all ‘spark-y’.

Breathe in for four. One. Two. Three. Four.

Hold it for seven. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Out for eight. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

“Hey Sam! Look at this!” The other boy called to his brother. Dirt sprinkled onto my nose as the boy hopped down from the bricks and walks over to the spot where I had left Kai.

“Oh cool! Is that real blood?”

My ears prick up at the sounds of the word blood. Parting the leaves I peek through at the two boys.

One of the boys is marveling at the other as he swings around a knife, posing dramatically with the blade.

“.” I mutter, patting down my pockets and belt as I realize that we left our knife lying in the middle of the temple.

“Let me have a go!” The boy yells, and reaches for the knife. I wince as the blade is only centimeters from taking off a finger. The second boy grabs the knife and starts making ‘woosh’ noises as he swings it around.

I act quickly but recklessly. The boy don’t see the tiny zap of electricity hit the blade.

“Ouch!” The boy yells, dropping the blade.

“What happened? Are you cut?”

The boy who got zapped starts talking too quickly for me to understand in English, tears welling up in his eyes. The second boy comforts his brother, still eyeing the weapon discarded on the floor. He bends down and picks it up, only to drop it again as I send another spark into the blade.

There’s more fast babbling in English and then the two boys run away, jabbering about ancient Cambodian curses and ghosts. I quickly jump out of the hiding place and pocket the knife before scrambling back to Kai.

Tucked back into my hiding place I close my eyes as the tourists scamper around us, never finding us hidden underneath the pile of bricks. Repeating my mantra of four, seven, eight, I lull myself into a drowsy relaxed state, only stopping my breathing cycle when there’s a slight tap on my shoulder.

“They’re all gone now. Can you get off my bladder? I gotta pee.”

I awkwardly shuffle out of the gap in the bricks, picking myself up off the ground to help Kai step out.

“I feel bad,” Kai talks, trying to fill up the silence. “You’re the one who went through all the torture less than 24 hours ago, yet I’m the one who can’t stand up properly.”

I laugh it off as I allow Kai to prop himself up against a wall.

“You can make sure I don’t fall over as I go pee?”

I hold Kai up from underneath his armpit as he pees, stepping back to avoid the thin trickle as it snakes past my boot.

There’s the sound of Kai zipping up his fly. “We’re safe here, right? Like, there’s no B.A.P around to up?”

I walk Kai over to a fallen column to sit on. He stretches out his leg with a low groan, like an old man waking up for the millionth time.

“I spent the morning walking around to look for the others.” I say, raising my leg behind me as if I were preparing for a run. “There’s nobody around for ages. Although that can change pretty quickly.”

Kai does a double take, his brow furrowing in the middle.

“You left me here by myself? Unconscious?”

“It was a risk… but I had to make sure we weren’t going to be ambushed… besides, I left you with the knife and you have your teleporting!”

Kai looks down as if I mentioned a recently dead family member. I step in closer and crouch down to catch what he says next.

“I don’t have it anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

Kai looks up with red eyes, catching me by surprise with his loud tone. “That ing Youngjae dickhead! He did something to me! I can’t teleport!”

I feel my face go pale. “You mean…”

“It’s his power! He takes them away!”

My hits the floor hard as I fall down, defeated. “The sixth B.A.P power... is to take away our powers?” I mutter in disbelief. “Does this mean that he can he teleport now?” I say, my voice wavering with fear.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t even know if my power still exists. Maybe he can give the other members our powers, maybe one day a new B.A.P will show up and he’ll be like Zelo with Kris’s power and he’ll just start teleporting and, oh .”

I scrabble to my feet as Kai starts to sob uncontrollably, hunched over on his injured stomach.

“I’ve gotta get out,” He says, pushing me away. “I need space!” I take a step back as a hysterical Kai starts to rage and tries to stand up. He falls to the floor, leaving a streak of blood across the bricks. I kneel down to help him up. “Stay away, Chen! I need space!”

Conflicted I wait by his side as his sobbing starts to halt down. Eventually Kai is whittled down a raspy, heaving breath. I keep my hand on his shoulder in a pathetic attempt to comfort him.

“I gotta get out of here. I gotta teleport. Everything is so closed in.” He wheezes, his face paling as he hunches over to vomit.

“Kai it’s gonna be okay, take deep breaths.” I comfort from a distance. I try to imagine my life without my power. To be honest I wouldn’t mind it that much. Sure, I’d feel a little bit less protected without the ability to create lighting, but I’ve never had much use except for frying Slimers and attacking the B.A.P. Besides attacking people, there hasn’t been much use.

Kai however, uses his power all the time. To him, teleporting is as common as walking. Losing his power, is like… it’s like reducing an athlete to a wheelchair. The world gets smaller, places where you once travelled become impassable. Claustrophobia would pen you in from all sides.

I help to prop the sobbing Kai up on his , sitting him up against the bricks.

“Kai, close your eyes.” I say, gently pressing his eyelids down. “We’re going to do some breathing okay? Just a bit of meditation.”

I guide Kai through the breathing, counting the pattern of four, seven and eight seconds. I cross my feet and sit in front of him so our knees are almost touching, folding my hands in my lap like I see the monks do on the internet. We fall into a trance of meditation, inhaling, holding it in and then letting it out. Gradually Kai seems to calm down as he focuses on his breathing, his tears of fear quieting down to silent occasional sobs. Eventually I stop counting, allowing Kai to continue the breathing by himself.

I stand up and quietly walk around the corner of the temple, rolling my shoulders to get the blood flowing.

“We’ll get your power back, Kai. I promise.”

Kai is silent for a while, in a trance of deep breathing and meditation. “So this is how it feels to be like the rest of you guys.” He muses, “. How do you guys do it?”

I laugh a little “Well, most of us aren’t used to being able to teleport wherever we want, whenever we want. You can’t lose something you’ve never had.”

“Still, I hate this. I feel… stuck. Like I’m chained to my position and it’s so much effort to move. I feel trapped; I’m stuck in Cambodia, nowhere near home, and we don’t have the other ten of us either. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

“Wonder what?” I reply

“If this is how Kris felt.”

I give a moment to think about what Kai is saying. “Kris losing his power was different. That was voluntary to save the world. You had no choice in this.”

“At least his power was used to save the world. Mine was just taken.” Kai chuckles a little bit as he thinks back to his past. “Hey Chen, do you remember when a boy went missing for a couple of weeks back a few years ago?"

I rack my brains but I can’t remember any specific missing children.

“No? Well, in 2008 a little boy went missing for about two weeks and a half around March. It was me, discovering my powers. I accidentally teleported to Sydney, in Australia. I was living in the streets for ages before I finally figured out how to teleport home.”

“What did you tell the authorities?” I ask, fiddling with a loose vine tangling down the wall.

“I just told them I ran away. I was living with a foster family at that time. But it took me a while before I could figure out how to control my teleporting. During my stay with my second family I left for an entire week when I accidentally sneezed and found myself in Sweden. My third family missed me for four days when I went to Alaska.

“I kept leaving the families, but after a while I started to realize that I was controlling my powers. I could’ve gone home whenever I wanted, I just didn’t want to stay with a foster family. My destinations become more ‘fun’. Like the time I skipped school to sneak into Disneyland in Paris. Or I went to the beach to try to pick up chicks in California. I learned that I could survive without a foster family. They stopped putting me in families, until I eventually disappeared from the system.”

“You survived all by yourself? For how long?”

“My last family was at the end of 2009, but I’d been basically living by myself for a while already. I even snuck into schools by myself. I’d steal food when I was hungry, or money even. It was quite easy. It’s how I mastered my power.”

I turn back to look at Kai. He looks forlorn, staring down at the cracks in the brickwork. His legs are still half- crossed in front of him.

“We’ll get your teleporting back,” I reassure him “Just for now, I’ll protect you if we get in trouble.”

“What about you?” Kai looks up at me. “How did you figure out your…” He makes zappy motions with his fingers as if he were the Sith Emperor.

“It’s not as interesting as your story,” I explain. “Just a long history of freak lighting storms at night where I lived. They used to give me nightmares, but it took me over a year to realize that it went the other way around. It was my nightmares that caused the lightning storms. The whole lighting out of my hands thing,” I mimicked Kai’s ‘zappy finger motions’ “That has been fairly new. It began when I started accidentally charging my phone as I was using it. My powers slowly grew until I can generate the lightning from my body.”

“Charging your phone, that’s gotta be a good upside to your power,” Kai commented

“Not really. Like, it comes in handy sometimes, but it’s a bit difficult. Like really difficult. Don’t you remember when I totaled Baekhyun’s IPhone? He haunted me with illusions of zombies for a week before I agreed to buy him a new phone. It’s safer to just use a charger. As far as I’m worried, the only use my powers have is being violent.”

“Maybe the Tree should’ve given your power to someone a little more violent then, to reach its full potential.”

Kai didn’t mean anything bad by his last line, but it did hurt a bit.

“You know, Sehun has a theory that our powers came from our personalities. They match us, like how Yixing always wants to heal and Kyungsoo is grounded and down to earth. I believe there’s a reason I got such an aggressive power. I think the Tree wanted lightning to go to someone who knows restraint, and won’t go out of control with such power. I’m not an aggressive person, but I know when I have to use this power.”

“Back in the compound, when you were captured by the B.A.P, what did they do in there, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“To be honest, they didn’t do much.” I replied, “Well, they did a lot. A lot of torture, but it seemed pointless. They just seemed angry, furious for some reason. I think I was just being used as bait for you guys. They want to kill us. They really do. I think the only reason I’m alive is because they were certain you guys would be coming soon too.

“Got tortured by almost all of the B.A.P members. I didn’t meet Zelo or Youngjae, but the others all got a shot at stabbing or burning me. Himchan and Youngguk were the worst. They were the most painful, the most sadistic. They carved patterns into my skin for fun. Sometimes Himchan wouldn’t even bother to try to interrogate me. I think I was just a pastime for him. He’d come in sometimes, unsupervised, plug in his earphones and carve swirling patterns into my chest and arms while humming.”

“Do you ever wonder what they were like before the Dark?” Kai asked, “Like, they have got to be real people. What do you think their life was like before they became evil?”

“I think some of them were military.” I replied “It makes sense that the Dark would infect people of power, like generals and officers and people with the type of ranks that allows them to order missile strikes. Besides, Yongguk acted like he knew what to do. He’s professional, as if he’d been in a war scenario all his life.”

“I don’t think they all are.” Kai replied “That Zelo kid, he can’t be old enough to be in the military. I don’t even reckon he’s finished school. You know, when you were on your flight with Yixing and Sehun, I fought Zelo at our place. He’s really good with a knife. He didn’t even have to use his power much and he almost overpowered me. I was so close to winning, too, just before he used his power and took me by surprise.”

“It took me by surprise too,” I mentioned “I thought he was Kris for a second when he took off. They’re stronger than us though. It’s as if they’re on a higher level than us. Like how Luhan and Kyungsoo have ‘unlocked’ their powers after being possessed.”

“You know, when we were all in the compound, and things were getting intense, I did something I’ve never done before. Kyungsoo was trapped, with nowhere to go, and all of a sudden, I teleported him to me.”

“Like you teleported to him and picked him up?”

“No, it was different. I didn’t move anywhere, I only teleported him. It felt… different to my other teleporting. Like, usually I just pick a new location for me to teleport to, but this time, I also had to pick what I was teleporting. Maybe I was on the brink of unlocking my power too…”

Kai lifts up a hand as if he were recalling his actions. He points to a small rock sitting on top of a worn down brick with a swirls carved into the side. “It was as if I just…” He swirls his hand around experimentally, staring intently at the small rock.

Kai lets out a huge gasp that snaps me from my lethargies. “Did you see that?!” He exclaimed.

“What? No I missed it what happened, did you teleport the rock?”

“Almost! There was black smoke! I swear it!”

Blood starts to trickle from his nose and over his lip, yet he keeps swishing his hand at the rock intently.

“Kai! Stop it! It’s doing nothing! You’re exerting a muscle that Youngjae blocked! You’ll hurt yourself even more!”

He stops trying to teleport the rock to wipe away the blood from under his nose and inspect his bloodied fingers.

“I did see smoke.” He mumbled.

“Maybe it was just dust blowing in the wind.”

Kai grumbles and crosses his arms in front of him. “I’ll get it eventually.”

“We’ll wait a few hours for you to get better before we move off. We can’t stay here long. Unless your teleporting somehow manages to come back, we’ll steal the next tourist van and drive to the meetup place.”

-------------------

Its four hours later, when I’m outside scrounging for food amongst the vines that I hear Kai’s urgent call.

“Chen! Chen! Come quick!”

Instinctively I burst into a sprint across the temple ruins, leaping over logs and fallen bricks. Sparks dance up my arms, crackling at my fingertips with anticipation.

I enter our room of the ruins with my hands raised, ready to send sparks into the chest of the nearest attacker, but everything seems to be exactly the same as I left it. Even Kai is still awkwardly propped up against the wall, leaving a bloodied dried smear behind him.

“Look! I did it!”

Through cracked lips he shows a beaming smile, raising up his hand to show the misshapen rock.

“I teleported it to me.”

Blood starts to run from his nose again.

“Kai you’re bleeding again.” I rush over to him and kneel down, dabbing at the blood with a loose bandage.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” He pushes me away, holding up the rock with both hands. “This means that my teleporting is coming back! And Youngjae’s power isn’t for forever! How long has it been since he took my powers?”

“At least six hours.” I say, checking my watch.

“At this rate, I’ll be back to normal in a couple more! In fact, I’ll be stronger!”

“Yeah, stronger because you can teleport rocks to yourself?” I say sarcastically.

“Do you know what this means?” Kai asks me. I look back blankly. “I’ll be able to teleport you guys around, just like I did with Kyungsoo at the military compound. We don’t need to meet up at that meeting place. I could teleport everyone here!”

Kai’s logic was appealing. We wouldn’t need to be able to travel all the way to the meeting place; especially if all of us are just scattered in this jungle. We could spend our time more productively, nursing Kai back to health and setting up a fort to protect us.

“First priority:” I say, taking a leadership position as the oldest “We need get back your strength. You’ll need to practice your power before you’re strong enough to start teleporting people. If we can’t teleport everyone here, we’ll just teleport ourselves to the meetup place before midnight tonight.”

Kai beamed with the promise to practice his newfound power.

“I’ll work diligently and effectively” he said, sitting up straight like an eager schoolkid.

-----------------

We figured out that a tourist group would show up every hour exactly, their vans b with sunscreen-covered foreigners brandishing cameras bigger than their backpacks. Kai and I would hide away in the hole amongst the bricks, nestled behind a covering of ferns and dirt.

In between tourist groups we worked on training Kai and building up his strength. We started by replicating what Kai had already done before; teleporting rocks into his hands. For the first few tries, it took him over a minute to ‘grab’ onto the rock and pull it towards himself. After half an hour, he could teleport one not only to himself, but to other places around the temple without even hesitating.

“I’m going to try to teleport myself.” Kai said, after successfully moving another rock across the clearing.

“Are you sure?” I queried. Physically, Kai still looked very weak.

“I’ve got to try it sometime. I’ll be fine.” He pushed himself upright again, “I can’t save the world by moving a bunch of rocks.”

“Kyungsoo seems to do that just fine.” I muttered sarcastically.

“I’ll tell him you said that.” Kai warned, chuckling at my worried expression.

He took a few deep breaths as if he were about to dive deep underwater, as slowly the familiar black smoke started to fizzle around his body. With so much suspense and build-up, I expected a snap, a crack as he disappeared, but instead he just blinked away, leaving the smoke to dissipate into the air.

“Chen!” A worried voice sounded from around the corner.

“You did it! You teleported!” I cheered.

“Not quite…” Kai’s wearied voice echoed amongst the columns and vines.

“Are you okay? Where are you? Are you hurt?” I start to pace around the temple my eyes scanning for signs of movement.

“I’m fine!” came Kai’s reassuring reply. “Just… don’t look at me okay?”

“Kai are you okay?” I start to step forward, bending down to pick up our knife from the floor. Paranoia shivered up my spine, my brain working overtime to think of all the different codes Kai could be speaking in.

But my hands don’t grip the knife. Instead, my fingers tangle into the folds of material. I look down to see a pair of boots, covered with shorts, underpants and a ripped, bloodied grey shirt.

“. . . . .” Kai creeped into the temple, swearing every time his bare feet slapped against the bricks. With his hands he cupped himself, trying to cover up as much as possible. “I said don’t look at me” He hissed as I quickly turned around to let him step into his pants.

“I don’t think… that you are…. that you’re ready to teleport yourself...” I gasp, not even bothering to hide my laughter.

“Shut up.” Kai grumbles, swiveling his hips as he pulls his pants back on.

“Why don’t you try something a little smaller?” I offer.

“What? Like more rocks! That’s going to do nothing!” Kai yells in frustration.

“Maybe something better… just because its small doesn’t mean it has to be useless.” I ponder.

--------

“Do you know the best thing about this idea of yours is?” Kai asks me between throws, pulling his arm over his shoulder. He snaps it forwards, releasing the shiny metal blade. The teleporting makes a sound this time as the knife disappears, sinking deep into a nearby tree with a loud ‘thunk!’

Kai holds up his hand and the blade reappears, curling his fingers around the hilt. He flicks his fringe out of the way as he looks to me, readjusting his stance.

“I don’t even need to have good aim.”

The blade goes flying again, and it would’ve missed too if it didn’t magically bury itself into the same tree.

I clap as Kai’s knife throwing is getting better. The blade zips back and forwards almost as fast as my lightning. With next to no fly-time the knife seems to appear and disappear between the tree and Kai’s hand, slowing down only as he throws it again, giving it more momentum.

“Try to hit the tree behind it.”  I call out, standing to the side like a high school football coach.

Kai swings and the knife disappears again, before quickly reappearing in his hands.

“Give me a real challenge.” He smirks, getting cocky with his improved powers.

“Turn around and throw.” I order him. 

He spins on his heel, facing away from the target tree. With a flick of his arm, he throws the knife forwards. The blade disappears, the familiar sound of the tree being stabbed echoing through the temple.

“I need a real challenge, Chen.” Kai slouches at me.

I step in between him and the target.

“Hit the tree.” I order

I force myself not to flinch as the blade seems to head straight for me. It disappears, hitting the tree behind me.

I take a step closer to Kai.

“Again.” I say flatly.

“Chen are you sure…?” Kai hesitates

“Again.”

He throws the blade towards me, teleporting it to hit the tree. The blade seems to be closer to me, but he still makes it disappear in time.

I take another step forwards.

“Again.”

“Chen, can’t we use a rock or a tree instead of you? I don’t feel safe throwing a knife at you…” Kai mumbles, uncomfortable about the position I’m putting him in.

“Do it.” I order him, hiding the sweating on my palms.

He throws the knife, and I instinctively close my eyes as the knife teleports away when its mere meters away from my face.

I take another step towards him. If we both reach out our hands, our fingertips would touch.

“Hit the tree.” I say, taking deep breaths in and out to calm myself down. I feel the sweat starting to form on my forehead. “You can do this.”

Kai pulls back his arm tentatively. I can see him shaking.

“Focus,” I say, trying to help.

My muscles tense up, preparing for him to throw when we’re interrupted. A beeping sound, high pitched and constant starts to chime from inside Kai’s hand.

We both relax as Kai opens up his hand, revealing the red flashing light on the end of the knife.

“What’s happening?” Kai exclaims, holding up the knife to study it closely.

“.” I curse, “That knife belonged originally to the B.A.P”

“So they’re tracking it?” Kai asks skeptically.

“Turn it off!” I yell, suddenly very terrified and out in the open.

“I don’t know how!” He exclaims, “Isn’t there a button?”

I may not be good at charging electronics, but there is one feature that I can do very well: Turn things off. I snatch the knife and hold it between two hands, zapping the knife until the blade fizzles and smokes, the blinking red light going out.

“Get rid of it.” I hand the knife to Kai, letting the flat of the blade rest against his chest. He fumbles as he tries to get a grip on the knife, then flings it hard into the sky.

The knife travels for a few meters before it disappears in teleportation smoke and reappears further away, becoming a tiny spec in the sky. We both follow it with our eyes as it flies over the top of the jungle, gaining speed as it plummets towards the earth hundreds of meters away.

Then the jungle moves. The trees bulge, opening wide like a mouth to allow the knife to fall through to the ground. The trees sway in the wind before returning back to normal.

“Did you see that?” Kai asks, clutching onto my arm.

“Daehyun. The plant controller.”

“We can’t go up against that!” Kai wails. “The entire jungle just moved! Like it was alive! He’s too strong for us!”

“We don’t have to win.” I turn to Kai, grabbing him by his shoulders. He looks terrified and spaced out, but I force him to look at my face. “Kai, take deep breaths. Just like we practiced, okay? Four, eight, seven. Four, eight, seven, all right? Now can you telepor-“

I’m yanked back by my foot suddenly, throwing me off balance and slamming my face into the bricks. Kai screams my name before disappearing into his cloud of smoke.

Bricks rip at my face as I’m pulled backwards, towards the jungle. I scream, my body shuddering with electricity as I discharge like a tesla coil. The vines around my ankles burn and shrivel up, allowing me to kick myself free and run back towards the temple.

“You can’t run from me.” Calls Daehyun, walking out of the jungle as if he were the guest star on a famous television show. “Not here. Not in a jungle, of all places.” He keeps sauntering forwards, trees roots spurting out of the ground to lift him up the temple stairs like a natural escalator.

I fire bolts of electricity at him, but the vines swarm around him, making it impossible to get a clear shot. More of the vines crawl over my legs, trying to hold me down. As I burn them away, more appear to take their place.

“Hey dickwad!” Kai calls out from on top of a column.

The vines part to allow Daehyun to look up at Kai, the scorn on his face evident through his furrowed brow and clenched jaw.

“Missing this?” Kai holds up an empty hand. Then suddenly, with a twirl of his black smoke, he’s holding a pistol. Daehyun instinctively reaches for his empty holster. The vines quickly knit themselves around Daehyun, creating a shield from the bullets.

Kai points the gun straight up into the air. He fires three times, a faint wisp of smoke leaving the muzzle of the gun. With each gunshot the vines retreat and flinch, a cry of pain escaping Daehyun’s fortress. Kai is teleporting the bullets past the bubble of vines.

The vine-sphere untangles itself and shoots towards Kai, grasping nothing but teleportation smoke. Kai reappears across the temple on another column, firing again into the sky. Blood spurts out of Daehyun’s shoulder, knee and hip with each squeeze of the trigger.

The vines untangle even more to shoot for Kai leaving Daehyun horribly exposed to the sky. I slam my hand down onto the ground, a thunderous clap echoing from the clouds. Daehyun looks up, but it’s too late. The lightning screams out of the sky, jolting Daehyun with what I can only assume to be unbelievable pain.

Daehyun falls to the ground, jacket smoking. Around him the vines fall limply to the earth.

Kai appears before me, dropping the gun like some poisonous snake onto the bricks.

“Is he dead?” I croak, falling to the ground.

“I don’t think so. I didn’t shoot him anywhere important. But you will be soon if you don’t get help.” Kai inspects my bloodied face and snapped ankle.

He sits down on the bricks beside me and crosses his legs, closing his eyes. I’m about to interrupt him to ask him what he’s doing when he starts to count.

In for four seconds. One. Two. Three. Four.

Hold it for seven. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Let it out for eight. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

Trails of smoke start to curl beside him, frantically dancing as they drift into the atmosphere before a figure bursts through, skidding along the bricks as if they just fell off a bike. The boy sits up, dazed, looking around at his surroundings.

“Yixing?” I call out.

He turns around, wide eyes falling upon my broken body. But he doesn’t come to my aid straight away. Instead he goes to Kai. Grabbing him roughly he starts to shake Kai.

“Sehun. Quick! Get Sehun. He’s going to die. Please.” He says frantically.

Kai nods furiously and starts to meditate again. Yixing scoots along the bricks towards me, laying his hands over my body and sealing up my wounds. I point towards my twisted ankle, and he shifts his focus to heal my foot.

I scream again as another stabbing pain hits my stomach, accompanied by gunfire. Yixing swears and starts to heal the gun wound.

“You guys don’t die, do you?” calls another voice, as Youngjae steps over the temple stairs, briefly bending down to inspect Daehyun. He squeezes the trigger a couple more times, aiming at me.

Yixing throws his body between us, his body illuminated in soft green light. The bullets hit his back and fall to the ground, allowing him to keep healing me.

Sehun rolls out of Kai’s teleportation smoke, hair wild and shirt missing. He only takes a few seconds to adjust to his new surroundings, taking in the view of the temples, the jungle, Kai, Yixing and I and Youngjae. He quickly shifts into a more stable stance and blows a gust of wind that both knocks Youngjae off the temple and sends Daehyun rolling down the stairs.

“Kai! How did you…” He asks, but Kai just waves him away.

“I should go help Kai now.” Yixing says, spinning around to switch the focus of his healing to the teleporter.

I stand up, stretching my legs and testing my new ankle. I lock eyes with Sehun.

“Let’s destroy some bad guys.”

“Here, take this.” Kai picks up Daehyun’s gun and tosses it to me.

Mid-toss the gun shifts, becoming fluid and deadly. Sehun pushes me to the ground as the gun becomes a round metal blade, shooting blindly towards me and lodging itself into a nearby column.

“Himchan is here.” Yixing mutters bitterly.

“You heal Kai, we’ll take the others.” I say, feeling my power darken the skies with storm clouds. The wind picks up, what I can only presume to be Sehun’s doing.

The first blade that curls around the corner gets zapped by a bolt of lightning. The electricity dances up the knife edge, earning myself a scream as it reaches Himchan’s hiding place.

“He’s over there,” I point in Himchan’s direction, guided by the path of the electricity.

I send lightning shooting down towards Himchan’s location, showering the temple in sparks. Sehun shoots air off into another direction as Youngjae makes himself seen again.

I keep zapping the area of the temple, feeling my electricity dance up and down ribbons of metal. I’m too late when I notice the metal guiding the electricity around a fallen statue behind me, striking upwards like a snake to impale Sehun’s leg.

Sehun screams as he’s injured from a mix of the metal spike and my electricity. I bend down to quickly yank the metal spike out of Sehun’s leg with a sickening squelch.

“Yixing!” Sehun cries out in pain.

I watch in amazement as Yixing’s green light slowly creeps over the temple to us, enveloping Sehun’s leg and starting to close up his wound.

Sehun starts to twirl his hands above his head, and I look to the sky as a tornado starts to form, dragging in my dark storm clouds.

Thick vines snake up through the brickwork and wrap themselves around my ankles again. I’m knocked off my feet again as the plants try to drag me over to the temple stairs, towards the jungle. As I reach the precipice I glimpse Daehyun, standing up again. Around him, thick roots have burst out of the ground, creating a swarming sea of plants.

Black smoke forms around me and I disappear, rolling into a fallen down pile of rubble, vine-free. I take a brief look down at my body and I see… well, briefs.

“ing hell Kai, you couldn’t teleport my pants too?” I call out. Nobody answers.

It takes me a second to get my bearings, figuring out which direction the others are in. Using Sehun’s tornado as a guide marker, I head back towards the others, climbing over fallen columns and ducking under loose vines.

When I make it back to the clearing, I notice that there aren’t as many people as I expected. Instead, Sehun fiercely battles a heavy-armored Himchan with a ferocious tornado. Himchan has melded his body armor into thick spikes, clawing his way across the ground to close the distance between them.

I shoot electricity out of my hands, hitting Himchan square on his back. His left arm slips along with one of his metal spikes, sending him flying into the air and deeper into the temple.

Sehun’s tornado subsides, allowing me to stumble over to the panting boy.

“Where did your pants go?” He asks, motioning at my underwear.

“Kai. He’s still learning.” I explained.

“Yeah, how did he…” Sehun begins to ask

“I’ll explain later. Where did the others go?”

Sehun points deeper into the temple ruins.

“Youngjae and Daehyun chased them into the temple. I think I saw Jonggup too.”

. I think down to myself. This was an ambush. How many B.A.P members are hiding in this temple?

“I’ll take the higher path, you take the lower.” I say, pointing to some steps that lead up to a higher part of the temple and a pathway formed where a wall had long fallen down. Sehun nods and starts to walk towards the wall.

I climb up the stairs and start to creep through the temple, keeping an eye out for any movement. I become hyper aware of all of the vines that coat the place, tangling between all the bricks and statues. This isn’t a good place to fight a plant controller.

 I hear the sound of smashing rocks further ahead. Signaling to Sehun down below, I point towards the sound. He nods and looks around for a way to get through the rubble.

I pick up speed as another crashing sound echoes through the temple walls, until I’m basically sprinting across the tops of the rubble.

I reach the source of the noise and prepare myself to shoot sparks at whoever is down below me, but instead I find two allies.

“Kyungsoo? Luhan? How did you get here?”

“We followed that!” Luhan yells back at me, pointing up at the sky. I look up to see the sheer contrast between the bright blue sunny sky and my dark storm clouds. My lightning strikes must’ve created a pretty big beacon. The weather forecast must be going crazy.

“Daehyun went that way!” Kyungsoo points off in another direction. I notice the vines slowly slinking in the same direction like lazy snakes.

I start to follow Luhan and Kyungsoo as they scoot through the temple, using their powers to boost themselves over and around obstacles, but I notice black smoke starting to curl up my arms.

-------

As I skirt around a pile of rubble I’m teleported suddenly, but this time I’m prepared. Glad that I’m still wearing what little clothes Kai has left me with, I step over an injured Kai and point my hand towards the attacker, letting loose a surge of electricity.

Vines swirl around my target, protecting him from my attack. Daehyun waits for a lull in my attacks before shooting out with his vines, reaching out to latch onto my limbs.

But Kai teleports me again, landing on the other side of Daehyun’s attack. I attack again, my lightning still not cutting through the vine-shield. Daehyun spins around, trying to relocate me.

Then the vines change, Daehyun’s expression looking as surprised as mine. The vines become thin and skeletal, shriveling up into crisp, black, dead plants. Water seems to materialize out of the vines as moisture is out of the vine-shield, creating two long thin streams of floating water.

I reach out and splash my hands into the levitating water-tendrils, using them to channel my power. I feel my electricity penetrate the dead vine shield, conducted by the floating water.

Daehyun screams as he’s electrocuted, falling to the ground unconscious.

“Suho?” Kai questions as Suho and Xiumin step into the clearing. “I didn’t teleport you…”

“We followed the lightning.” Xiumin says, pointing up at my storm clouds. It seems like my lightning storm managed to call over even more allies.

“I’m glad you’re here.” I say, “Himchan and Youngjae are somewhere in this maze too. As well as Sehun, Yixing, Luhan and Kyungsoo.”

“Luhan and Kyungsoo?” Kai queries “How did they get here…”

I point up to the lightning beacon as an answer.

“What do we do with this guy?” Suho nudges the smoking Daehyun with the tip of his boot.

“I got this.” Says Xiumin, kneeling beside the unconscious man. He places his hands over the body, as if he were healing him with Yixing’s power. Slowly, ice starts to form around his body, rewrapping the B.A.P member in an ice-prison.

I hear muffled yelling a few hundred meters away.

“That’s Yixing. He’s calling for help.” Suho deciphers. He starts to climb a pile of rubble, trying to get to the sound.

“I can get you there quicker!” Kai calls, focusing on me. Teleportation comes quickly this time, and I’m teleported only a few meters away from Yixing.

Yixing is on the ground, scrabbling away backwards as Youngjae menacingly corners him into intersecting bricked walls. My heart drops as I realize that if Yixing loses his powers, we’d lose our healer and the only reason why all of us are in fighting shape.

I raise my arms, electricity dancing up past my elbows and out through my fingertips, rocking me backwards slightly with recoil.

Youngjae is pushed back to the edge of the clearing, the front of his sleeveless shirt smoking.

Drawing dual pistols he drops to the ground and rolls behind a pile of rocks for cover.

As I search for my own cover, the ground begins to rumble. Bricks rise up from the ground, splitting the clearing into two, separating myself from Youngjae.

Kyungsoo hobbles into the clearing, holding onto his stomach.

“Hey do you know where Yixing is?” he asks, lifting up his shirt. “I think I need his help”

I take a sharp intake of breath as I see his torso, riddled with bullet holes. A thick bandage is also wrapped around his thigh, dark red with blood. Grey tendrils snake out from his wounds. They’re infected.

“Yixing is right behind me,” I say, turning around but the healer is gone. “Kai must’ve teleported him away,” I turn back, but all that’s left of Kyungsoo is the black wisps of teleportation smoke.

Then the smoke starts to curl up my body, and I charge my electricity in preparation for my next teleportation.

----------

The next ten minutes of my life were an exhausting mess of teleporting, electricity, bullets and healing power.

I’d catch small snippets of the battle around me before I would be teleported again, my stomach churning with vertigo. Yet I’d be forced to hold the bile down and let loose blasts of electricity, zapping my enemies again and again before I’d be teleported away.

I saw Luhan and Himchan in a fierce lock of their powers, each of them struggling in a dangerous game of tug-of-war, a flurry of bullets shivering between them.

I saw Kyungsoo create walls and walls in a futile attempt to distract Jonggup as he drags an unconscious Xiumin through temple bricks and statues.

I’d be teleported to Yixing when in dire need, a station for the injured to revive their broken bones and rejuvenate their energy before heading back out into the fray. Yixing’s nose was in a current state of bleeding, his power being exerted almost to its breaking point.

I clench my jaw in fear as Suho rolls into a ferocious battle against Himchan, spikes of metal bouncing off his skin harmlessly as Yixing’s aura protects Suho from harm.

Yet in a rushed attack and need for self-protection, Yixing draws in his healing aura to himself as Youngjae throws a wickedly curved knife. The knife clatters harmlessly against the floor, yet a scream of pain rockets out from where Suho battles Himchan.

I catch a glimpse of two metal pikes, stabbed straight through Suho’s flank and thigh and exiting out the other end, smattered with blood and flecks of flesh.

Suho screams in pain, his arms turning limp in an alarmingly rapid rate. With a sweep of his arm, a blade of red water, no, a blade of blood slices upwards and cuts cleanly through Himchan’s shoulder. Suho disappears in a puff of smoke, taken away again by Kai.

I fall down onto my hands and knees and throw up. I can’t remember the last time I ate, but the only thing that comes out is a splatter of bile, shaking up my limbs and making me weak, almost unable to hold me up from falling face down into the dusty bricks.

Each time I heave, I feel the electricity pulse out of my body in waves of uncontrollable discharges. The storm clouds above me rage and rumble, lightning flicking in and out of the grey weather like snake tongues.

I heave up an empty stomach again, and the clouds let loose on the ground. In a merciless attack on the temple, lightning strikes the bricks, sending up chunks of rocks and statues as they clash. The lightning rains down without wavering, and I look up through my sweaty fringe and try to direct the electricity.

The lightning curves, a majority of the strikes converging on Himchan, his metal weapons a good target for the electricity. I feel the attacks hunt out the other two remaining B.A.P members, shocking Jonggup and Youngjae.

In the distance, my eyesight blurry and red, I see someone fall down to the ground, the lightning strikes too much for him to handle.

I throw up one more time, coughing and wiping at my mouth with the back of my hand before standing up.

The protectors have all converged into the one clearing, Yixing still healing the gaping hole in Suho’s flank and thigh. Xiumin sits against a wall, unconscious as Luhan stands over him protectively. Kyungsoo has two large bricks floating behind him, bouncing slightly as his two fists waver, in a boxing stance. Kai looks worse for wear, pale and leaning against one of the few pillars that still stay standing, yet in his hand he holds a gun, still able to raise his arm and point it to the B.A.P members.

Facing my friends are the remaining minions of the Dark.

Crouched over a frozen Daehyun and an unconscious Youngjae is Jonggup. He is probably the only person who doesn’t look like he is on the brink of death, yet his entire body is covered with the gross red blisters and weeping skin from burns. I briefly wonder if somewhere, hopefully, it was Chanyeol who made those burns.

Himchan stands beside him, his metal armor fashioned into thin spider legs that seem to encase him in a thin cage that holds him upright. His left arm hangs limply at his side, using his right arm to cover his shoulder, trying to hold in as much blood as possible.

The two remaining B.A.P members look at each other, a silent message passed between them.

Jonggup quickly reaches out to the two unconscious B.A.P members, sinking down with them into the ground. Himchan’s spider-like cage starts to crawl backwards, hurriedly climbing down the ledge of the temple and back down into the forest.

They’re retreating.

I run on shaky legs to the edge of the temple, firing blindly out with electricity towards the jungle, but they’re gone, swallowed up in the maze of the jungle.

I look back at my friends, battered and on the brink of death, still fighting to stay alive.

We’d survived.

----- -----

With half of our team missing, unconscious or too exhausted to make any sort of decision, it was up to Kyungsoo, Luhan, Kai and I to figure out what to do. While Yixing still focused on saving Suho, we all sat in a corner of the temple, on the verge of falling down and passing out at any moment.

“We should keep moving,” Luhan suggests, “Before they’re back. We still don’t know where Yongguk is.”

“But what about the others?” Kyungsoo says, “We’re still missing Baekhyun and Chanyeol, as well as Kris and Tao.” He turns to Kai. “Do you think you’d be able to get them?”

Kai looks up with exhausted eyes. He heaves, and I think he’s going to vomit, but instead he holds it down and starts to speak. “I don’t think I can even teleport myself right now. Besides, I tried teleporting Tao and Kris before, during the battle. I think they’re too far away or something.”

“What about the B.A.P members? Are they… teleportable? Maybe you could just, send them to Antarctica or something.” Luhan queries.

Kai shakes his head. “Not while they’re dark. Think of them as… anchored. I can’t teleport them.”

Suho speaks up from the corner. I jump slightly; unaware that Suho was een conscious.

“We can’t think about moving without some form of transportation. Look at us; most of us can barely walk. Unless you guys have a car, I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”

A jingling object falls into Suho’s lap. We all stand up hurriedly, each of us prepared to fight, but the object that Suho picks up isn’t a grenade. It’s a set of car keys.

“I think we can help with that problem.”

Chanyeol walks into the clearing, his face smattered with mud. Hanging from his hands is an unidentifiable can of aerosol and a lighter, the ingredients for a makeshift flamethrower.

“Chanyeol!” Luhan yells, and runs over to him and almost topples the giant with a big hug. “What about Baekhyun? Is he with you?”

Chanyeol looks behind him sheepishly.

“Uh… he’s coming, but I  gotta warn you guys, he’s not in very good shape… We ran into Jonggup and Youngjae and both of us lost our powers-“

“They come back!” Kai cuts in, “mine did!”

Chanyeol’s face visibly shows the signs of relief at Kai’s words. Thank god, He mouths to himself.

“Anyway,” He continues, “we escaped in one of their cars, but we were pretty devastated about our powers. Baekhyun didn’t cope very well once his adrenaline ran out. He was looking for anything that could help, weapons, phones, and…. he found a bottle of vodka.”

“And he drank it?!” Suho’s voice was laden with anger and disbelief.

“He thought he could make his power come back. I’m not too sure, but the more he drank the more he was certain it was eventually going to work. I couldn’t stop him.”

At that, Baekhyun stumbles into the temple on wavering legs.

“HEY GUYS!” He yells, his voice way too loud. “WE WENT ZIPLINING!”

He stumbles over to us, leaning heavily on Kyungsoo. He lets out a loud burp right into the side of Kyungsoo’s face, making the smaller boy scrunch up his nose in disgust.

“You smell like .” Kyungsoo mutters.

“And you look like !” Baekhyun giggles. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, doyawannaknowasecret? Did you know that Chanyeol picks his nose?” he starts to cackle enormous laughter, falling more heavily onto Kyungsoo.

“What do we do with him?” Kyungsoo asks, still bearing the weight of the drunken boy.

“I know!” Kai exclaims suddenly, “I had to do it once. Make him throw up! He’ll sober up in no time!”

Right on cue, Baekhyun starts to heave. Kyungsoo hurriedly throws him off his back, shoving Baekhyun into a corner. We all watch in suspense as Baekhyun keeps heaving until he lets out an even larger burp than before. He smiles contently at us, his eyes struggling to focus.

“Can we get KFC?”

“No!” Luhan exclaims, “Nobody make him throw up. That’s a myth, it doesn’t work.”

Kai starts to walk over to Baekhyun, but Luhan holds him back.

“Nonsense,” Kai dismisses Luhan’s warning, “I did it once, in a club. Took too many shots, and I threw up in the toilet. Almost straight away I felt sober, I walked out of the bathroom with a clear head.

“But how did you feel five minutes later?” Luhan questions. Kai’s eyes roll upwards, attempting to remember the night.

“I… I felt like .” He says, defeated.

“That’s right,” Luhan starts, his ‘teacher voice’ coming out. “Throwing up is one of the most intense natural things your body can do. It releases adrenaline into your brain as you throw up. That’s why you feel sober, but after five minutes, when the adrenaline runs out, the alcohol feeling comes back. The alcohol affects your brain, not your stomach. Throwing up the vodka isn’t going to empty the alcohol from Baekhyun’s brain.”

“So what do we do instead?” Kai asks, still wary of the giggling Baekhyun.

“We give him water. Let him rest. We wait.” Luhan says, shrugging his shoulders.

“You guys didn’t have to deal with him in the car ride here.” Chanyeol mutters, flicking the lighter on and off.

“Where do we go now?” I ask, still unsure of what the plan is.

“I contacted Tao on the drive here,” Chanyeol explains, holding up an old flip-phone. “He says the Tree is in danger. They’re already on their way to Korea, says to meet them there. Oh, and Kris can fly now.”

He says the last bit so casually it takes a while for the message to sink back in. Kris can fly? Maybe there still is a bit of light in this world.

“So Chanyeol,” Suho says, propping himself up as Yixing moves his healing energy to the hole in his thigh. “Where is this car of yours?”

Ayyyyy another chapter done :3 What did you guys think? Excited that almost everyone is back together again? 

Dont forget to upvote/subscribe/comment/tell everyone! Give me love and I'll give more chapters! 

Q. Who do you think is the strongest of all the EXO members?