(51) HOPE

Weeks later, Kyuhyun and Heechul cease to exist. The word spreads easily as well, but it’s more evident through the fact that people are starting to feel a new sense of freedom in their minds. As if not held back by an invisible boundary, suddenly, they are free to do what they want.

It was chaotic at first, because people didn’t know what to think of the sudden drastic change. It started off easy- most prisoners of incredibly minor “crimes” were free to go back to their families, kids training to become soldiers were free to go to regular school, and so on. Now, the matter of the fact was that this city and all of its factions were now placed under the rule of anarchy.

Which, if Tao and the others could be quite honest, isn’t exactly what they had in mind after they had brought the government to the ground. That being said, what more did they expect? With no government, the people were free. With no government, there were no laws and order. And although they were happy, although everyone was happy, this social environment is not meant to survive for more than a few months at least.

So Tao, thinking a bit harder on the subject, finally came up with the conclusion to somehow bring the android guys back together. And he knew exactly how he was going to do that-

He’d manage to find Hyuk, no matter how much it hurt his brain or how long it took. He was not going to leave this age to suffer after practically ruining the whole damn system.

The androids- Leo, Hongbin, Ravi, Hakyeon and Jaehwan had been easy enough to find through the debris. In fact, they weren’t really trapped within the room at all. They had all been within a close enough distance to the boys to not suffer from Kyungsoo’s grief (which they had later found out was Kyungsoo’s sub-power- the ability to control the earth. Of course, Tao had known the whole time.)

Tao, being who he is and given how much power he actually has, knows so much more than others actually realize. With his powers alone, he was able to find the missing android, Hyuk, within the abandoned underpass a little outside of Faction D. When he comes across the site, it takes a while for him to actually find his body. But eventually, after what seemed like hours of passing through tunnels, Tao finally saw his body sitting against a wall in one of the connecting generator rooms where rubble and cement take up nearly the entire thing. Not only that, but the body doesn’t seem like it’s rotted or aged a day, save for the dust covering him.

Tao gently pats off as much dust as he could and realizes that with Sehun’s help, he could easily clear the room of all dust in general. But there was a reason why he was doing this alone. He knew that the others could question him on the spot, but that conversation wouldn’t happen until a little later.

For now, he gently checks for any damage to the body to discover just a few un-healed scrapes here and there. He carefully scrambles through the room’s history with his power, watching in flickers as the months reverse without him moving an inch, and assesses exactly what Hyuk had gone through those many years ago.

And there Hyuk is, shouting for someone to save themselves, and the next thing he knows, the cement is blown up and Hyuk is slammed against the concrete wall. Tao figures that his system had somehow shut down on the spot, because after that, Hyuk hadn’t bothered to move, and his regeneration process hadn’t begun as fast as it should have.

So when he actually thinks about it, it's not that Hyuk went missing in combat; Hyuk was presumed dead, because they had no way of knowing where he was without his tracker on and where he was last.

He also assumes that they thought that the rocks were just a result of the fierce combat that seemed to have happened down here in the tunnels. But there's also the possibility of more-

Examining Hyuk now, the damage isn't really bad at all. All that's really noticeable is the scratches and scars left unhealed. Lightly pushing his body forward, he scrutinizes the back of his neck on the little skin-toned metal area with a box outlined on it. And he thinks that maybe, the recoil must have jammed something in there, but he's not sure how to really open it.

He takes Hyuk’s hand and bends it upwards so that his fingertips just touch the box. When it lights up, it slides downwards, giving access to the small area there.

But it doesn't look like anything is damaged. The only real thing different is the key that is put on ‘sleep’ mode.

“Here you go…” Tao mutters, carefully turning the key until it reaches ‘reboot’. There's a slight hum within Hyuk’s chest, and it gets louder, and when he wakes with a gasp and a start, the humming is lowered again. His eyes shine red while he blinks, then white, and then they're a normal light brown. The box on the back of his neck closes back up.

He's very quiet for what seems like a long time. But Tao has no business in being in the tunnels for very long anyways, so he gets to the point-

“My name is Tao,” he says with a soft, but urgent tone. “You were shut down and trapped here for a… a while. Do you remember who you are?”

Hyuk’s thin eyes flutter as he breathes deeply. He looks down at his hands. “My name is Hyuk,” he says. “Um...Sanghyuk. I came here on a mission...with my group. But there was an explosion, and somebody turned off my system, and…”

Tao nods, giving him a small smile before he gets back to serious. “Do you know who turned off your system? Why? Did you come across something that made them want to turn you off?”

Hyuk gulps, thinking, and he nods lightly, still not exactly making eye contact. “There were civilians being kept hostage down here. I tried helping them, but I went against my orders to extripate everything down here no matter what. I think… Heechul shut me down because of it. No, I'm positive. Just before the explosion, he sent me a message through the radio. He told me that if I continued to disobey, then there'd be consequences. But you gotta understand- the people weren't hurting anybody-”

“I understand completely. Don't worry.” He smiles again, gets up, and helps Hyuk to his feet. He wobbles a bit, but he's standing up normally eventually.

The two of them shared a long walk going back to the surface, having made many stops due to how intrigued Hyuk was at the environment that had changed over the time that he had been asleep. He would marvel at the simple things, like how ‘not green’ the grass looked, while taking small glances at the tall skyscrapers with little interest before continuing his adventure.

“How did you find me?” Hyuk asks Tao, not taking his eyes off the outside world as they continued to ride the train to faction A.

Tao looks at the boy and smiles. Hyuk practically radiated sunshine and everything a young child would emit. He smiled at the people on the train as they got aboard and continued to grin with his forehead pressed against the glass.

“It’s a long story.” Tao finally breathes out.

He wasn’t wrong. Tao might have the power to alter time, but after going through everything in faction A, he wasn’t willing to relive everything again, even it it was through his memories.

“I have time.”

Hyuk sits rather impatiently on the foam seat, his legs shuffling around as he tries to find a comfortable spot. With his knees pressed together and his hands places on his thighs, Tao now had his full attention. It would’ve been easier to just pretend that the boy wasn’t staring eagerly into his entire being, but Tao couldn’t refuse.

With a sigh, he began to explain everything about their reason for going to faction A. The people they’ve befriended and the people they’ve, sadly, lost along the way. Tao left out a few parts about their lives before their awakenings, but did mention that they had special abilities just to make sure that Hyuk wouldn’t freak out when he met the others.

It was surprising that Hyuk accepted everything he spoke about with full trust. His face scrunched up when he heard about the hard times they went through, while his eyes almost popped out of their sockets when their abilities came into the conversation.

The most Tao could do to show off his power was to make everyone in their part of the train freeze. It tired him, but it was the only way to ensure that their journey to faction A would be safe. Hyuk clapped and wandered around the cabin for a while, waving his hand in front of people’s faces to check if they were really stopped in time. He continued to amuse Tao even on their trek on foot towards the place where everyone was staying.

Something in Hyuk made Tao fond of him. Maybe not the loving type of fond, but a rather intrigued interest in the younger. As they approached the hill where their temporary stay was, the loud shouts gave it away that something bad was brewing.

Tao looked and Hyuk and motioned for him to follow, though holding his arm out so that the boy wouldn’t try to go ahead of him. Maintaining his composure, he threw the door open to find the rest of the guys divided. The people arguing weren’t his friends, thankfully.

But five angry androids weren’t much better.

“Why the hell did you save us?”

It’s really quiet for a quick couple of seconds, and the androids had their backs to the door. Leo continues with a big inhale.

“There’s nothing for us here anymore,” He sighs. “Anarchy? We're androids.”

“And we don't waste our ing lives like some people.” Ravi hisses.

Seeing them like this, Tao expected someone from his group of friends to intervene. But to his disdain, many of the members were MIA despite being right in the room with them.

Baekhyun sat on a nearby couch with his head leaned against Chanyeol’s shoulder, the latter staring angrily at nothing in particular. To his right sat Kyungsoo- or squatted. With his shoes kicked off and sprawled about the floor, Kyungsoo remained in a crouched stance, feet dipping into the cushion and eyes glaring holes into the fight unfolding right in front of them.

The others either didn't care about what was going on or couldn't bother to stop them. A fight between androids had a big difference compared to a fight between the boys.

There wasn't any involvement powers, unless you counted super strength as a sort of gift.

“Then leave.” Kyungsoo says bluntly.

They were all residing in Hakyeon and Jaehwan’s repair shop for the time being. Those two, being soft hearted as always, decided to take in their old comrades and repair them after the fight in faction A.

Mistake number two. As soon as they'd powered up the fixed androids, they'd immediately gone into fight mode, tearing up old projects and almost taking out a few people in the process.

Mistake number one was somehow allowing Hakyeon and Jaehwan to go back and find the other androids. Not only did it strike up a discord with many of the boys that had almost died by their hands, but especially pissed off Baekhyun and Kyungsoo. They believed that if they could go back for the people that sided with the enemy, then the two of them could go and find Sunny. It was simpler to just let them do what they want, and Suho and Kris were tired from the fight, letting them do what they wished since they were adults anyways.

They searched for days, much longer than Hakyeon and Jaehwan. All of the androids were found, except the metallic hull that belonged to Sunny.

Empty handed with their souls departed, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun went back to their friends, not saying a word for days.

Except for today anyways.

“You should have just left us.” Hongbin mutters, though anybody could've heard since nobody dared speak a word.

Hakyeon and Jaehwan weren't listening in the slightest. Their eyes were locked on the door, or rather, the person standing at the door. If they could cry, they would’ve. Androids don't hallucinate, therefore their missing comrade had to be standing so close, yet so far.

“There's the door! It's already open thanks to Tao…”

Baekhyun’s voice was laced with venom and he didn't even bother to hide it. He had a hidden agenda, but the androids were in a world of their own.