“I can not explain everything for you,” Mama said through the screen. “You must keep investigating and work hard on your task. But I have a few archives I can provide to help lead your way. But in exchange you must protect my boys with your life, and you must use the security video and my body to fake my death.”

She paused, letting her statement sink in as she folded her hands over the desk.

“If I’m alive they’ll hunt me down and it will be impossible for me to protect my boys and help you further. It’s in our best interest to make my death public,” she did not hesitate with her words. “The EXO Trials should never be replicated and by broadcasting how dangerous they can be with my death, will discourage others from committing my crimes,” she spoke with all seriousness, her voice deep with the underlying intention that what she request was dire. “Within the archives I will provide, you won’t find much about what or how the procedures were made. It’s for precaution so that my methods will not be copied.” Mama brushed her hair to the side. “We must avoid tempting more freaks like me to attempt such inhuman practices,” Mama said with an apologetic smile.

The fact that she recognized herself as a freak was off putting –like a cold shiver running down Lay’s spine. Lay let go of Luhan, seeing that he had calmed down and let him sit on his seat. Lay now sat between Kris and Sehun -he held Sehun’s hand to comfort him.

“These boys deserve the chance to experience a real life and it’s in our common interest to provide that for them,” she said with a hopeful tone.

Lay glanced at Sehun, the other stared awestruck at the screen. Neither could believe the turn of events –that Mama actually did care about them.

“There’s a whole archive with evidence of the involvement of Colonel Kim Yungjae, military advisor of Kim Chulsoo, and an audio with him exposing the true intentions of the Trials,” Mama explained with poise. “I must remark that by keeping the boys secure and out of the hands of Kim Chulsoo or anyone from EX’ACT will avoid any international bellicose conflict,” she said while hooking her brow in a serious gaze. “That should be enough to bargain the best witness protection you can provide for my boys.”

“So it was a request,” Kris noted.

Agent Max quickly paused the video. “What was?” he asked.

“The witness protection,” Kris clarified. “It was her idea, wasn’t it?” he questioned the Chief.

Chief Park shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah. But I was the only one who immediately agreed, these guys needed some persuasion,” he tattled.

Agent Choi, Agent Lee and Agent Kim didn’t hide their annoyance. Agent Bang just laughed it off.

“That means she did want us to get out,” Suho said turning in his chair to face Kris.

Kris shook his head with a frown. “It’s hard to believe this.”

Lay scrunched his nose and poked Luhan’s back as the telepathic was now sitting in front of him.

“Didn’t she say she wanted to save us?” he asked.

Luhan frowned and crossed his arms. “Yeah, whatever. I don’t care,” he mumbled.

Suho looked at Lay with amaze. The healer merely nodded in confirmation that yes –yes it was possible that the cryptic, manipulative and mind boggling Mama they knew might have always intended to save them in the end.

“Shall we proceed?” Agent Max asked.

The Chief signaled him to do so. Mama’s frozen frame regained mobility.

“I know I have to pay for my crimes, but the best amendment I can promise is not through a legal sentence but by guaranteeing safety to the ones I’ve harmed the most,” she nodded to herself knowing she was right. “But first you must find them,” she said. “There is a file under the name ‘Tracker’, which is an application that connects you to the GPS transmission of a chip inserted in one of the boy’s shoes. You will know where to find them, but please, give them some time to rest,” she kindly requested. “They’ve been running and fighting for their lives for two days.”

Mama paused using her fingers play with the spherical pendant as she looked down. A small jingling sound was heard from the bell inside the metal ball.

Agent Max paused the recording. “Did you know about that?” he asked.

They all shook their heads.

“We thought,” Agent Choi spoke. “We thought that you guys might’ve known that she had something planned, because of the tracking device in your sneakers. But I guess that was hidden,” he reasoned.

“Whose sneakers?” Xiumin asked.

Agent Choi pressed a key on his laptop and then pointed towards D.O. The round eyed boy looked surprised before turning his gaze towards Jongdae.

“Who gave you the shoes?” he questioned.

“Tao did,” Jongdae quickly replied.

“I did not,” the time controller said offended.

“The blond you did,” Jongdae clarified.

“So we really do help her,” Kai stiffly said as he looked at Tao, whom wore the same expression of confusion and concern.

Tao clenched his jaw. “Looks like it.”

Chief Park and Agent Choi shared a look of confusion.

“What do you mean?” the Chief asked as he accommodated his sunglasses.

Tao sighed and shared a glance with Kai. “I think I’m the reason why you’ve got a three-year-older pen drive,” he exposed.

“How?” Agent Max asked.

“Time travel.”

Agent Kim burst out laughing. “Time travel,” he laughed while slapping the table in disbelief. And as he began to calm down he noticed that he was the only one laughing. “Oh wait. You were serious about that?” he said dumbfounded.

“Everything we say is serious,” Chanyeol deadpanned.

“Oh,” Agent Kim looked embarrassed.

“Tao has an affinity with time,” Agent Max said. “Somehow he manages to manipulate it.”

Lay frowned. “Do you know what we all do?”

Agent Max peered down at him with a simple yet mischievous grin. “To some extent, yes,” he answered. “I’ve got your files.”

“Anyway,” Agent Bang intervened. “You say that you travel through time to deliver this message, this pen drive to us. Correct?”

“Yes,” Tao replied. “I also help out during our escape –well, we help out,” he said indicating Kai’s involvement. “They, well we, um… Our older-future selves were in the outside dome at the same time as we were.”

“They helped us get out of there,” Kai added.

“You and your future self were existing in the same time-space?” Agent Max asked.

“Yes,” Kai answered.

“Amazing,” the Chief chimed.

“So the shoes and the pen drive, you guys brought those items to this time?” Agent Choi asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” Tao shrugged.

“So in the future you meet Lu Mei, work and assist with her escape plan,” Agent Max surmised. “It might be farfetched to ask, but do you guys know why you do that?”

Tao shook his head. “Not yet.”

Agent Max frowned as he pondered for a moment. “You’re going to have to do it in the future right?”

Tao looked surprised, but nodded anyway.

“What?” Agent Lee asked.

“Well, in the future he traveled to this time. But if this is the current present, then the future hasn’t happened yet,” Agent Max explained. “So, in three years they have the obligation to travel back to that moment.”

“Wait, what? If the future hasn’t happened yet, then how the heck did they travel to the present if there’s no future in course?” Agent Lee asked.

“It’s a time loop,” Agent Max said. “Because it happened in the present, it’s bound to happen in the future.”

“But what future? You just said the future hasn’t happened yet,” Agent Lee shook his head baffled.

“It’s a distortion in time,” Tao spoke up without looking up –deeming his hands more interesting than the confusion of the agent. “Two different times have been linked through the space-time dimension. The past and future linked together on a specific event and the event will happen only twice. The first time the event is lived is during the present, now past. The second time the event is relived in the future.”

He looked up with poise at the confounded agents. Tao sighed and asked for a pen and paper, which the Chief kindly provided. On one end of he wrote the letter A and encircled it. On the opposite end he wrote the letter B and encircled it.

“I’ll keep this simple,” Tao coolly brushed his hair backwards, away from his face. “Time space is like a mantle made of infinite threads. Each fraction of a thread is a fraction of a second, and each fraction of a second is associated to a specific event. The continuation of time is what creates a thread of events and separates past from future.”

“I thought you said simple,” the Chief complained.

“It is simple,” Agent Max stifled his mirth.

Tao picked up the piece of paper and held it up horizontally while wiggling it in an undulating motion. “Mantle,” he said and then placed the paper flat on the table. “Event A; Event B” he indicated with the pen and then drew a straight line from A to B, finishing with an arrow head pointing towards B. “Continuation of time,” he said as he finished the drawing. He held it up again, but this time the drawing was facing the agents. “Present turning to past,” Tao said as he pointed at circle A. “Future,” he pointed at circle B. “We’re living the present A, we have to live through the entire passage of time to reach B.”

“In other words, we have to move throughout the whole line to get from A to B, which is technically three years,” Kai supplied.

Tao nodded and folded the paper in half. He used the tip of the pen to puncture a hole through the paper. “Time travel,” he said as he held up the punctured folded paper. “A bridge that bypasses all the line of time from A to B, and links the past with the future. A unique time loop, a distortion, a wormhole even.” Tao unfolded the paper and faced it towards the men. “The event happened once in the past,” he indicated at the now punctured circle A. “The present is the line we’re living and it will reach B. That’s when the event repeats.”

“When we reach B we’ll relive event A,” Kai clarified. “Just the two of us.”

“What happens after you reach B?” Agent Bang asked.

“Time continues,” Tao said. “Reaching B will be our present and we’ll be obligated to relive A, but as the future guys. We’ll do whatever the heck we did, and then return to the future-present and continue the timeline.”

The Chief chuckled and clapped his hands. “I swear I admire these boys. They’re so bright,” he said fondly.

“I thought time travel was impossible without a perfectly spherical wormhole,” Agent Kim furrowed his brows disconcerted as he was still baffled from it all.

“Well, with these kids, nothing seems quite impossible anymore,” the Chief admired.

Agent Choi nodded his head with a content smile on his face. “That was a highly educational break. We should continue the video.”

“Yes, sir,” Agent Max obliged.

Mama’s hand started moving again and the chime of bell sounded clearer. She looked back up to the camera with a repented gaze as she let her hand rest on the surface of the desk.

“My intentions might seem contradictory since it was because of my involvement that the trials were possible to create. But I had no intentions of provoking a war and that is why I planned the escape of the group,” she justified herself as she flattened the front of her lab coat with her hands.  “So now, Chief Park, I leave it in your hands to make sure that my efforts of preventing a war weren’t in vain. I will keep providing help for the sake of my boys. I will be contacting you, but you will never be able to contact me.”

The video had abruptly cut off.

“That’s it?” Chanyeol asked confused.

“No,” Agent Max replied. “There’s a second part to the video that is secured with a passcode. She locked the file with a password to make sure you guys are present when we watch the video.”

“That does sound like something she’d do,” Baekhyun commented.

“We haven’t been able to see it yet,” Agent Choi said. “Only Agent Maxwell has seen it.”

Agent Max nodded earning surprised looks. “I used an algorithm and had it working for four days, and managed to crack the code this morning.” He paused as he gazed the group. “The second part is directly meant for you guys. She explains most of what happened. It’s a confession,” he told them as he prepared to play the rest.

Sehun held tighter onto his hand –Lay could tell he was anxious with expectation.

“But, out of curiosity,” Agent Max stood straight to look at them instead of his laptop, “I’ll give you the question to the passcode.” He looked back at his laptop’s screen and read out, “What is the name of the bat of the book?”

Lay frowned. Why the hell is that bat so important? Why did it have to keep coming up within their memories?

He thought about it, but he couldn’t remember the name of the bat nor of the book. All he could recall were images and a vague idea of the storyline. He looked around at the faces of his group. They all seemed as lost as he did.

“You know it?” Luhan suddenly asked looking at D.O.

The smaller boy looked startled at the sudden revelation and looked at the rest. “Don’t you all know it?” he asked instead, completely confused.

“No,” Suho replied for them all. “We can’t remember the name of the stupid bat.”

D.O looked at them hoping that maybe Suho was wrong, but no one contradicted Suho’s answer.

“It’s Stellaluna,” D.O ended up revealing, he gave Agent Max a look for confirmation.

The Agent nodded in response and a sudden thud resounded in the conference room.

“Are you okay?” Jongdae asked at Kai that had fallen backwards from his chair -he had phased through the backrest and fell to the floor.

Kai vigorously nodded as he got back up on his feet and sat back down on his chair -but his face screamed utter shock. Luhan’s eyes indiscreetly widened as he read whatever it was Kai was thinking. They shared a look of realization.

“Are you guys alright?” Chief Park asked concerned

“Yes,” Luhan replied first. “Let’s continue,” he suggested.

“Alright,” Agent Max agreed a little warily and proceeded to play the video.

The new video started. The frame was slightly shifted, indicating that the camera had been moved. Mama sat on her chair but wasn’t wearing the lab coat anymore, just her white pristine dress that had sleeves that went all the way down to her wrists. She was looking down with a pensive gaze as she played with her necklace, letting the bell jingle as she moved it back and forth.

She looked up at someplace else beside the camera before locking her gaze towards the lens -eyes filled with a mixture of emotions.

“Hello boys,” she said with a soothing tone that seemed relaxed but in control. “It’s about time that you see me for whom I truly am.” Her dark orbs roamed the screen as if she was looking for someone. “D.O,” said boy looked up surprised, “I deeply apologize for all that I have done to you. You were the only one capable of getting them out and I abused your trust for that,” she admitted while her eyes tried to focus on a spot, still searching for him at the other side of the screen. D.O looked utterly shocked at her apology –round eyes incapable of blinking as he stared at her image on the screen. “Your strength is within your heart,” she said with a loving smile.

D.O clasped his hand over his mouth to avoid any sound from coming out, stifling his amazed disbelief. Sehun and Kai both extended a hand to hold onto his shoulders, holding onto him in sign of support.

Mama took a deep breath as she stared straight through the screen.

“I’ve always said that I was in it for the science, because it’s true,” she joined her hands on top of the desk. “I never wanted to provoke a war, but the only way I could advance with my research was by agreeing to create the trials.”

She sighed and looked down for a second. “There are so many things I shouldn’t say, but I’ve gotten this far without getting caught so I might as well try to provide you boys some sort of closure; an answer to all those questions that keep you up all night.”

“1996 was the year the world was exposed to the successful cloning of a sheep,” Mama began explaining, reminiscing the past. “But that was just a front since cloning experimentation has been going on for a long time and there was one international company that was way ahead of a mere sheep.” She wetted her lips as she brushed her hair out of her face. “I always was intrigued by intergenetics, I know my methods aren’t ethical at all and I got involved with perilous people, but working with the company EX’ACT was the only place I could develop my theories.” She gave a small smile, “The Boogey Men achieved what I wanted. They were malleable and I could change their abilities –they were perfect for my experiments. But they weren’t what the company wanted. They weren’t the super soldiers they yearned.” She chuckled, “I didn’t care. I didn’t care being considered a failure.”

Mama paused and rubbed the side of her face. “It wasn’t until my daughter fell ill that I started caring. I wanted to save her but I didn’t dare touch her.” She let out a breath as sadness shadowed her features, “It wasn’t until then, that I did what I did. In the same hospital that Lu Zi was interned, I… I saved a child’s life, hoping that what I learned from him would help me save my own child, but the boy would never be the same ever again.”

Lay looked at D.O –in fact most of them were staring at him as they all knew he was ‘the boy’ she spoke of. Said boy’s thick brows were furrowed as he stared at the screen speechless, completely overwhelmed from the truth.  

“Kai, what I told you wasn’t a complete lie,” Mama’s eyes bore through the screen. “Tay-Sachs is a rare disease, never seen before in South Korea. I investigated and found out that he has French-Canadian heritage on both sides of his family. No wonder he has such big eyes,” she chuckled, but then her smile dropped. She looked up with a regretful gaze. “Saving his life wasn’t an implored request. My sister had no relation to him other than being the nurse on call.” She made a face, one of struggle and remorse, “I made her fake his death and smuggle him out of the hospital. I stole that child from another family.”

Mama remained silent for a moment as she let her confession sink in. She played with the pendant of her necklace –bell lightly chiming without pattern.

D.O’s fisted hands shook as he kept himself from breaking down –his tears brim the edge of his eyes, threatening to fall. Lay let go of Sehun to hold onto D.O’s arm. The hypothalamus was working its mechanisms to induce the secretion of tears in D.O’s lacrimal glands. Prolactin and ACTH high yet within normal levels. Leu-enkephalin secretion slowly rising, which was good as the endorphin will help reduce the stress. What Lay was concerned about was the high levels of cortisol –the nasty bastard that makes your world stop and every sense aware that you are in distress; the cause of the pain in your chest and the lump in your throat. D.O needed to feel better, but crying was good too. Crying was not a weakness, but a natural response of the body. Lay would let D.O cry, it’s what he would need, but he could at least lower the stress from building up.

The silence from the video made Lay look back at the screen –Mama had stopped playing with her bell and looked back at them with saddened eyes that were filled with mixed emotions that shook Lay’s core.

“He was meant to die at the age of three. It took me three years to save his life but after what I had done to him, he could never return to his family.” She paused, eyes raw with truth, “After what I had done to him, he could never live a normal life ever again.” She looked somewhere beside the camera, she was looking at someone who was with her in the room and gave a small apologetic smile. Her eyes turned back towards the middle. “Taking care of him became dangerous, not only for me but for Lu Zi as well –she was still sick at the time.” She sighed, “I was forced to take him to the only place I knew he could stay… relatively safe.”

Mama tried to smile, but couldn’t. “Bringing him to the company caused an exciting stir that I wanted to be proud of, but deep down I knew it would bring a turn of events I was not sure I was ready for.”

Mama stopped speaking. Her eyes squinted as she recalled the events of the past. She perched her elbows against the desk and leaned her chin towards her joined hands.

“What he was, a boy of inhuman strength, was what the company wanted, what Kim Chulsoo was paying for. So they wanted to test him and see the potential of his abilities. But I had this feeling in my gut that something bad would happen.” Mama looked up and Lay swore he saw tears starting to mist her eyes. “I saved samples of his DNA and with the help of two colleagues, I was able to extract and conserve his memory into a software they had created for memory implantation.” She paused as she looked down at her hands. “My instinct was right,” her voice said filled with sorrow, “He was too young for the trial and died when he confronted the Boogey Men. He was only ten years old.”

D.O let out a choked sob and quickly covered his mouth with his free hand. He moved the other to hold onto Lay’s hand –the need for comfort was dire as he kept his crying as silent as possible.

Looking around, Lay could see that D.O wasn’t alone. Other’s had let their empathy take the best of them and began to shed tears as well. But Lay wouldn’t have any of it. With his hormone levels under control, he did not feel at all. Hollowness occupied his insides as he observed the emotional struggles around him like an uninvolved viewer.

Mama wiped the sole tear that dared to crawl down her face. “From then on I promised to never make the same mistake,” she said composing herself. “I knew the company wouldn’t be discouraged, for they had all the resources to keep going and Chulsoo was more than willing to fund the project. So I was given the chance to lead the project and create the trials. I…” her eyes casted down as she flashed a broken smile, “I’m not a good person.”

“I wasn’t as disheartened as a mother would –should be by the death of a child. On the contrary I was more motivated. I had gone from trying to save my child to creating the perfect son.” She rubbed the back of her neck as she looked down apologetically, “I just needed to see if my theories would work after my experiment with Kyung- with him. I was too curious,” she excused with a small shrug of the shoulders.

“I promised I wouldn’t make the same mistake, I wouldn’t use another young boy for my experiments. I wouldn’t steal another child away from a family.” She held onto her necklace as she spoke, “I got DNA samples from adolescent boys at the hospital that had a death sentence as prognosis. That way I wouldn’t use the real person but just the DNA to create a clone. I didn’t use toddlers or pre-pubescent children, but I couldn’t use people of older age. They had to still be young and growing to make the mutations more efficient.”

“Genes aren’t linked to memory as some may think. Memories are formed by stimulating the brain through our senses. So with my colleagues help, I implanted the boy’s memories into all my clones,” she smiled lightly. “I was telling the truth when I said the memories came from one of you.” Her eyes searched through the screen again, “D.O, they’re yours, from the real you up to the age of ten. That is why you have so little to remember.”

“We then worked on a method to directly project the same mental stimulation an activated clone would feel to a deactivated clone simultaneously. It’s hard to explain with simple words, but it’s based on the genetic code I formed for Luhan’s telepathy,” she said. “Shared memories only work when one clone is activated and living, the other’s must be still deactivated and in their incubators. It took some years to perfect this technique for the clones. The shared memories are unique to a specific genetic code, meaning that memories won’t suffer interference from another clone of a different person. Memories won’t be mixed between different people. But,” she emphasized, “but if two clones of the same person are activated, then they will grow to live separate experiences, meaning they store different memories which makes them different people –or, to be exact, same person but different personalities; similar to a twin.” Mama played with her necklace as she thought for a moment. “That is why my clones, the Mamas you’ve met twice aren’t like me.”

“The younger clone was emotionally detached on purpose, she was never meant to stay with you boys so she couldn’t develop feelings for you. But sometimes she would let her emotions slip and act more caringly, others she would go back to her cold persona,” she explained. “Normally she would follow my orders, but sometimes she made her own decisions, which is why she seemed to contradict herself,” she gave a small shrug of the shoulders. “I needed her, I needed both of them to push you boys into doing things you wouldn’t want to do. They were mean with their ways because I needed to provoke reaction in you, so you would fight back and defend yourselves.” She moved her hands as she spoke, “Emotions are good, they are what form our decisions. That’s why I couldn’t modify your perception of emotions, like I did to my clones. I needed you to feel, and feel strongly, so you would have the will to fight and survive.”

Mama rested her hands on the desk again. “It took me over six years to prepare everything for the trials and the construction of the underground dome. I knew that working with EX’ACT and Kim Chulsoo would lead to a war, so I took extreme precaution and decided to use the company’s cloning equipment to my benefit.” She paused, searching for the correct words. “All the clones had inserted a time bomb gene that would either cause their bodies to deteriorate at a rapid speed after a fixed time limit. Or that I could activate the gene’s expression from far and destroy all evidence of anyone ever being down there. It’s similar to the one in the boggers,” she admitted while rubbing her arm. “I made everyone down there a clone to avoid killing real people. And a fixed number of clones were made for each of you as well. My precaution was to avoid anyone ever leaving the underground. I would eliminate everyone down there, erase all data and prevent the war from ever happening,” she explained, “It was meant to appear as if it never existed.”

Lay frowned at the contradiction. From the beginning they were meant to die down there, in the underground, but now they were out and alive. Why?

“But seeing you boys grow and become friends made me regret taking such precaution. Watching how intelligent and caring people you turned out to be, so loving and courageous, filled with life, I… I couldn’t let you guys vanish down there,” she said with a strained voice and apologetic smile. “I knew I had to find a way to get you out without compromising my position. If they found out that I never intended in giving them what they wanted, then I would most probably be dead and you would’ve become weapons of war,” she deadpanned.

“First I needed to reverse the effect of the time bomb gene –so I fabricated an elixir and made my underground clone replicate it. Of course I couldn’t just say that the elixir would save you boys,” she exasperated, “so I had to add something extra to it to justify its use. The effects it has, you already know. And all that extra energy, I knew it would help when you were ready to escape.”

“Since the elixir was told to be a power and energy boost, the company wanted to see its effects. I had to step up the game to avoid suspicion, and for that I decided to activate the shadow boggers.” She rubbed her forehead tiredly. “The company was amazed by the development of the trials and Kim Chulsoo was willing to finance a whole new development project, to create a super soldier clone army.” She frowned, “I grew anxious as I knew that son of a wanted to take you boys away from me. I needed to act fast.”

“During this time was when I made my clone prepare D.O to help escape from the underground facility. Unfortunately D.O, I couldn’t let her tell you the truth since the facility was heavily vigilated,” she explained. “I had her lie to you and promise you a reward I was incapable of fulfilling. But in spite of how horrible I managed the whole situation, you now realize that it was for the greater good.”

D.O had stopped crying a while ago. He was more at ease as he was accepting the truth.

“I told you not to wander in the subterranean because I knew that the prohibition would tempt you to disobey,” she admitted. “I wanted you to find out the truth. My lab, everything. The fact that you destroyed it was not a problem. I was supposed to do the same but I couldn’t bring myself to activate the time bomb gene.”

“Once you all were given the elixir and it had settled in, I brought out D.O with his task, which was to get you out from the underground. Obviously I had to lie about my intentions to divert the company’s attention. So having boggers follow you around was my way of making it seem like I was trying to obstruct your plan to escape.” She let out a sigh, “But since I didn’t use all the supplies, since I didn’t send all the boggers after you, they suspected me. So the third part of the trials that I had prepared as a front for your escape was changed. Colonel Kim got involved to make sure it was a real trial and that I was loyal to the company.” She shrugged her shoulders, “In other words, that meant I had to complicate the trial to avoid suspicion. Bringing more boggers and different ones was my only solution.”

“The fake town was my way of hinting out that you were still under the company and there still was a layer to break through,” Mama explained while using some hand gestures. “The clone Mama you met in the third trial had to provoke you boys to want to flee. She couldn’t just tell you to go. That’s why she acted the way she did, as a villain.”

She paused as she thought of what to explain next.

“Tao and Kai were a huge part of the development,” she said, “without them escaping the outside Dome would’ve been a lot harder –but not impossible. It was also precise of them to be there, so they could help get the chip out.”

Mama’s gaze faltered as remorse overtook her features once more.

“D.O I don’t know how many times I must apologize, though what I’ve done to you –to all of you, is unforgivable.” She let out a shaky breath, “I couldn’t tell you the truth when I used you to get them all out, I couldn’t confide in you because they were watching. Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. I had to get the chip out, it wasn’t fully deactivated and the company could track you down with it. It had to be removed.” She looked to the side then back at the camera. “I knew you would survive, for the effect of the chip is to cause muscle paralysis. Lay would save you and Kai, he was the only one who could take it out. I knew you would be okay, I knew you would survive but I couldn’t let her show it. I had to make it seem like I wanted to… to kill you.” She crossed her arms over her lap. “My clone’s provocation, the quarrel, it was an act. It was my way of letting you find out the truth. I knew you’d catch the hint, we’ve been working together for so long, well, not me exactly,” she shook her head, “Either way, I knew you’d figure out my intentions eventually.”

Mama’s hand reached back to her necklace as she stayed silent for a moment. “I know it’s difficult to believe me after everything I forced you through. I do not expect forgiveness with my confession. I just want to finally let you know the truth.”

Mama looked to the side again and shared a warm smile. She looked back at the camera, “We might meet each other one day.”

The video stopped there.

The room was silent. No one dared to speak, they all were still trying to make sense and believe the confession they just heard. The agents sat there awkwardly as Agent Max closed the video application and searched through his laptop.

“Is it possible,” the Chief broke the silence, “that what we just heard is the truth?”

Lay turned around to look at Kris –the others thought the same as him. If there’s someone who could spot a liar, it would be Kris. The tall blond nodded, confirming that Mama was in fact telling the truth. That this time she was not trying to deceive them.

“Is there something you want to discuss about Lu Mei’s confession?” Chief Park asked.

No one spoke up.

“This was a lot to take in. I’m sure you boys would like some time to yourselves,” Agent Bang said considerately.

Xiumin and Suho shared a look, and then both nodded, deciding for the group.

The room went silent for another moment.

“I wonder how she managed to communicate with her clones,” Agent Max said after a while. “You’ve never found communication transmissions right?”

Agent Choi nodded. “I don’t know how the heck she did it.” He shook his head in disbelief, “It has to be some new technology, one that can not be perceived by normal radio frequency receivers. If she was under surveillance, then she couldn’t get caught communicating with her clones.”

“Like telepathy,” the Chief crossed his arms over his chest as he eyed Luhan, “right?”

Luhan lowered his head, an action that spoke louder than words.

“Luhan?” Suho questioned, rising from his seat.

“I…” Luhan looked up distressed. “I didn’t know she could do it until the third part of the trials.”

“What?” Chanyeol said surprised.

“She never did it before,” Luhan explained. “I, I just wanted to kill her but she suddenly spoke to me.” He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it himself. “I didn’t look into her mind, she spoke to me,” he stressed.

“That’s why you hesitated?” D.O asked with furrowed brows.

Luhan nodded. “That’s why I got distracted. I, I just couldn’t believe it.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Xiumin asked, nearly reprimanding him.

“Because I thought it wasn’t true,” Luhan excused. “I thought I was so tired that I didn’t remember looking into her mind. That it was me who initiated the telepathic link, not her. I,” he sighed deeply, “I just couldn’t believe it.”

“So Lu Mei managed to create a way to communicate telepathically with her clones?” Agent Choi asked.

“It’s the only plausible way,” Luhan opined.

“But from so far away and many layers of earth?” Agent Max asked skeptically.

Luhan nodded. “It’s not the same as mine. It’s magnified and specific. It didn’t feel natural,” he explained. “And no, I don’t know how. I can’t answer any of those questions,” he got ahead of their vociferation.

“Alright, let’s leave that mystery to rest then,” the Chief said so the others wouldn’t interrogate Luhan any further.

“Should we proceed with the files?” Agent Max asked.

“No,” the Chief replied. “They need rest. It’s enough for one day.”

“Yes, sir.” Agent Max closed his laptop.

 

They were escorted to a common area that had on call rooms attached to it through a hallway. Each room had two bunk beds where they could sleep in, temporarily. Outside the common area where two agents guarding the entrance and at their service for food and amenities.

“D.O. Come on D.O,” he heard Kai say soothingly as he entered the common room.

Kai was rubbing the smaller boy’s back, both sitting on a couch. Curiously Lay went to join them at the middle of the common area with the rest of the group. Except for Sehun and Luhan, they had their own conversation.

“D.O, it’s okay,” Kai said softly but D.O shook his head.

“I have a family,” he cried out. “I knew it. I have a family but they think I’m dead,” he sobbed.

Something irked inside Lay, though he knew he shouldn’t, he let the words fall out. “We all have families D.O,” he said with a blunt expression. “We all came from somewhere. We are all clones from someone else.”

D.O looked up at him with red swollen eyes.

“At least your childhood memories are yours,” Lay resented. “We’ve got nothing to hold onto as our own.”

“That’s not fair,” D.O strained through his tears. He got up and briskly left to himself up in one of the on call rooms.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Kai reprimanded, though his eyes were soft.

Lay nodded, because he knew he was right. And right he wasn’t being nice and comprehensive. He wasn’t considering how hurt and distressed the rest were feeling because he had sedated himself so much that he wasn’t feeling affected by the toll of the truth.

“Please tell him I’m sorry,” Lay asked before Kai phased into the room D.O was in.

“What’s gotten into you Lay?” Kris asked as he gave him a disapproving look.

Xiumin cupped his face with his hands and made Lay look at him. His oval eyes were red and swollen, like the rest of them. “You’ve gone overboard,” he said with a slight frown. He wasn’t angry he was worried. “Lay, you need to rest.”

Holding onto his hand, Xiumin took him inside an empty on call room and helped him lay down the lower bunk of a bed. He sat down next to him, looking at him with concern and care.

“How doped are you?” Xiumin asked, head tilted to the said.

Lay shook his head. He had secreted so many hormones that his chemical balance was off. He was in a state of a natural high. His body felt languid, yet he was aware of everything around him and could move without problem. But inside he felt liquid, smooth, so calm and so out of touch that he could just lay for hours without moving and feel like he was floating on a cloud.

Xiumin sighed. “Reverse the effect,” he ordered calmly.

And so he did. At least he knew his body would do it for him and he wouldn’t think much about. Just one signal to produce the counter effect and soon his internal levels would go back to normal.

“I’ll be fine,” Lay softly said.

Xiumin gave a light smile and pressed his palm flat against Lay’s chest. “It’s good to feel emotions,” he said.

Lay shook his head and held onto Xiumin’s wrist before the other could take his hand away.

“It hurts,” he admitted as tears began to fill his eyes.

Xiumin smiled sadly as his eyes glimmered with tears. “It does.” He patted Lay’s hand so he would let him stand up. “I’m going to check on the rest, okay?” he sniffled.

Lay let him leave.

He hated how he felt, but he embraced it. He hated each tear that fell down his face, each sob the escaped his mouth, each beat of his heart the pounded painfully against his aching chest. He let himself drown in these feelings he so strongly avoided, because he knew Xiumin was right. And he knew that after all this pain, he will find the strength to get up again and keep moving on –keep finding the will to live on and live for his group. Because he needed them and they needed him.

Their lives had never been simple. The were fighters. They fall and they get up again.

An hour had gone by, his tears had dried a while ago, the pain was now naturally numbed.  He let his thoughts wander on everything she said, on how brilliant Mama was to have been able accomplish and execute all her plans without them ever figuring out her true intentions. She was truly a mind of freakish talent.

He even tried to prove Mama wrong. Her confession made sense. It was the ultimate truth, it was what had happened –yet it was still so hard to believe the turn of events.

He wished he could curse that woman away from his life, but in a twisted way she was his mother and she will always remain relevant throughout his life. He knew he had a real mother out there, somewhere. But he wasn’t that woman’s true child. Lu Mei was his mother. She had to be the mother of all of them.

Could he resent his mother, this mad woman who had gone through great lengths to make their lives as inhuman as possible? No, deep down he knew he couldn’t. Despite all the hate he felt for what she made them go through, he wouldn’t be able to ever resent her fully. He wouldn’t be alive without her.

They wouldn’t exist without her.

 

 

 

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A/N: This chapter is shorter, just because the previous one was way too long.

I have now revealed mostly everything there is to say. I hope that now everything makes sense. Any questions just ask me, I’ll clarify them for you.

Maybe your opinion of Mama will change with this chapter. Is she the evil villain? In some way she is, yet as Lay says, she’s also the one who gave them everything.

It’s a complex idea. Sometimes we go through moments in life where the struggle is so hard and the feelings so overwhelming, that it’s easy for us to just say ‘I wish I didn’t exist’ –that way we don’t have to go through the effort of getting better and fighting against the struggles in life that keeps tumbling us down. But our parents, those who gave us life, I believe they never intend to bring us to this world to feel such pain.

For me pain is a sign, a demanding voice telling you that you are very much alive. But these emotions we feel aren’t weaknesses. The true strength is to go through the struggles and to be able to keep the will to be alive, while feeling these strong emotions inside.

Even though this chapter is on the angst tone, see it as a lesson in life. We can keep going further to live our lives despite all the pain.

Thanks to fiqahshafiqah5, Nofiqa, fangirldisaster, devilturtle, Azukua, Tshun94, Lyssi1616, tigerlilly901 and kikutsune for subscribing.

Have a great week guys. Annyeong!

-Blackie