(20) SEIZE THE PHOENIX

By the time Chanyeol’s memories come back to him, it’s already too late.

Because, opening his eyes for the first time after he fully remembers, the first thing he sees is Baekhyun. He’d already seen him like this once before, and it was a time he was hoping to put behind him, but it appears that he had let his emotions take over again.

Now he was bound with his arms and legs restrained, locked away in some sort of metal van. It wasn’t comfortable in the slightest bit and he felt the circulation cut at his toes from how hard the rope dug into his skin. Nobody answered his questions when he asked where they were going and how long he’d have to be kept in this state.

As he arrived and was roughly dragged out of the van, Chanyeol did his best to walk without being blinded by the overbearing sun beaming down on him. He didn’t have control of his hands though and was forced to keep walking with them bounded behind his back, being pulled through the gates and into the facility. Greeted by people trapped behind the glass windows, their psychotic yells and wild eyes scared him. The way they rammed their fists against the window made it look like it would break any minute, giving Chanyeol the extra incentive to walk a bit faster down the hall. He didn’t want to be there when it all went to hell.

“61, report for dousing stage.” A voice crackled to life over the loudspeakers. Chanyeol only gawked as alarms started blaring in his ears, lights intensifying at the spot he was standing in. The voice had repeated and yet he stood still, unsure of what to do. His mind wasn’t processing what was asked of him in the slightest. What was he searching for?

Before Chanyeol could try to ask what he meant, two men had come out from the shadows and tackled him to the ground. One pinned him down by his neck and waist while the other used a knife to hack away at his restraints. His carelessness made Chanyeol flinch as the blade nicked at his hands and ankles. The two guards took a step back and talked amongst themselves as he tried pushing himself off the floor.

“Make one more move and you’ll be sent to the correction room, 61.” One of the guards hissed. He wandered over to Chanyeol and kicked him hard in his side, snickering as his leather boot crushed his ribs.

Chanyeol whimpered as his body dropped back onto the ground, pained breaths turning into coughs as the dirt went into his lungs. The other guards didn’t care about his wellbeing and left out the door, only to reappear on the second floor in what seemed to be a viewing room.

The guard that had just watched his partner abuse Chanyeol tapped on the microphone before speaking into it. “Remove your clothes and wait on standby for dousing stage.”

“Wh-What are you talking about?” Chanyeol whined, sitting back up and clutching his side. The pain was hurting him and he wasn’t able to stand due to the burn. “Where am I? Who are you guys?”

He could see the guard sigh as he moved to the side, letting his partner take to the stage. This guard didn’t even warn Chanyeol before hitting a button on the control panel, and he knew something was up by the man’s twisted grin.

More alarms went off and Chanyeol could feel something tickle his cheek before he was thrown to the side of the room, body slamming against the white wall. It felt as though he were being choked, but his entire body was being crushed by an invisible force. He couldn’t breathe, let alone open his eyes to see what was happening. Everything just hurt.

Soon the pressure had gone away and Chanyeol was sitting with his back propped up against the wall, clothes and hair soaked with some sort of strange smelling water. It stung his eyes and throat, reminding him of the time he fell into a pool as a kid. The realization hit him like a truck. They were cleaning him with bleach.

“P-Please, stop!” He cried out, not sure if it was the bleach making him cry or his own emotions. Another round of alarms started to sound and Chanyeol tried to run, tossed to the side as another strong stream got him in the back.

The faint sounds of laughter kept him conscious, but he didn’t know how much more of it he would be able to take before he would pass out for good. Maybe he had swallowed up too much bleach at this point too because he felt something weird pool in the pit of his stomach. It churned and made him want to throw up, wrenching feeling almost throwing him over the edge if his screams hadn’t stopped the water.

“S-Stop, please! I don’t want this, this…” Chanyeol could already feel it. The way that all of the water evaporated around him scared him. He didn’t want his power to come back, ever. Those poor people were dead because of him. The worst thing was that Baekhyun had witnessed him do it, too.

The tips of his hair began to catch on fire and his body began to shake uncontrollably as he sat in the corner of the room. Both guards had seen his state and were quick to drown him in another jet stream of water. Only this time, his head had been the first thing to hit the wall and he out.

--

Something rough was scratching his ears. It wasn’t painful, but it was a bit uncomfortable. As it continued, the shivers that ran throughout his body were replaced with warmth and he was calm. The fabric moved from his ears to his neck, then the top of his head where it was overall removed. Someone had been drying his hair with a towel, or so he figured. Then, hands took hold of his shoulders and began to shake him.

“Hey. You awake? Chanyeol?”

He couldn’t recognize the voice fully, but the tone was familiar. He kept his eyes closed, though, just in case.

The person shook again.

“Hello~?” They sang, patting his upper arm and chest. After a small silence, Chanyeol was just about guess that they probably weren’t going to try again until something pinched his cheek.

Twisting his face and scrunching his nose, Chanyeol gurgles and swats the hand grabbing hold of his face away. He keeps swatting until he finally has the courage to open his eyes, starting by cracking open his left to find a blur of light.

Someone scoffs. “Finally.”

It took a while for him to fully adjust his vision, but when he was able to, the first thing he saw was a young man. He has tanned skin, messy black hair, and he’s clad in pretty much all black. He waves his hand in the air, in front of Chanyeol, and smirks a little.

“You okay, man?”

This new boy looks undoubtedly familiar, but it’s still nothing Chanyeol can identify within a split second. He opens his mouth as he nods and his dry lips, fully sitting up now.

The boy smiles wider, holding out his hand to which Chanyeol hesitantly takes. He pulls him up, and the boy is just a bit shorter than him, but it isn’t too serious of a height difference- not like with Kyungsoo.

The tanned boy suddenly grabs hold of his upper arm, and Chanyeol expects anything but a hug. He pulls him in and he’s patted warmly on the back, and he lets out a small laugh.

“I missed you, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol lets out a shaky laugh before pushing him away, still unsure of the entire situation. Both boys look at him funny, but the blonde one seems to understand the situation.

“Don’t tell me you still don’t remember us... Oh my god.”

The boy kept laughing and eventually wandered right up to Chanyeol so they were face to face. “Our little family of twelve? The little house in the forest, that you burned down if you didn’t remember. Do you not remember any of that?”

The way that Chanyeol’s eyes were about to pop out from his head and the amount of sweat bubbling on his face said otherwise and the blonde kid just laughed again, only this time it was much more hollow. He leaned down in front of Chanyeol and grabbed his hand, using it to slap the boy’s face a couple times.

“Dude cut it out. Maybe he just needs time.” The other tried to intervene, but he was met with a thin palm blocking his way.

“How about this… I’m the kind of guy that, well. Holds a few grudges here and there.” He could see the fear in Chanyeol’s eyes and thought that he might as well relish it before the boy finally regained his memory. “You did something to me. Can you tell me what that was?”

Chanyeol gaped like a fish, but still wasn’t able to say a word. To the boy’s delight he even looked like he was going to piss himself.

“Because of you, this guy over here,” He jabbed a finger back to the tanned male before grabbing Chanyeol’s chin to face him forward. “Would always brood about not seeing his hyung, you damn, selfish, elf.”

The boy poked at Chanyeol’s forehead with every pause and saw the tears pooling at his eyes. But he didn’t stop. Chanyeol needed to remember and if this was the only way then so be it. “You took my fireworks too. And that’s why Xiumin hyung got shot.”

Chanyeol was too scared if anything to try and picture who Xiumin was. The only thing he could remember was the small boy with the round face, wearing all white. Then came the two officers they met in faction B. One was short and nice, the other mean and angry. Was his name Xiumin? He didn’t remember and eventually he just tried to rid himself of such presences. It didn’t last though, for the memory of those same men throwing him into the van after he exploded overwhelmed the thought.

“Damn it, can’t you at least be a little nicer to him?” The tanned one finally let out. He worriedly looked back and forth between his friend and Chanyeol, who looked almost relieved to be saved.

The blonde one huffed before sitting in front of Chanyeol, his legs and arms both crossed as he his lips. “You were the one that taught me how to relieve stress after I got my powers Chanyeol hyung. Can you at least remember that?”

It took some time before the pain in his ears began to subside, allowing him to peek an eye open to see Sehun already sprawled out on the ground by his hiding spot.

“That was, amazing.” He breathed out, looking up as the stars glimmered in the black sky. “It feels like, I was flying. Like… It was just, amazing.”

He continued to look up towards the sky until Chanyeol let out a small laugh, his body eventually breaking out into a fit of giggles. The way Sehun had explained it was so childish and weird, but it was exactly how he would have said it.

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