(49) (IN)HUMANITY

“You want us to go with you?”

Tao nods his head firmly, though Hakyeon and Jaehwan look a little worried. But Tao still has that determination in his eyes that are telling them that he's completely certain that this plan will work out, which says a lot because he is, in a way, a psychic.

“Absolutely. But I can't say that it will end well for everyone,” he sighs, relaxing his posture to ease his eagerness. “Just for us. I'm pretty certain…”

Xiumin's arms are crossed and he grits his teeth nervously. “Killing an androids and cyborgs aren't that easy. They're designed for war. They've trained for years. Unless we can somehow immobilize them for a while, winning isn't an option here.”

“This wasn’t apart of the plan,” Hakyeon sighs. “We’re just supposed to train you.”

“And you will.”

Hakyeon feels a hand press against his chest, the warmth against his metal parts unsettling especially since it was pushing him backwards slightly. Before he could retort though, something whizzed past his face, the object momentarily stunning him before he heart a loud crash and a grunt.

“Ow…” Chanyeol groans, rubbing his sore face after having collided into the floor.

“He thought we were starting now.”

Heads turned to look at Luhan for speaking so out of turn and Tao could only grin. Even Luhan himself was surprised by the words that left his mouth, only to look down at Chanyeol who was visibly sulking, a tiny pout left on his own lips.

“Well, thanks for reading my mind Luhan.” He grumbles.

Baekhyun looked at his friend before scoffing, “We didn’t need a mind reader to know that you weren’t listening to the instructions properly.”

Luhan’s attention is adverted when he sees the wide grin on Tao’s face. His catlike features were always prominent, but today they seem much more visible, as if he knew a secret that no one else knew.

Which was probably true. There was something about Tao that proved he was much different than the rest of them, but Luhan could never figure out what it was. Sometimes he didn’t want to either. Especially in times like these when he would see Tao slapping his leg as if Chanyeol’s stupidity was the funniest thing he’s ever seen in his entire life.

Tao’s idea to have Hakyeon and Jaehwan come along brought about some discord between the group as well. Many were glad they were willing to help achieve their goals, whether it be personal or not. Some didn’t trust the androids, like Kris and Baekhyun in particular. Seeing that they were from faction A proved that they could become a liability between completing the mission.

Chanyeol for one, wasn’t going to stay on the sidelines and let the others decide what was going to happen. He was old enough to be apart of the group conversations too.

“I think we should at least train for a day or so before we go.” He starts off strong, but seeing so many pairs of eyes on him made his voice give out in the end. “I mean… We can’t rescue Sunny if we don’t even know how to defeat the androids.”

“Our main focus was to take down the government, if you had forgotten.” Sehun grumbles under his breath, earning a shove from Kai.

Suho sighs, “What do you suppose we do then Chanyeol?”

The boy’s eyes light up seeing that even the leaders of this operation were going to at least hear him out. “I was thinking we could train for a day or two and then go.”

“So like, what? Our training sessions from hell?” Baekhyun gasps, “No way. We trained for a reason and we’re done.”

“But-”

“He’s right Chanyeol.”

It was Chanyeol’s turn to be surprised seeing who had been so quick as to back Baekhyun up. Kyungsoo stood within arm's reach of Baekhyun, but refused to touch the latter since he only wanted to input his opinion as well.

“We need to save Sunny now.” Kyungsoo presses, looking up at the sky to see the clouds pass by, as if to show that time was running out. “We’ll go over battle tactics along the way if anything, so don’t worry, alright?”

Chanyeol’s shoulders visibly slumped down and both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo feel bad for the guy, but they knew that this was right. Seeing his sad state, Baekhyun wandered away to go talk over the plan again with Tao and Hakyeon while Kyungsoo stayed behind to pat Chanyeol on the back. Everyone was beginning to go back to doing their own little things before they all heard a low clearing of someone’s throat.

“So… Shall we go now?”

Kai shifts nervously on one foot as he’s the one to suggest his own plan. The only way they’d be able to get into faction A was if they went together in one go-

Meaning he’d have to teleport them all inside in a single use of his powers.

“Are you… Going to be well enough to teleport all of us though?” Lay says unsurely, “I mean if not, there are probably tunnels or something we can-”

“There are no tunnels.”

Sehun steps forward and grabs Kai’s shoulder reassuringly. “We need to do this fast and this is the only way.”

Lay felt his eye twitch a little and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew that teleporting would be the fastest way of getting inside, but it couldn’t have been the only way. Kai’s body might not be able to take the pressure of using his power so much on so many people. It couldn’t have been the only way if it meant Kai had to almost overexert himself in one go.

“Are you sure you can do it Kai?” Xiumin asks again, looking the boy right in the eye.

Kai felt himself shiver from how determined Xiumin was and wordlessly nodded his head. The gesture didn’t seem to go across to Xiumin well, since his eyes squinted into small slits as he almost glared at the boy for the correct answer. It brought forth a wave of adrenaline through Kai’s veins as he opened his mouth to speak, this time shouting out his answer for everyone to hear.

“Y-Yes!” Kai’s eyes were wide, looking around at his brothers before he nodded his head yet again to reassure them. “I can do this.”

Before they could all go, Hakyeon and Jaehwan wanted to go over a few ground rules when dealing with androids. Seeing they all had powers, it was clear that some advantages were probably there for their side of the battle, but it mostly came down on tactics of how to avoid getting too remotely close to the enemy. They were still androids after all. They can be destroyed, but they can't necessarily die.

There is, of course, those few moments of doubt that lingered in the back of everyone's minds- the doubt that thought that maybe this wasn't their battle to fight. Maybe this would be all for nothing. Maybe they would lose, and the world would continue to crumble under the hands of the unjustly rich and entitled.

Yet, Tao is absolutely certain that this task must be done. When asked why, exactly, minus the fact that Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol want to save Sunny, he gives no clear answer.

“We just,” he sighs, obviously wanting to say something but trying to resist doing so. “We just...need to. Trust me. Please.”

Everyone is eventually convinced, but there is no doubt that some part of this will end badly. It is also extremely obvious that Tao is hiding some sort of secret that he can't tell anyone else- not yet, anyway. He'd been acting oddly cautious ever since he'd been saved from the grasp of death not too long ago. Both Sehun and Kai especially figure that something is up, mostly because of the odd stranger that had given Sehun the bag of bracelets-

Which were all glowing now. Suho looks down at his wrist and examines the brace at different angles.

“What exactly do these do again?” He asks. Sehun's about to answer before he realizes that he doesn't exactly know the answer himself. He looks to Tao instead in hopes of a more accurate explanation.

“They hold part of the past in them,” he explains. “Your awoken power from the past. It's to amplify, but also steady, your powers awoken now. Looking now, they give off branches of your powers as well, which...some of you didn't exactly need the bracelet for.”

Kyungsoo looks down and twists his wrist a little, the light reflecting off the silvery metal in a way that almost made the bracelet look a little cool- Except his face contorted into a grimace before glancing up at Tao.

“It didn’t even work though.”

“Or in some cases, worked a little too well.” Baekhyun grumbled, still bitter about the experience.

In Luhan’s mind, something didn’t seem right about Tao’s story. There was no part in the explanation that answered why and how they’d gotten their powers in the first place, nor did Tao mention anything about how he knew so much about the bracelets themselves.

“So…” Luhan trails off, “Does this mean we were born with our powers?”

Again, Luhan sees it. The way Tao’s eyes would slightly dilate and how his lips would curve up into a smile even though no words came out.

How suspicious.

“That’s impossible.”

Suho shakes his head and lets out a sigh, his posture impeccable as always as he stood up straight with his shoulders squared back. Luhan was taken aback by the latter’s confidence, especially since he was the one asking questions not too long ago.

“What do you mean?” Kris asks him.

He was more curious about the answer to Luhan’s question, since he could see Tao practically wanting to zip his lips shut from saying anything further.

“It's just...impossible. It would mean that somebody in our bloodline has these… powers. And for them to be awakened later, years after our birth? It makes no sense.” Suho shakes his head and sits back down on the couch, rubbing his temples.

Tao seems to get a little impatient now, arms crossed against his chest. “We should leave soon,” he says, face turning grim. And it's a little confusing, his change in attitude, but some of the members let it go as anxiousness.

It's Jaehwan who seems to stop him, though, shaking his head. “I'm not sure if it's a good idea.  I don't think you'll be able to trust us once we get into faction A, is what I mean… You can't forget the fact that we’re partly programmed to follow orders. Once we're within the bounds, they can make us turn our backs on you.”

“It'll be fine.”

And, of course, everybody ends up taking Tao’s word for it. Even Kai gets a little eager, though it's mostly from the nervousness that settles in his chest-

He doesn't know if he'll be able to teleport everyone at once, because he's never actually done it before. What happens if he tries, but some way through the teleportation, something goes wrong? What if somebody gets stuck in between, in that split second of lurching darkness?

He's seen it before. Kai alone knows that dreadful feeling in the back of his head, because during that split second where he travels from one place to another, he is engulfed in darkness and the world disappears altogether.

That fear of something holding you back as soon as you blink your eyes, and when they're open again, you're a different person.

He stops his thoughts when someone has to snap their fingers in front of his eyes. He peers down at Kyungsoo who gives him a big grin, hand on the area between Kai's neck and shoulder, and he gives it a little rub. “It'll be fine,” he repeats. “I believe in you.”

And that's when Kai realizes that his flame of hope isn't gone- it still burns brightly before his eyes. He gives a nod and looks to everyone else in the room, taking in a deep breath.

They all begin to huddle together. “Take us to the border of Faction A and B,” Kris says. “We know where they don't guard- by the old armory warehouse.”

“Regardless, though, we’re gonna need to fight when we step past the border. They'll come running at us with stun guns and all sorts of weapons. Based on what happened with Tao,” Xiumin pauses, glancing at him, “They're not gonna want to kill us. Yet, anyways.”

“They want our powers?” Chanyeol asks, shuddering just a bit at the thought. Tao nods at this.

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