“Please wake up.. Please”

Tao looked over at Sehun his eyebrows furrowing. He was crouched over Suho and Kyungsoo moving their shoulders. He looked over at Xiumin and frowned. He didn’t look good, Lay was leaning over him with his palms pressed against his throat and forehead. “What if they don’t wake up?”

“They will. Don’t be so negative Tao” Baekhyun muttered. “Where’s Kai?” Lay sighed and sat back wiping a bead of sweat off his forehead. “He had to leave, after the escape plan was discovered they were specifically looking for him.” Tao sighed and looked at Chen who was just looking at the ground. Chanyeol followed his gaze and sighed “Chen are you ok?”

Chen shrugged “we’re never getting out of here..” He muttered bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them. Something about his actions made Tao want to panic Chen had been so calm and collected since they met, and now it sounded like he was giving up completely. He looked over at Sehun again “I thought you could heal them”

“I can, but since their condition is fatal it will take longer.” Lay muttered through clenched teeth. He backed away from Xiumin and stood up. “I need to go get water, I’ll be right back.” He left the room without saying anything else. A sudden shift of wind caused Tao to look back as Kai landed on the floor. “Still not good at that transporting thing I see”

Kai opened his mouth to make a sarcastic remark but froze midway, Tao followed his gaze towards the three unconscious boys. “What?!” Kai ran over to Kyungsoo shaking him. “It’s no use I’ve tried” Sehun muttered. Kai looked at Suho and nudged Xiumin. “I can’t believe I let this happen”

“Oh come on it’s not your fault..” Sehun muttered

“It is, this whole plan was my idea. I was supposed to get you guys out while Kyungsoo created a distraction but…” He stopped and frowned at Kyungsoo. The door opened making everyone jump “it’s just me” Lay announced walking in carrying five water bottles. “I would give you guys one…”

Sehun shook his head “we don’t need any. They do” lay looked at Kai and frowned. “What now?” Kai shrugged and sat down “I don’t know… I really don’t” Lay sighed and went back to helping the three. “We sleep” Tao turned to Baekhyun who had laid down on the floor and closed his eyes. “That’s all we can do, until the next test runs”

“Why are you giving up so easily?” Chanyeol smacked him in the leg. Baekhyun opened one eye to look up at him “I’m not, but if there’s nothing to do we might as well rest. Who knows much of it we’ll need after five months in this place” Chen sighed and stood up “there’s no way I’m staying here for five months”

“Chen’s right we need to come up with a plan. Not sleep” Lay eyed Baekhyun. Baekhyun sat up and groaned “fine what’s the plan?” They all stayed silent. No one knew what to do. There was no plan. “Exactly” Baekhyun muttered going back to his sleeping position. “What if Kai transports us out?” Sehun asked hopeful.

“I can’t. I’ve tried.” Kai looked at Tao and frowned “besides…” Kai’s voice cut off by the sound of coughing. Tao turned to see Kyungsoo suddenly sitting up drawing in deep ragged breaths. “SUHO XIUMIN” he yelled looking around. His eyes stopped at the two lying bodies and he froze “are they…?”

“No they’re not.” Lay muttered assuringly. Kyungsoo sighed running a hand through his hair. “I couldn’t save them… They took my powers.” He groaned shoving his face into the palm of his hands. “It’s not your fault” Kai muttered sympathetically “it’s obvious now that they’re prepared for everything we try fighting with”

“That’s exactly what they are. They’re prepared.” Kyungsoo stood up and paced the room causing everyone but Lay and the two oldest to look at him. “I accidentally saw a video. It was about us, apparently this little project of theirs has been going since since the 1900’s”

Chen looked at Kyungsoo and stood up “1952? Do you know anything about 1952?” Kyungsoo raised and eyebrow at him but nodded “it was the last time we died before we were… Reincarnated”

“What?” Tao and Baekhyun asked simultaneously. “….I keep seeing that date in my dreams I’ve researched as much as I could about it but all I found was a massive UFO sighting” Chen frowned deep in thought. Kyungsoo shook his head “those sightings were a lie made up by the government to protect the truth about us.”

“And what is the truth?” Everyone turned to see Suho sit up rubbing his head. Tao couldn’t help but grin He looked better, and healthier, Lay was a miracle worker. Kyungsoo smiled at Suho but then frowned “it’s sort of a long story”

“it’s not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon” Baekhyun muttered earning himself an elbow to the rib from Chanyeol. “Fine…” Kyungsoo sat down and Tao listened carefully as he explained what they were, he told them about the past experiments and how each one had failed, he described the tests that had been done on them and their latest project.

“I have these dreams… About two kids” Sehun muttered.

“I’ve been thinking about that, Suho hears voices does anyone else?” Chanyeol shook his head but Baekhyun nodded slowly. “Xiumin Hyung does.” Kai muttered “he told us he tries to drink the voices away… It didn’t make much sense before but now it does”

Kyungsoo nodded “I’m thinking those dreams or voices are part of our past lives. We are only able to get glimpses of them as sort of a defense mechanism for the present. They tend to enhance when your gifts are at their most vulnerable moment. Suho heard them when he’s dehydrated. Sehun dreams them because it’s when his body is at rest”

“What about our flaws?” Tao decided to speak up. He had always wondered why he always broke something when he bended time or how Kai could would always bleed from his ears or nose after a certain distant of traveling. “Those marbles you were talking about… They said we made them?” Suho asked.

Kyungsoo nodded “to communicate with each other.” Suho looked at Tao and then at Kyungsoo “what if we put part of our abilities inside those marbles? Part of ourselves?” Tao looked at Kai who kept staring at Kyungsoo almost accusingly. “Where do you think those marbles are now Kyungsoo?” He asked sounding almost bitter.

Kyungsoo shrugged “I have no idea, but Suho is right. These marbles must have a part of ourselves into them which is why we were able to communicate so easily”

“So.. if we find these marble things our defects might fix themselves?” Tao thought about how it would feel like to go back in time or stop time and not have something break every time. It would be nice especially if his own things stopped breaking. “Maybe…”

“Well let’s find them!” Baekhyun stood up looking as if all their problems had been solved. “There’s one problem with that Baek…”

“What? Oh….” His happiness left as fast as it had come and he flopped to the ground once again. “Ouch! Xiumin!” Everyone turned to look at Lay who had been grabbed by the shoulders by a shocked Xiumin ice forming on the thin fabric of his sweater. “Hyung! Your powers are back!” Tao wondered if his were too and decided to try, he blinked expecting time to freeze but nothing happened.

“Mine aren’t back..” He muttered. Chanyeol outstretched his hand “neither are mine” Sehun flicked his wrist towards Suho and frowned “nothing..”

“Ok so now only Lay, Xiumin and Kai have their gifts” Suho spoke between groans as he forced himself to stand up. “Well what are we waiting for?! Xiumin freezes everyone who gets in our way, Kai confuses the guards by transporting to different places and Lay heals whoever gets hurt in the process! Piece of cake” Chanyeol smiled. Baekyhun, Chen and Sehun nodded.

“It’s a stupid plan…. But it could work” Suho nodded. Xiumin cracked his neck “I’ll freeze them. It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this” Tao shrugged, there wasn’t any other option at this point. They all turned to look at Lay, Kyungsoo and Kai.

Kai sighed and grinned “I guess it could be fun” Lay bit his lip “alright… I’m in. Let’s do this”

“NO.”

The room fell silent at Kyungsoo’s voice. “Why not?” Baekhyun frowned. “Because it is a stupid plan. We won’t make it and even if we do they’ll just come keep tracking us and capturing us. It’s what they do. They won’t quit.”

“So what do you expect us to rot in here?” Chen interjected. Kyungsoo shook his head “we need to start over and-”

“There’s no time! We can’t talk about this again we need to get out while we still have the chance! Before those guys come and inject Xiumin and catch Lay and Kai” Chanyeol spoke loudly and Tao cringed hoping no one outside the room had heard.

Kyungsoo crossed his arms and his eyebrows furrowed. He thought for a couple minutes before slowly nodding.

“Fine. have it your way.”

******

Tao tapped his foot nervously counting the seconds.

It was almost time. They had spent a good hour talking about their next escape plan and he was confident it was going to work this time.

“Tao…” He turned to look at Kyungsoo walking towards him “you know this isn’t going to work right?” Tao shrugged “it could work… You should be more positive about this plan” Kyungsoo frowned “I’m not too sure..”

The metal door suddenly started opening and they all stood up. “When I say go alright Xiumin?” Xiumin nodded at Suho and raised his hands. The two familiar men who had been giving them the antidote came in there was a small pause before Suho ran and to the door slamming it shut “GO!” At Suhos command Xiumin took the sleeves of the two instantly making them freeze. Ice climbed up their bodies quickly until they were completely frozen.

“Oh my god…” Lay muttered. “Do you think anyone noticed” Xiumin asked letting go of the sleeves. Lay opened the metal door and poked his head out. “No I don’t think so. Let’s go!”

Kai teleported towards the main hallways and Tao took it as a green light, he ran out of the room and down the hallway Lay had told him to go, “TAO!” Tao looked back to see Kyungsoo chasing after him. “Kyungsoo you have to go the other way!” Kyungsoo ignored him as he caught up to him. “Hurry this way” Tao pushed his legs and ran towards the end of the hallway.

Kyungsoo walked into the room slowly “there’s no one here come on” red lights suddenly flashed as the alarm rang loudly. “Kai must’ve already caught their attention. There’s not much time!” Kyungsoo ran to one of the desks and grabbed a piece of paper. “KYUNGSOO WE NEED TO RUN”

“Aish. Fine let’s go!” He crumbled the paper and stuck in his pocket along with a pen and ran to the door. “Lay said this place is completely underground we need to find at least side staircases before we can even think about escaping!” Tao followed Kyungsoo towards their first set up stairs. The climb was narrow and dark with hardly any light to see.

“Let’s go!” Tao didn’t want to. He was afraid but Kyungsoo grabbed his hand “Tao it’s ok. It’ll be fine. We just have to run fast”

A light suddenly showed at the top of the stairs as three figures stepped into it. “This is what happens when test subjects don’t cooperate” Tao heard Kyungsoo’s breath hitch as he looked up to see one of the figures being thrown down the staircase.

“KAI” Kyungsoo and Tao yelled as Kai’s body made its way to the bottom and landed in front of their feet. His stomach filled with blood as well as his face and arms. Kai heaved and panted trying to stand up before falling back on the ground. “I’m sorry” he muttered. Tao shook his head grabbing onto Kai’s waist not caring that he was being covered in blood.

Kyungsoo helped him and draped one of Kai’s arms around his neck. “We need to find Lay” Tao muttered looking at Kai slowly losing consciousness.

“You don’t have to worry about Yixing. He’s officially now part of project Exodus. Like he should’ve been from the start”