“Luhan, please let go.”

“No.” Luhan held onto Minseok even more tightly. From the moment he had left Choi Seung-hyun’s presence Luhan had practically glued himself to Minseok. An arm around his shoulder, his waist, he couldn’t seem to let go.

“Are you going to follow him to the bathroom too?” Suho asked, staring at Luhan.

“If I have to.” Luhan buried his head in Minseok’s shoulder. Suho shook his head at the sight.

Minseok had managed to get Choi Seung-hyun to reveal all sorts of things, or at least Doctor Park seemed to confirm the fact. Truth be told Minseok had no idea what half of what the famous actor said referred to, he took Doctor Park’s word for it that the interrogation had been a success.

Everyone, including Sunny and a newly arrived Min Woo were packed into the surveillance room of the warehouse. Now that the interrogation was complete there was a big question mark over their subsequent actions.

“So what is the plan?” Chanyeol was looking for or Doctor Park to offer up an explanation for once, instead of his usual operating plan of throwing them into a crazy situation with little to no warning.

“The plan brother…the plan.” Doctor Park pointed at Kris “Is that you are going to drive Actor Choi home.”

“Home?!” Kris protested. .

“Yeah. We can’t keep him forever. Plus he told us what we needed to know.” Doctor Park cracked open a soda, gulping it down and letting out a loud belch as he crushed the empty can.

“But I don’t understand what he was talking about.” Minseok bit his bottom lip, confused “What happens when we let him go?”

“Let’s see.” Doctor Park checked his wrist watch “Right. Well, we are going to take a nice little day trip over to Deep Base Four. Also known as the center for all things related to Red Shifting and the government. Think James Bond evil villain here brothers.”

“Great. Amazing. Sounds fun.” Chanyeol remarked sarcastically “Will there be sharks with laser beams on their heads?”

“Oh! Wouldn’t that be something?” Doctor Park laughed “That would be kind of cool.”

“Trust me, you will get used to his humor eventually.” Sunny patted Chanyeol on the back. He wasn’t convinced this was true.

***

Deep Base Four sounded like an evil villain’s lair. Deep – hidden – scary. Luhan didn’t like the sound of it any more than the rest of them did, but he had little thought of protesting their next move when Minseok was so gung-ho about following Doctor Park’s instructions. Which is how he found himself in a part of Seoul he had never been to before, descending a service elevator in a nondescript small office building.

“Weird that no one is here.” Luhan grabbed Minseok’s hand, squeezing it. They were the first ones down the elevator along with Doctor Park, Chanyeol and Baekhyun. The others were waiting upstairs, acting as guards least the unseen security arrived.

Minseok tensed. If this was some kind of government operation, top secret, there should be some kind of security. Yet there had been nothing. It was almost eight o’clock at night, the offices dark and nearly deserted. Still the lack of a security guard at the door seemed off. Most office buildings that were not hiding underground government bases had one on duty 24 hours a day, which made it all the more suspicious and strange that this building did not.

The elevator reached the ground floor, accessed after Doctor Park punched in a code on the key pad. The doors opened, Minseok holding his breath, scared of what would be revealed.

“Wow, they left the doors open for us. Yo- now those are manners you don’t see very often anymore.” Doctor Park sauntered out of the elevator and through the long hallway, reinforced doors at the end of the passageway wide open.

“It seems like a trap.” Luhan whispered. Minseok agreed. Top secret government base with doors wide open? Yeah, that was definitely ambush material. Still, Doctor Park seemed completely at ease so the group followed slowly behind him. Once they were through the first set of doors they found themselves facing a computer console. Doctor Park approached it and quickly typed something in, the second set of doors opening with a click. The sight that greeted them was anything but a pleasant welcoming scene. It was a bloodbath.

“Looks like we are late to the party.” Doctor Park stared at the room full of lifeless bodies. Minseok gasped as he walked in, Baekhyun retching at the sight. It looked like a slaughterhouse. There was blood on the floor and the walls, several men in dark suits seemingly torn apart.

“What…what…who did this?” Chanyeol asked, covering his mouth in shock.

“Judging by the fact they were torn limb from limb I would guess the Empire did this. Probably sent some assassins through a red shift portal.” Doctor Park walked over to one of the still flickering computer screens “They figured out their little friends here became a liability once pretty boy actor opened his mouth.”

“So they are here?! The alien guys?” Chanyeol gasped.

“You know you are technically an alien.” Doctor Park reminded him “Think about speciest terms before you use them, Yo.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay brother, I know you weren’t thinking when you said it.” Doctor Park continued “Chanyeol – burn this place up.”

“What if there are survivors?!” Chanyeol was suddenly sweating, nervous that the time had come for him to use his powers. “What if I start the city on fire?!”

“There aren’t any. They don’t leave survivors. And Suho can throw some water on the mess once it is burnt. Come on guys. We will be waiting outside when you are done.” Doctor Park shooed the rest of the guys out of the room, leaving a terrified Chanyeol behind, whimpering words of protest as he was faced with his task.

When the service elevator doors closed, Baekhyun strained to keep Chanyeol in his sights as long as he could. He knew his friend was distraught at what he had to do, scared at if he could do it at all.

***

“That was terrible.” Luhan murmured.

“It was terrible. How much that had to have hurt…how they died.” Minseok responded quietly.

Doctor Park had dropped the guys off back at the warehouse and then to no-one’s surprise he left. The destruction of the base was a blow to the government’s program of reengineering red shifting technology, Doctor Park had explained that “They killed their main science dudes. Probably going to take them awhile to rebuild. Man I bet Seung-hyun is pissed.”

But Doctor Park reminded them that Seung-hyun would try to rebuild, would probably have some of the technology stored somewhere else. They had achieved a delay in the government’s plan but they had not stopped it.

The warehouse was a far cry from the comfortable accommodations of the Huang residence. There were several rooms, likely built to be offices when the place actually functioned as a warehouse. Cots were set up when the guys got back to the building, Sunny and Min Woo explaining it was the best they could do.

After a dinner of ramyun and a long group discussion about what had happened…and if Doctor Park was still trustworthy (which reluctantly the group agreed they had little choice but to trust the man at this point) they all snagged bunks. Luhan found two cots set up in a small room and immediately claimed them. He pushed them together because, well, he liked to sleep next to Minseok.

“They probably had families. Kids.” Minseok had never seen such carnage. Blood and more blood, the images flashed in his brain.

Luhan pulled Minseok to him, hugging him tightly “I wish you had never seen that.”

“I wish you had never seen that either.” Minseok meant it. He would protect Luhan if he could. But they both couldn’t take back what they had seen that day.

They lay like that for a long time, neither falling asleep.

***

“Was it hard, to summon all of the fire I mean?” Baekhyun hadn’t bothered going to bed. Not when Chanyeol was still awake, sitting outside the warehouse. He was sitting cross legged on the hard pavement, his back leaning against the scarred concrete building.

“No, sadly no….but I hesitated. I mean…I hope no one was alive in there.” Chanyeol had battled that thought as he had focused, as he had let the fire spew forth from his mind, setting fire to the underground base.

Baekhyun had no way to reassure Chanyeol that wasn’t the case. There could have been people alive, they would never know. “You only did what you had to.”

“Ha. Yeah.” Chanyeol began tracing small circles on the pavement with his index finger “I can’t believe all of this has happened.”

Baekhyun put his arm around the taller man’s shoulders, patting slowly not unlike a mother would do to comfort a crying child. “I won’t leave you. I will always be here, you know that right?”

Chanyeol nodded, inhaling the night air.

***

Tao and Sehun were indistinguishable from each other – in that the only thing Suho could make out was one lump with a sleeping bag draped over it instead of the two men he knew was sleeping on the small cot.

“I should break them up.” Kris stared at the pair in disgust, clearly upset his little brother continued to show more physical affection for Sehun than he thought proper.

“Hey, they are just sleeping. Leave them alone.” Suho implored, tugging Kris to his own cot. “We have all been through a lot.”

Kris relented, allowing himself to be directed to the small bed. Suho nudged him to lay down on his stomach. Kris followed his orders, feeling Suho’s hands start to massage his shoulders as soon as he was in position.

“You are tense.” Suho knew that a massage couldn’t fix everything that was bothering Kris, but it might make it a little better. He wished he could change things, make things better – but he was as powerless as the rest of them.

“I am worried something will happen. To Tao or god forbid…to you.” Kris confessed “And I can’t stop it.”

“I know. I am worried too.” Suho felt a tear stray down his cheek “I love you.”

“I love you too. So much it hurts.” Kris looked at the floor, knowing if he looked Suho in the face he would lose it and cry like a baby.

***

Jongin only did it because of Kyungsoo. He still thought it was a bad idea – telling Yixing and Jongdae that he had something to discuss with them.

“You have to hyung – there is something strange. I know it.” Kyungsoo had flashed those big eyes and Jongin’s protests were lost.

“Have you been having dreams?” Kyungsoo whispered. The four of them – Jongdae, Yixing, Jongin, and Kyungsoo – were gathered in a remote corner of the sprawling warehouse, as far away from curious ears as they could get.

Yixing still didn’t completely trust either Kyungsoo or Jongin, but he had pledged to work together with them. So he didn’t confirm nor deny “What type of dreams?”

“I told you he wouldn’t admit to it. This is pointless.” Jongin sneered at Yixing, making sure the other man knew that their past feud was still perilously close in his memory. They could treat each other cordially, but the anger was always just below the surface waiting to bubble up.

“I have been having dreams.” Jongdae broke the tension, not wanting to keep it to himself any longer “But I don’t know what they mean. There is someone in them…I think it is that guy from the cave, but I don’t know.”

Jongin’s eyes widened, Kyungsoo looked vindicated “We have too…with that guy from the cave. Kang Joon. Something is wrong here- I can feel it...”

“They said everyone was dead in that base…but that isn’t what I dreamt last night.” Yixing thought back to the vivid image, an image that had no meaning at the time. Corridors, computer terminals, men working in labs, in a hidden place buried far below an office building. A confusing blur of image after image – Kang Joon never failing to appear again and again. Only when Doctor Park described the scene – Minseok, Luhan, and Baekhyun recounting the same bloody mess, did Yixing start to feel that something was incredibly wrong. That he had been there, but he hadn’t seen it like the way they described – all living things decimated. Had he seen the past…or was what they described a lie?

“I saw the same thing.” Jongin was shocked, his eyes widening as he considered that his old enemy was confirming what he feared may be true. That something was not adding up with their current circumstance. Kyungsoo and he were not the only ones to have that nagging feeling.

“. What do we do now?” Jongdae shut his eyes, trying with all of his might to understand the fact that the four of them were seeing things – the same things.

***

“Why can’t we go home?” Kris was towering over Sunny, his hands on his hips. He looked like an overgrown child.

“Doctor Park didn’t approve it.” Sunny was not about to be intimidated by the tall blonde man.

“Kris, calm down.” Suho tried to pull Kris away, but Kris only jerked his arm back in turn, “Tao said the Doctor got rid of the guys that busted in. I don’t see why we have to stay in this primeval warehouse when I could be sleeping on my seven hundred thread count sheets!”

“Seriously? You seriously think you can return to that house?” Sunny threw her hands up “What if you end up dead? Huh?! Is that worth comfortable sheets?!”

“Have you ever slept on seven hundred thread count pure cotton sheets?!” Kris looked put out.

And then the man arrived, singing a tune about noodles and a mother under his breath. Kris glared at the psychiatrist as he walked in.

“Yo- you know what is better than seven hundred thread count sheets?” Doctor Park held up a brown envelope.

“Eight hundred thread count?” Kris asked, “What is that?” Kris gestured at the envelope.

“Who wants to go on vacation?!” Doctor Park opened the envelope and pulled out a bundle of airline tickets.

“I am guessing saying no is not an option.” Kris craned his neck in order to read the destination printed on the tickets.

“That’s right kids – we have a one way flight for the city of lights!” Doctor Park fist pumped, “Grab your flip flops!”

“Are you talking about Paris?” Sunny looked hopeful. She had always wanted to see the city.

“I said the city of lights.” Doctor Park widened his eyes “Someone get her a map.”

“Paris is the city of lights.” Suho confirmed the fact, making his own attempt at reading the tickets.

“No….Yo, everyone knows the city of lights is Las Vegas USA.” Doctor Park made a ‘ka-ching’ sound as he mocked playing a slot machine “Now grab your bags, we leave tonight.”

“This isn’t a vacation, is it?” Sunny asked, fearing the worst.

“If you like facing off against a famous Korean actor in the desert while he opens up a red shift portal and summons a few assassins- yeah, then it is a vacation. Grab your sunscreen!”

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

a/n- Well then. Vegas, dreams of Kang Joon and maybe some slot playing? Huh? Or….I tried *begs for forgiveness*

Thanks to all the new subbers! And commenters, silent readers, and extra special love for the up votes. Untill next time….-LC