Minseok gasp. He felt his arms, his legs. Was he okay? Where…

He was in Luhan’s bedroom, lying on the floor. Minseok sat up, his body aching. Yet he was alive.

“Minseok?” Luhan sat up from where he was lying on the bed. He rubbed is forehead. “What happened?”

“You know me?!” Minseok was sure he looked half insane, the way he was staring at Luhan in disbelief. “You know who I am?!”

“Of course I do.” Luhan cracked his back as he sat up. “Why are we in my bedroom?”

“What is the last thing you remember?” Minseok asked.

“We were in the safe house. Kang Joon appeared and Ryohei was there. You were there and…” Luhan seemed to realize something. “I couldn’t…I didn’t know who you were!”

“Doctor Park must have changed your memory.” Minseok crawled over to the bed, reaching forward he clasped Luhan’s hands. “I am glad you are safe.”

Luhan couldn’t help but blush, clearing his throat he felt awkward. “I am glad you are safe too.”

Minseok smiled.

“What day is it?” Luhan looked around the room, his eyes landing on his cell phone. He let go of Minseok’s hands and reached for his phone, pushing the power button. “.”

“What?” Minseok was worried.

“I think we went back in time.” Luhan held his cell phone up, showing the date to Minseok.

“How?” Minseok was confused. Still, he was happy. The date indicated they were back before all of the madness had happened. Before Doctor Park had entered their lives.

“What was Ryohei’s power?” Luhan asked. “Kang Joon did something to him.”

“Of course!” Minseok snapped his fingers. “Kang Joon stole Ryohei’s power. He must have been able to shift time.”

“So Kang Joon saved us, the world…everything?!” Luhan couldn’t believe that weird guy could do anything of the sort.

“It seems that way, Luhan, it seems that way.” Minseok grinned at the thought. Kang Joon was a hero after all.

Suddenly the door burst open, Luhan’s mom staring at them. She screamed.

***

Kang Joon looked around Luhan’s room. “My friend has a nice place.”

“What happened to Doctor Park?” Minseok asked, not willing to wait for Kang Joon to complement Luhan’s room endlessly or spout poetic nonsense without offering an update. “How did we end up back in time?”

“Kang Joon is a hero!”

Minseok groaned. Of course talking to Kang Joon was never a straight forward experience. “I think so too. Tell your friend how you became a hero.”

“Ryohei. Powers. Turn time. Not a lot, only a little. I used his power. Papa. He…”

“Is he still alive?” Luhan asked, concerned. If they had indeed returned to weeks prior, there was still the threat of Doctor Park. He had the means to red shift, he could figure out a new way to attack the earth.

“Kang Joon made papa go away forever. Ryohei too. No more red shift. Kang Joon the hero destroyed red shift.” Kang Joon puffed his chest out proudly. “Kang Joon good.”

“Kang Joon very good!” Minseok flashed a thumbs up. Luhan followed suit.

“What if someone else figures out how to red shift?” Luhan considered, trying to look at the situation from all angles.

“No more. Kang Joon made sure no more.”

Minseok nudged Luhan, whispering. “We will have to take his word for it.”

“What will you do now?” Luhan changed the subject.

“Hm. Kang Joon will go…” Kang Joon looked thoughtful. “Kang Joon will go home.”

“Where is home?” Minseok asked, slightly afraid.

“Kang Joon lived in 1897. I will go back.” Kang Joon announced. “I will go back. Friend. I will go back a hero.”

***

Luhan and Minseok had walked Kang Joon to the front door, giving the man a big hug goodbye. Luhan was aware of his mother watching from the other room, a look of concern on her face.

“Take care.” Minseok waved at Kang Joon as he shut the front door. “Oddly enough, I think I am going to miss him.”

“We owe him our lives.” Luhan said quietly.

“What should we do about your mom and your cousin?” Minseok whispered. He felt truly terrible for the woman, glancing at her she was white as a ghost. Minseok could tell she had quite the fright. She was probably trying to reason how someone who was most certainly invisible, someone who she probably thought was little more than a figment of her son’s imagination  was now standing in her house.

“What can we do? We have to pretend you were here all along.” Luhan shrugged his shoulders.

***

Sehun screamed. Later he would protest it was quite a manly scream and was much more a shout than a scream.

Tao could swear the entire crowd turned to stare at them, alarmed by Sehun’s scream. The farmers, the press, Tao’s parents.

Sehun clasp a hand over his mouth, staring at Tao wide eyed. Tao stared back, unsure of what to do. He barely registered Kris walking to his side.

“If you two make a scene I will feed you to the fox.” Kris motioned towards the fox den, the place everyone was supposed to be paying attention to. Sehun remained quiet, as did Tao. Kris muttered some apologizes, mumbling something about Sehun’s fear of bugs. The crowd focused their attention back on the folksy scene before them, waiting for the fox to emerge and forecast the weather.

Kris slung an arm over Tao’s shoulders, doing the same with Sehun he tried to appear as though he was casually leading the two younger men away. In reality he was moving them by force. When they were far enough from the crowd, near the rows of parked cars, Kris let go.

“What in the hell happened?” Tao squeaked.

“I think we went back in time.” Suho answered. Tao hadn’t noticed him there, hadn’t noticed that he was walking behind Kris.

“Back in time?” Sehun was scared. How in the hell did they go back in time?! “Wait, am I real?” Sehun began moving his hands over his body.

Tao reached out and slapped Sehun’s . “Yeah, you feel real.”

“Can you guys not do that?” Kris scowled.

“Sorry.” Tao was really insincere with his apology.

“It must have been something Kang Joon did.” Suho was ignoring the others, too busy trying to reason out the situation. “The last thing I remember is Minseok and Kang Joon coming into the house.”

“So we are safe? We…” The memory of what they had done came rushing back to Sehun. “We killed people.”

“We didn’t know.” Tao tried to plead with Sehun. He did so half for his own sanity, he could remember too and the memory made him feel as though he was devoid of a soul.

“No. We didn’t kill anyone. Not if we are back in time.” Suho explained. “None of it has happened yet. We remember it because we lived it, but we are the only ones that apparently lived it. No one other than us know.”

“What about the others?!” Tao went from being alarmed about one element of his reality to another. “Luhan and Chanyeol and...”

“I dare say they are probably experiencing the same thing.” Suho guessed there were several very confused people coming to at the moment.

***

“Um, why would you invite your creepy friend to come along on OUR date?” The girl crossed her arms, staring at something behind Chanyeol with clear disdain.

“Friend?” Chanyeol turned around. It was Baekhyun.

“I am not creepy. And you, miss, have a really bad attitude. You don’t even smell like gladiolas.” Baekhyun sneered at the girl. She moved swiftly, delivering a slap to Chanyeol’s face.

Chanyeol winced, ignoring her as she spat out something about “creep” and stomped off, maneuvering around the chairs in the food court.

“You are extremely quick witted for someone who just got here.” Chanyeol rubbed his cheek. Baekhyun moved around the table to sit down across from Chanyeol.

“I know, I am generally awesome.” Baekhyun looked around, reached forward, made sure he could feel the table, that he was real. “I think we went back in time.”

“You think? And I couldn’t even avoid being slapped a second time.” Chanyeol sighed. “I am no good with girls.”

“Um, earth to Chanyeol. Remember fighting against aliens and super powers and...”

“Baekhyun, I was just slapped. Can you show an ounce of sympathy?” Chanyeol tsked at his friend.

***

Kyungsoo landed on the concrete floor, hard. He had fallen off the bed.

“Are you okay?” Jongin reached forward, attempting to help Kyungsoo up. Kyungsoo took the offered hand, letting Jongin hoist him up and onto the bed. As he sat, a bit dazed, an alarm started to sound.

“We are back in the prison…” Kyungsoo looked around, realizing they were in Jongin’s cell.

The alarm was blaring. Guards scurried past Jongin’s cell, reacting to the alarm, rushing towards the disturbance.

“What day is it?” Jongin didn’t have a way to tell, not really. He wasn’t sure what was going on. Then he noticed the stack of books on his bed. Books he had written when he was a child. Books his mother had dropped off weeks ago.

“Are we…” Kyungsoo, wide eyed, could barely form the words. “In the past?”

***

 Yixing was sweating, even if he was sitting in the shade. Yixing was sweating…

“Yixing!” Jongdae stalked past the half built house, his face pale.

“Jongdae…” Yixing looked around. Why was he back here? What had happened to the others?

“Yixing!” Jongdae knelt down in front of his friend, reaching over he placed his hands on Yixing’s shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Are you?” Yixing grabbed Jongdae’s hands, clasping them tightly. “What happened?”

“I am okay. I think – it would appear we are in the past.” Jongdae nodded towards the house. “Remember this?”

“Yes.” Yixing paused, breathing a bit heavily from the heat. Then it clicked. “Jongdae, did the others go back too? Do you think so?”

“I would guess so. I would guess that Kang Joon did something.”

“Jongin…” Yixing felt sick. If they were back in time then Jongin was still in prison. “Jongdae, we need to do something. Fast.”

Jongdae nodded. They would have to work to free Jongin, and right the wrongs of the past.

***

Two weeks later

Jongin in a breath of fresh air. Technically his first in years, if you didn’t count the time that was no more. The time that Kang Joon had essentially erased. Gone was the horrible events, gone was Doctor Park, gone were their super powers.

“Hey.” Yixing called Jongin over. He was leaning against a black car, Jongdae next to him, Kyungsoo was there too. It had been nerve-wracking to try to hide Kyungsoo in the prison cell. When Kris had hired an expensive lawyer to get Jongin out immediately (in conjunction with a new statement by Yixing) the man had snuck Kyungsoo out of the place, no questions asked. Money did wonders, Jongin realized.

“You are free.” Kyungsoo grinned, stepping forward so he was the first person Jongin would greet. Jongin wouldn’t have it any other way. He scooped Kyungsoo into a tight hug. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Kyungsoo’s words were muffled by Jongin’s t-shirt, his face planted squarely in Jongin’s chest.

“Hey, don’t smother Kyungsoo of you are going to end up back in there.” Yixing joked, shoving at Jongin.

Jongin broke the hug, planting a kiss on Kyungsoo’s cheek. Kyungsoo tried to look disinterested but he placed a hand to his cheek, rubbing the spot affectionately as Jongin let him go.

“It is good to see you.” Yixing reached out, pulling Jongin into his own suffocating hug, the two men rocking back and forth.

“Me too.” Jongdae joined in, latching onto their sides. “Group hug. Come on Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo grumbled a bit but still latched onto Yixing and Jongin. The four of them stood that way, probably longer than was completely necessary.

“Okay, we should go now. The others are waiting at Kris and Tao’s place.”

“Just a bit longer, don’t kill the mood!” Jongdae wasn’t going to let go, thankfully no one else did either.

They were the picture of happiness. Any person who passed by them could never have guessed the truth, could never have understood why the moment was so bittersweet. No one would know, no one apart from the twelve men who had lived it.

No one would guess what had actually happened when twelve men and one bizarre psychiatrist crossed paths in a reality that was no more. No one would ever guess and the twelve men were happier that way.