a/n: chenyeol, powers au, thrillerish/romanceish, ~8000 words.

it's time for your yearly scheduled chenyeol, haha... by 'inspired by the obsession mv' i really mean just inspired. it's not entirely accurate to the events of the video - i kinda ruined a cool concept and what could probably be an interesting story by writing some self indulgent shippy .

as this is an 'exo from exoplanet' kind of au i'm using their stage names. if this is something you're annoyed by, this has been your warning.

image credit: oliv

 

 

There had indeed been mysterious appearances. Creatures, phantasms, not unlike themselves, had all of a sudden started haunting them, seemingly without friendly purposes. None of them really knew where they’d come from, nor what they wanted, but they were terrifyingly similar yet different from their group.

For Chen, it had begun with him sometimes catching a glance of someone looking just like him, except somehow not at all, and then for a split second locking gazes before he lost sight of the other. This had apparently not been unique to his situation, as far as he knew the others had had similar encounters. After a while the creatures had become more daring and shown themselves when they were all alone. Chen had been at home when suddenly this... man had appeared, telling him in his own voice that they were waiting for them at a specific location. To hear his own voice come out of this person was jarring, but the similarity of his appearance was even worse. Like a mirror image of himself, only slightly different. One of these differences being the large smirk on the other’s red stained lips.

Of course, he had immediately gone into defence mode but the creature, the other Chen, had vanished as quickly as he had appeared. His first impulse was to inform Suho, their leader, and upon doing this he found out that all of them had received similar messages (although in differing fashions). They decided to adhere to the creatures’ wishes and show up at the location, although properly prepared. This was better than not taking any action at all, and they might actually be able to find out was what behind all of this.

Two days later, they all dressed up for battle (it being the worst case scenario). They exchanged stories and Chen was surprised to hear the accounts of some of the others, how their counterparts had caused a ruckus or even inflicted harm on them. The other Chen hadn’t exactly been friendly or anything, but he had at least not done anything foul, so what the others told him worried him. Though, an imposter so similar it couldn’t be anything other than supernatural was unsettling enough for him to want to take action.

The location happened to be an old, abandoned warehouse far from the centre of the city and thus far from the eyes of the public. It was a large building, a concrete product of brutalist ideals, and it consisted of many levels, corridors and rooms.

They all agreed to split up to search the area, though Chen had his reservations as he wasn’t much for one on one fighting if it had to come to that. The imposters had not shown up yet, and none of them knew if they even would or if this was all just an elaborate trap, so they had to proceed with caution. They all had their powers to rely on, and if they all found Kai they would with his help be able to make it out of there immediately.

Bidding the others goodbye for now with a heavy heart, Chen tried to walk up a few of the stairs in the left side of the building as calmly as possible and figure out a strategy of his own. He needed to take advantage of whatever the location could provide him with, and although the warehouse was abandoned since a long time it didn’t look ancient... While there were no elevators to be spoken of Chen did find a level map by one of the staircases. His gaze found the label “security office”, which seemed not to be far from his current location. Almost smiling he hurried in the direction of said office; if there were still working security cameras around, this was obviously the most effective way of searching the area. The darkness of the long, ominous corridor didn’t even bother him as he scanned the doors he passed for the right label.

Finally, Chen found one named “security”, but was disappointed to find it locked. Before he could attempt to come up with a solution he heard a loud crash and a yell coming from a few levels below him, though he was unable to precisely locate it. His blood went cold as he thought it could be one of his friends in trouble, but he did not want to yell out for them in case that would reveal him to... whatever it was that had caused the noises. He looked up and down the dark corridor, trying to keep his cool, then turned his eyes towards the door again. If he could keep watch over the entire place it would be a much faster way for him to find out what had happened.

The door was locked by a code, which was lucky for Chen, since he did not have the brute strength to deal with one that’d require a physical key. This electronic one was right up his alley. Not that he could hack it or anything, but he could easily break it just by putting his fingertips to the panel and concentrating his powers, zapping the wires and breaking the lock. An action as simple as that made the door let out a familiar click, and Chen opened it slowly and carefully.

The wall opposite him was covered in screens; not all of them worked, but quite a few were on and were displaying what looked like live footage from various surveillance cameras in the building. There was one for every room, making the screens take up the space of the entire wall and then some. As he was faced with this, Chen wasted no time on being careful anymore and frantically let his eyes search the screens, scanning each and every one of them for any trace of his friends. He ended up finding most of them, and thankfully they all seemed to be as fine as they were when they’d parted, but the worry inside of him started growing larger and larger as he was unable to locate Chanyeol. He knew that there were a number of cameras that had stopped working, so perhaps Chanyeol was in one of those rooms, but the fact that Chen couldn’t spot him meant that he could be in any condition. He shook his head, trying to calm down - Chanyeol was strong, brave and a skilled fighter, if anyone would be fine it was him. Though he could also be a bit too hotheaded, too reckless, run into danger head first.

Chen was sweating, there was no way for him to fix the remaining cameras - his energy was of the strong, destructive kind, like thunder; it was not like he could fix any electronic devices (which would have been a very handy talent - he was kind of technologically illiterate). All he could really do was to trust that Chanyeol was alright, even though his increasingly erratic heartbeat was telling him something else.

Chen tried to concentrate on what he had come to the security office for in the first place, which was searching for activity related to the mysterious creatures. A flicker of bright red in the corner of his eye alarmed him, until he realised that it was Suho’s hair, as their leader was making his way down a corridor as shown on one of the screens. Chen was about to breath out a sigh of relief when suddenly he spotted another red shape on the same screen. A bit away, eight metres or so behind, was a man with bright red hair not unlike Suho’s own. Chen’s eyes widened as he took in the man’s appearance; this had to be one of the imposters. And Suho had no idea that he was being sneaked up on.

Chen was sent into panic mode again, not knowing what he could do. This was the downside to his position; he was too far away to be able to alert anyone. The only thing he could do was to watch it all happen. Each of the screens had a small code at the bottom, probably indicating the placement of the camera, but Chen had no idea what they meant and could therefore not deduce where in the building the others were. All he knew was that Suho was in danger if he didn’t do something, because why would his doppelgänger behave like that if he was there in peace? A sneak attack like that would be nothing short of evil, not even giving Suho a fair chance. Was this all a trap? Had they been lured into this only to be attacked when they least expected it? Maybe they shouldn’t have split up at all; they would be stronger together, and probably be able to notice if they were pursued by someone.

As his eyes remained fixed on the screen in front of him, watching with worry how the mysterious man seemed to get closer and closer to Suho, Chen realised that he hadn’t closed the door behind him. He had been overwhelmed by the images in front of him, his concern for his friends overruling any common sense he had left in him, and he hadn’t even been able to do the most basic things to protect himself. He slowly turned around, feeling increasingly sweatier, when suddenly his heart stopped. There, in front of him, stood his mirror image in the flesh, watching him with a smirk on his face.

“You finally noticed?”

As if to make up for the time it had been still, Chen’s heart started to beat worryingly fast, yet he was still frozen to the ground.

“I should have shut the door”, he mumbled to himself, eyes not being able to leave the shape, the form in front of him.

“Wouldn’t have helped”, the other Chen said, “if you could make it in, I could too.”

His appearance was intimidating in the most silly of ways; Chen didn’t particularly like it. While he and his comrades had chosen to wear protective clothing, this version of him wore only a red suit with seemingly nothing underneath the jacket, exposing a little of his chest. Chen reminded himself to never dress like that, both for safety reasons but also for the sake of looking like a decent person. It was not like there was anything there to expose, anyway, he thought sarcastically. There was something inherently feminine, almost beautiful in an unsettling way about the other’s face, with its blood red lips and remarkable eyelashes. Chen couldn’t decide if it made him appear brittle or vicious. Maybe a little bit of both. He wondered if this was someone he could even fight against.

The only thing between them was a small table containing only an abandoned game of chess. Perhaps it had been left there by the security guards that had worked there years ago. The other Chen leaned forward to move one of the pieces, the king, a few centimetres forward.

Chen’s head was full of questions, like “who are you?” or “what do you want?” or “why did you bring us here?”. Instead of asking any of them, though, he opened his mouth to comment,
“That’s not how you play.”

The other Chen looked up at him, squinted his eyes a little bit, then stood up straight again. Chen flinched as the other swept his hand over the table and the chessboard hit the ground with a loud crash. The creature then crawled over the table only to sit down on its edge, facing Chen again.

“You’re playing smart, a smart guy, huh? Think a lot, suspect a lot, huh? What would you say if I confirmed that your suspicions are true?”

Chen must have looked confused, because the other continued his speech.

“You’re right that this was a trap. And you lot fell for it”, he said and watched with a satisfied grin on his face as Chen’s face fell. He wanted to turn around and check on Suho again, to see if he was being attacked by that mysterious being or if he was still just being followed, but his focus was fully on the imposter in front of him.

“How did you know I suspected that?” Chen asked, trying to sound as stable as possible. The other Chen smiled even bigger, more wickedly.

“I am you. I know everything about you. Your abilities, your thoughts, your feelings, your... fears.”

“...How? The others too?”

“We’re all different. But I think you and I seem to have a particularly strong bond. Someone like Chanyeol might be all about the physical connections, while you... seem to focus most of your energy inwards.”

Chen’s eyes widened.

“What was that about Chanyeol?”

“Now you’re interested? You’re so predictable. What would you say if I told you he and his counterpart were in a fight to the death, right now?”

“...I’d say you were trying to manipulate me”, Chen answered, trying to keep his cool.

“Really? That’s interesting. You know I know that you couldn’t spot him on the screens just now, right? So where could he be...? Outside, perhaps?”

Just as he said that a flash of light appeared through the small gap left by the still slightly open door. The light flickered, then died down, but Chen’s heartbeat did the opposite. The timing had been impeccable.

“...No!” he exclaimed, recognising the orange shade of the light as fire.

“He might be out there! So what’re you going to do?” The other Chen was speaking a bit more frantically, like he was getting more excited by the second. There was a glow of something in his eyes, joy perhaps, or rather schadenfreude, and Chen noticed that one of the eyes was a pale blue, contrasting to the other dark one.

“Are you going to help your friends? Are you going to save Chanyeol? What would he do, if you saved him? How would he thank you, you’d imagine? I bet he’d be really grateful...” the other trailed off but kept his eyes on Chen, giving him a knowing glance and his dark red lips once. Chen felt humiliated by what the other was trying to imply, as well as afraid that they really had some kind of mental connection. But most of all, he was scared that Chanyeol was in danger.

“You know I know your weaknesses; I’ve seen everything... Your secrets, your deepest desires-“

“Shut it!” Chen exclaimed, not being able to bear any more of this. He lifted his arms in front of him and got ready to focus all his powers forwards, when... nothing happened. For some reason, he couldn’t gather his energy, like there was nothing to be gathered. Like it didn’t exist in the first place.

“I know you don’t like to fight, but I really thought you would try me sooner”, the other Chen said with a sigh, “I really had to rile you up, huh?” He rolled his eyes, his ridiculous eyelashes fluttering.

“Why isn’t...” Chen uttered, not being able to finish his sentence. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate as if he was somewhere completely else, unbothered, and yet, he could not find a single spark within him. He opened his eyes again and looked down on his hands in desperation.

“There is really a connection, a bond...” the creature in front of him said, and Chen lifted his gaze. He once again saw lights flicker from outside the room, and his heart felt heavier.

“Why... why aren’t you...?” he tried, but thought of something mid-sentence. If there really was some sort of bond, like the imposter was saying, maybe he couldn’t use his powers against Chen either? And that could be why he, although having been alone with his target for so long, only had been talking. Making no attempts to do physical harm at all. But, if they were the same, Chen supposed a fight would be rather pointless as they would be equally strong. Whatever he did, the other Chen could also do.

Instead of trying again, Chen turned his back to the other, finally having found the strength to face the screens again. He trusted that this connection worked both ways, that the other Chen wouldn’t attack him for the brief moment he was checking the area. After all, he seemed to have been there for quite a while without even making a sound before.

There was no Suho to be seen in the corridor he’d been in before, so Chen let his gaze travel across the screens. He spotted Sehun carrying a bow and arrows, having brought an additional weapon for safety; however, Chen noticed that the amount of arrows was much smaller than what he’d originally brought, as well as the fact that his movements were hasty and frantic, and that Sehun was clutching his chest. This made him worried, but he couldn’t see anyone else in the vicinity though, so Sehun might have escaped whatever it was he had fought. Chen’s eyes continued searching the screens, and shifted a little bit to the left, when he saw... something absolutely terrifying. He couldn’t help but gasp.

It was Suho, all alone in a small room, a room that appeared to give off a blue sheen. The fact that he was there by himself might have been reassuring if it wasn’t for the fact that he was suspended into the air, hanging as limp as a doll. Was he unconscious? Or worse? Why was he floating? What had the imposter done to him?

None of these questions could be answered by Chen, and he didn’t even have time to think about it when he felt a pair of hands around his waist and a familiar, breathy voice in his ear.

“Oh, something’s happened? Maybe you should have kept better watch...”

The fear and frustration reached a tipping point within Chen, and he did what he should have done to begin with: he turned quickly on the spot, smacking his elbow into the other Chen’s face, rendering him immovable for a moment. It was oddly satisfying, in spite of his victim being a mirror image of himself.

The other grabbed his cheek in pain and took a few steps backwards, giving Chen a free escape route, which he immediately took, adrenaline rushing through his veins. Escape was the only option. He didn’t know if the imposter would follow him or not, but he looked over his shoulder as he passed through the door, and saw the other just standing there, watching him leave. Letting him leave. Regardless, Chen slammed the door shut behind him.

He sprinted down the corridor and passed another door, then saw a window to his left, light still shining through it. Looking out, Chen spotted a menacingly large ring of fire on the ground, but no Chanyeol. He had definitely just been there, though, judging by how the fire was still thriving.

Right. The plan was to find one of them, any of them, preferably Suho but he might need another’s help to rescue him. So Chen ran down the stairs he’d originally come from, turning his head now and then to ensure that the other Chen wasn’t behind him. He did not seem to have followed him out of the room, but Chen still felt something telling him he probably wasn’t far away. He turned a corner, ran through another corridor, then sprinted down another set of stairs, then turned to the right and...

Suddenly, he bumped into someone else. Immediately thinking it was the imposter again, Chen scoffed, then he looked up only to realise how much taller the other person was.

“Chen!” Chanyeol’s deep voice uttered, as unsubtle as expected of him. Not even caring that this might have revealed them to enemy ears, Chen felt like embracing the other in relief. He kept himself from doing it, though he could not stop a whine from escaping his mouth.

“Cha- Chanyeol, are you okay?” he asked, trying to sound as calm as possible but probably failed to. “I saw the lights coming from outside, the fire, was that you?”

The desperation in his voice did not seem to escape Chanyeol.

“Ah, yeah, I’m fine, I’m all right”, Chanyeol said, but quieted down when he saw Chen’s gaze on his singed clothes. “Well, I’m okay at least. There was some trouble; I got into a battle.”

He almost said the last bit with pride, Chen noted. It was typical of Chanyeol to refer to a fight as a battle. Although Chen supposed it might have been accurate of this one, if they both could use their powers against each other.

“It was my guy, that other Chanyeol”, Chanyeol continued, “I think those people must be like exaggerated versions of ourselves, because he was mad strong. Really put up a fight, insane at using his- I mean, my powers. But I still made it.”

It was also typical of Chanyeol to humblebrag about something like this. The only reason anyone would think that Chanyeol’s imposter was an exaggerated version of him would be if they already thought of him as strong. And while Chanyeol was kind of impressively strong, Chen wasn’t sure that he agreed with this hypothesis. After all, he could not see himself in the other Chen, and would in all honesty be offended if anyone thought they were alike.

“I don’t know if...” he started, then shook the thought out of his head. He didn’t feel like telling Chanyeol that much about the other Chen, and what he had said... Also, as if the other was still in his brain, the thought of being especially relieved that Chanyeol in particular had made it out safe struck him; Chen had to tell himself that no, that wasn’t the case - he would be equally relieved for any of them.

“You could use your powers?” Chen instead asked, and Chanyeol furrowed his brows questioningly.

“Yeah? I mean, he could too, but... what about it?”

“I couldn’t use mine! Not in front of him at least!”

“Him? You mean your guy? You met him?”

“Yes... he just talked to me weirdly, he didn’t attack me or anything, but he tried to... provoke me, I think”, Chen hesitantly said, remembering it all with embarrassment, “so when I finally tried to attack him I couldn’t! I had no energy within me!”

“That’s strange... I had no problems at all”, Chanyeol said.

“He said something about a connection, that we all had different connections... I thought it was just something he said, but then... He said our connection was, like, psychological, while someone like you had a more physical bond”, Chen tried to explain without sounding completely mental.

Chanyeol squinted his eyes a little. Chen quite liked the concentrated look on his face - but this was not the time for that.

“Well, I don’t know. If by physical you mean that we battled, then yeah I guess... But he’s not here now, is he? Can you use your powers now?”

Maybe it was a bad idea, because Chen did not have the most subtle of powers, but he was really itching to try. Immediately when he tried to concentrate he felt the energy flowing inside him, and nothing at all stopped him from focussing it to his hands. With a zap, a burst of lightning released itself from his open palms, lighting up the entire corridor with a flash before disappearing again, as fleeting as the moment itself.

Chanyeol had jumped slightly when it had happened (to Chen’s amusement), but soon gathered himself.

“Wow, you seem alright”, he said and Chen nodded. Strange. Perhaps it really was when the other Chen was around that he couldn’t do it.

“You know what, maybe it isn’t only me”, he pondered, “you know how Baekhyun and Sehun brought weapons along with them?”

Chanyeol nodded. Baekhyun had brought a sword since his powers weren’t of the combative kind, and Sehun had just brought his bow and arrows for backup. His winds were strong enough to blow a person away, but only during the right conditions. A small room might not be ideal for that type of attack but at least he could keep the enemy out of his range by protecting himself with what was basically a storm.

“I saw Sehun running around, and he had clearly used a lot of his arrows”, Chen continued, “maybe he wasn’t able to use his powers either.”

“Really? Why didn’t you ask him?”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you. I saw him through one of the cameras in the security room, that’s where I was before”, Chen explained.

“Security room? Did... did you see me, then?” Chanyeol asked, almost sounding a bit nervous. Chen raised an eyebrow.

“No, I... I don’t think there were any cameras outside. If there was one, it can’t have been working. A lot of them didn’t seem to work. But I did see the flashes of light coming from outside, and figured...” he trailed off when his gaze landed on Chanyeol’s left arm. “You’re injured!”

His clothes had been burnt right off his forearm, and the skin had been singed in the process, although the worst bit was a sizeable wound stretching around half his forearm. It was recent, however most of the blood had dried, leaving a nasty looking dark red and brown cover.

“It’s okay, I’m fine”, Chanyeol repeated, “I can take a bit of fire, yeah? This is nothing, really. He just managed to take me by surprise; he’s kind of a violent bastard.”

Chen gently traced his fingers over the uninjured part of Chanyeol’s forearm. He couldn’t believe he missed that, though, his eyes had mostly been focussed on Chanyeol’s face while the two of them were speaking.

“I can’t do anything about it... We would have to find Lay for this-“

He suddenly realised what his original purpose had been, before he got distracted by the presence of a wounded Chanyeol.

“No, wait, we need to find Suho!”

“What for?” Chanyeol asked, startled by Chen’s sudden outburst.

“He... I saw him through one of the cameras, and he was... floating, sort of...” Chen’s fingers found their way down Chanyeol’s forearm and grabbed his hand. Almost panicking, thinking about the time they’d lost, Chen took the lead and started running, Chanyeol following right behind with his hand still attached to the other’s.

“Floating?” Chanyeol asked as they made their way down the corridor.

“Yeah, he was unconscious, it looked really scary! And he had been followed by this other guy, the Suho imposter... I think he must have been attacked”, Chen explained. “We need to find him.”

They crossed a corner and went down a large staircase. There were two doors in front of them which thankfully could easily be pushed open.

“Wait- Chen-“, Chanyeol said between breaths. “Where are we even going?”

Chen stopped. Where were they going?

“I don’t know”, he said. “Don’t know where the camera was. I just want to find him.”

“What about this place...?” Chanyeol said, looking around. It was a very large, open room, with walls, pillars and floor all in rather dirty-looking concrete. The surroundings were pretty dark except for a small number of lights attached to the pillars. It looked like a sizeable, yet quite dank, garage.

“This is not it at all”, Chen said, remembering Suho’s room as small and quite bright and blue-ish. It was obvious that this wasn't the same place; though, his legs had brought him there as if they were programmed to do so. It had just felt strangely right in the moment.

He was just about to turn around when they both heard steps and saw a figure emerging from behind one of the pillars.

The other Chen walked up towards them. Chen had no idea how he had made his way there before them, but there he was, in all his devilish glory. He looked at him, and looked back at Chanyeol, whose already wide eyes were wider, a cautious expression on his handsome face.

“Is that... your guy?” he asked hesitantly, still not being able to take his eyes off the puzzling creature in front of them. Chen just hummed for an answer, feeling sweat starting to gather on his skin again.

The other Chen smirked widely as he eyed the two of them.

“It’s nice to see you two here together...” he drawled out, and with that Chen realised he was still holding Chanyeol’s hand. He immediately released his grip, not wanting to make things worse.

“So you found Chanyeol at last. Seems like he made it out whole... or, well, almost”, the other Chen continued, gaze lingering on Chanyeol’s wounded arm.

“Where’s Suho?” Chen asked; it was at least worth a shot.

The other Chen shrugged.

“How should I know? I came here for you. Chanyeol here was originally a bonus, but then I thought of something...”

He snapped his fingers once and turned his head to say “why don’t you come out!”. After this, another person appeared from the shadows, a somewhat larger form...

Chanyeol tensed up beside him at the sight of his doppelgänger. Of course, he knew what the other could do. Chen, on the other hand had no idea what to expect and was still taken aback. He looked wild, dangerous, with his untamed hair and dirtied face, small burns and old scars decorating his skin. As he came closer Chen spotted that his eyes were pale, one of them a starch white looking at them madly.

Not saying a word, only staring them down like a predator analysing its prey, the other Chanyeol went to stand next to Chen’s imposter. Chen himself tried not to flush under the gaze of the newcomer. Instead he turned towards Chanyeol, the real Chanyeol, and asked,
“I thought you might’ve defeated him...”

Chanyeol, who looked extremely stiff, flinched slightly at being spoken to.

“Ah, well, about that...” he began, “I was... trying to create a shield of fire between me and him while I was running back towards the building... But when it died down he had disappeared. I don’t know where he went.”

“Oh... It had sounded like you beat him.”

Chanyeol nervously shifted his gaze a little, and a chuckle was heard from the other Chen.

“Are you disappointed in him?” he asked delightedly.

“Wh- No! Shut up! We need you guys alive anyway to tell us what you really want. And who you are”, Chen exclaimed.

“Oh, of course. You’re not one for violence. Well, it’s not like you could defeat us anyway... We are you.”

Chanyeol looked very perplexed over the other Chen, including the words coming out of his mouth.

“But that’s ridiculous!” he shouted. “We’re standing right here! I don’t know you... or him.”

He pointed towards the other Chanyeol briefly, then moved his hand away, as well as his gaze. His mannerisms did not escape the other Chen.

“Ah? Could it be that the brave Chanyeol, afraid of nothing, is actually... afraid of himself?” he smirked and looked at Chanyeol’s doppelgänger appreciatively, like he was happy with the job of the other. Said creature had still not said a word. Chen began to suspect that this Chanyeol actually was an opposite of the real one, seeing as he otherwise would have opened his mouth by now. Which would also bring legitimacy to his theory that his own doppelgänger was his opposite, as well.

“I’m not exactly your opposite, rather, I am you”, the other Chen said smugly and Chen was so startled he had to take a step back. Chanyeol finally moved his gaze from the other Chen to look at him, taken aback by his reaction.

“Stop that!”

“Yes, I can tell what you’re thinking”, the other Chen continued, “and you’re not exactly wrong. You see, you have some qualities that make you a rather good person. Foolish, but good. You’re selfless, you’re caring. But you’re still a person. You’re bound to have bad sides, too, bad sides that you push away with all your might so that you don’t become that person. Someone you would fear becoming.”

The other Chen looked down at his hands nonchalantly, spinning one of his multiple rings.

“All of the things you suppress will build up inside of you from not being let out... And once they are large enough they will manifest themselves in another form.”

“You’re selfish, manipulative...” Chen said, coming closer to reaching the conclusion. This applied to all of them. As far as he could tell, the other Chanyeol was cold, far from the warmth of the real Chanyeol. Was this the actual explanation behind these creatures? Could he really believe that this realistically could happen?

“You’ve chosen not to be”, the other Chen said, still smiling annoyingly. “But there are more sides to you that you suppress. Emotions and such that you don’t want to feel, be it inappropriate or worse...”

The other Chen threw a glance towards the Chanyeol beside him, the rough and quite scary-looking, yet somehow alluring, Chanyeol...

“Or selfish desires that would inconvenience you if let out...” the imposter continued, and Chen finally caught up with the direction of this conversation.

“No!” he shouted, as if that would stop the other. Chanyeol looked at him, wide-eyed after his sudden outburst, then looked back at the other Chen.

“I’m not really following...” he said, confusion apparent on his face. The other Chen grinned even wider at this.

“I think it’s easier to show than to explain”, he said offhandedly, “Lucky for me I have the privilege of being able to take advantage of others.”

Because I never do it, Chen thought, but that was about where his brain stopped working properly. Because what suddenly happened in front of him made his head feel shockingly blank.

The other Chen motioned for the attractively mad-looking Chanyeol to come closer, and once he did, he placed one hand on the side of his face, and the other one on Chanyeol’s chest. He then tippy-toed, leaned forward, and started kissing him. It started off slow, enough for all thoughts to exit Chen’s head then slowly resume functioning again, but then, as if to prove a point, the other did it with more and more vigour.

The two of them stood there for a considerable amount of seconds, frozen in place while watching the bizarre scene unfold in front of them. Not that Chen knew exactly how attentive Chanyeol was to the whole thing, there was no way he could look at the other right now. Or, after this probably never again.

The other Chen s his hand around the back of Chanyeol’s doppelgänger’s neck, the other hand tightly grabbing onto his jacket, as he drew him in even more. The visual of their lips overlapping was disturbing to Chen, knowing that their lips were exactly the same as his and Chanyeol’s own, making the action as close as they possibly could get to it actually happening for real. Between the real Chanyeol and himself. He was humiliated, and mad at the other Chen, mad at the way he used his body to grapple onto the other Chanyeol like he was desperate for his attention and making him look like some kind of lusty deviant, by extension. In front of Chanyeol, no less. He hated this version of himself with all of his being.

Obviously there could be no emotion involved between these two creatures; Chen was sure the other just did it to provoke him, but he almost made it look like it.

What was perhaps the most humiliating of all was that a slight, only a slight, part of the rage Chen felt towards his imposter had to do with a feeling of envy. Like he wanted to be in his position instead. Luckily, this was only a tiny feeling but it was still there, itching him in the corner of his brain. How did this version of himself get to kiss that alluring version of Chanyeol?

Because at first, it did not look like the other Chanyeol cared much for it at all. Which was probably true, the man seemed not to be able to feel any emotions at all (very much unlike the real Chanyeol). He was completely static, just putting up with it, until the other Chen parted with him for a split second to look Chen directly in the eyes and smirk wickedly. Apparently this was when he let go of some of his control, because at that moment, the previously apathetic other Chanyeol used his strong-looking hands to grab the lining of the other Chen’s suit jacket, pulling him back into his vicinity in a less than gentle fashion and by extension opening up his suit just a little. From what Chen could tell the other had not been expecting it, but followed along nonetheless. They seemed to continue what they’d started until the other Chen released a loud gasp into his partner’s mouth. When they parted he immediately wiped his lower lip with the back of his hand, the red blood against his pale skin making it glaringly obvious what had happened. Chen started too, as if he’d been the one who got bitten.

This moment seemed to be what brought Chanyeol back to his senses.

“Stop it!” he shouted. “That’s ed up!”

Both of the others gave him a look, and with a smile, the other Chen threw himself at the other Chanyeol again, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. The taller of the two opened his mouth slightly to off the remaining blood from the other Chen’s lower lip. By then, the real Chen started feeling nauseous. It was too much. And he was unable to do anything. He just felt like giving up, dying of embarrassment and humiliation.

What saved him from succumbing to these thoughts was the sudden appearance of a voice behind them.

“Oh, there you guys are-“

The sentence was left unfinished, but both Chanyeol and Chen turned around to see Suho behind them, shock and confusion plastered on his face. A face that was still shiningly wet. This also applied to his hair and clothes, which were all dripping with water.

Chen swallowed. This wasn’t the ideal situation to be found in. He turned back towards the imposters to see how bad the ordeal really looked, but to his surprise found nothing. The area was completely empty. He shifted his gaze towards Chanyeol, who was equally as confused.

“Where’d they go?” he voiced aloud, moving his head around in different directions. It was very strange. They had just turned around for a second or two.

Half expecting Suho to have disappeared as well, Chen turned towards him and was met with the sight of his still bewildered expression.

“Was... was that...” he began, but stopped once he saw the look on their faces.

“Suho! You’re fine!” Chen exclaimed, delighted over this new information but also trying to leave the previous situation behind them. Suho was probably courteous enough to follow his drift.

“What... what happened to you?” Chanyeol asked, on the same page as Chen. Suho looked between the two of them, then jerked slightly, awakening from a state of daze.

“Ah! I was... I met the imposter. My imposter. It was strange, I walked towards this little room, but it wasn’t like I was doing it on my own accord... It was like I had this thought planted in my head that I needed to go there, but I didn’t know why, all I knew was that my legs were taking me there. And once I was in the room, he just appeared behind me. I didn’t see him at first, but then he grabbed my arms and forced my hands behind my back, and he leaned forward to whisper...”

Suho visibly shuddered.

“He’s kind of wicked, but still intelligent. Like he’s some kind of... evil mastermind. He could use my powers, too, I don’t know why, but... I seemed to be extra weak against them.”

“I saw you through a security camera and went looking for you”, Chen explained, realising what the blue sheen of the room really was, “it looked really bad.”

“I nearly drowned”, Suho confessed and Chanyeol gasped.

“But water is your-“

“I know! His powers were just... special. Too much for me. I couldn’t even move... I managed to escape when he all of a sudden disappeared.”

“Just like ours”, Chen commented and looked towards Chanyeol for a split second. He couldn’t face him for a longer period of time; the embarrassment was still fresh and burning beneath his skin.

He was disappointed in himself for taking the bait and really getting manipulated. Maybe that other Chen truly was a part of himself, since he seemed to figure out his weaknesses so well. If Suho hadn’t showed up, Chen didn’t know what would have happened...

“It’s strange that they all just vanish like that. They were the ones calling us here, no? Where are they going?” Chanyeol asked, sounding irritated.

“Maybe something came up”, Suho said, scratching his wet head. “We need to find the others, though.”

“Yeah. Hopefully they’ve been left alone as well.”

Suho took the lead as the three of them left the area, walking up the stairs and into the dark, ominous corridors that Chen had passed previously. Chen and Chanyeol walked a bit behind him, appreciating the space he had given them. And the fact that he hadn’t asked them about the appearance of their doppelgängers, at least, not yet... He had probably noticed how bothered the topic made them.

“Hey”, Chen said quietly once Suho was out of hearing distance, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

It was unplanned, but he had to say something about what had happened, to clear things up a little. Without making them too clear.

“Hm?” Chanyeol sounded, looking at him, and Chen continued.

“My... imposter, he’s a bit... strange. I told you he wasn’t much for attacking, he rather tried to manipulate me and... provoke me to do something. I think he knew I couldn’t use my powers against him. I didn’t expect him to go so far in his provocations, though... So, if you were disturbed...”

Chanyeol shook his head.

“It’s not your fault. I mean, my guy was also involved, and it has nothing to do with me, so why would you be at blame?”

“Well... I...” Chen started, but stopped himself. Maybe Chanyeol hadn’t taken note of what the other Chen had said? That would almost be too fortunate. If he did, however, Chen would try to deny it being true. Desperately.

“It seems like everyone’s different. I mean, your guy was kind of cold and violent, and Suho’s was sneaky... I guess it’s not that weird that everyone’s personalities are different. I just feel like I have the worst one.” Chen sighed.

“Well, that’s your opinion. At least he didn’t do this to you”, Chanyeol said and lifted his injured arm a bit.

“Different kinds of bad”, Chen said. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“So you... wait”, Chen stopped, realising something. “Why didn’t you attack them when you had the chance? You know I couldn’t do anything, but you still had your powers, right? They were just standing there.”

This was especially weird considering how trigger happy Chanyeol usually was. Maybe he, too, had been so shocked he couldn’t act?

“I... uh. I think I was just too distracted, at first, but then... I mean, it was you. Or, your guy. I don’t think I could bring myself to do that to you.”

Chanyeol looked at him once then turned away. Chen felt a breath catch in his throat.

“But-“ he said, stopping for a short cough. “But it wasn’t me! It was just the imposter!”

“Similar enough, I guess. I don’t think I could ever raise my hands to hurt a comrade. Not you, at least.”

Chen was quiet. This sudden confession had touched him, in all honesty, though he was still bothered by the notion that he was similar to his imposter. Which he didn’t feel was true at all.

Chanyeol suddenly caught his gaze again, and the look made Chen’s whole body heat up. He needed a distraction, fast.

“He’s really not that similar to me. You saw the way he looked, the way he was dressed? Not to mention his awful personality...” Chen didn’t care if the imposter was still somewhere in the vicinity, or still able to hear his thoughts. In fact, he rather welcomed it.

“Well. I mean, it’s still your mirror image...”

Chen shook his head.

“He’s like my opposite!”

There was really a point to pushing himself as far away from the image of the other as possible. Chanyeol couldn’t find out the extent of how much his real emotions were reflected in the actions of the other. Not if Chen were to decide.

“I guess - he said something about having the qualities you suppress...” Chanyeol said, scratching his wounded arm in a way that made Chen wince.

“Exactly! He did things I would never do”, he tried to explain, although that wasn’t the full truth. According to the other Chen’s words, he was everything the real Chen attempted to remove from himself. All the emotions he stowed away and never let out. If that was true, Chen didn’t know.

“Mine’s similar in some ways, I guess, but we have some obvious differences”, Chanyeol continued, sounding unbothered by their conversation so far. “He’s kind of a freaky bastard but at least he’s good looking, right?”

Of course he would say that.

Before Chen could even process what he was saying, he let out a “yeah”. Stupidly enough.

“Huh?” Chanyeol asked, and Chen felt his face burn in a way that only Chanyeol could cause it to.

“Whatever”, he mumbled but Chanyeol didn’t seem to hear.

“What, better than me?” he asked, and Chen was surprised by how unamused he sounded.

“Yeah. Everything’s better than you”, he finally ended up saying, trying to save this disaster of a situation.

“Ah, really”, Chanyeol said, thankfully with a small laugh accompanying it. “I wish I could say the same about yours, but he’s kinda weird...”

Chanyeol made some kind of gesture with his hands to indicate craziness, Chen supposed.

“Yeah”, he couldn’t help but agree.

“Hard to understand why the other me would go for someone like him”, Chanyeol asked aloud and Chen nearly choked on air.

“What? Don’t you get it?!” he frantically exclaimed, looking at Chanyeol with disbelieving eyes. “They just did that to psych us out! They don’t care!”

His reaction had only seemed to amuse Chanyeol.

“I don’t know...” he started, a mischievous smile starting to make itself apparent on his lips, “what if they were, you know....”

“Absolutely not”, Chen huffed. “Stop it.”
He had to admit he was a little envious of Chanyeol’s ability to distance himself so much from his doppelgänger. Like he didn’t worry about his own emotional connection to the other. Maybe there wasn’t one.

“Are you done bickering?” Suho suddenly asked, turning halfway towards them with a raised eyebrow. Again, Chen’s face felt warmer. How much of that had he heard?

“What about it?” Chanyeol asked, wrapping his uninjured arm around Chen’s shoulders. It was probably just to indicate that they were fine and not bickering at all, Chen thought, but appreciated it nonetheless.

“I think I heard something coming from over there”, Suho said and pointed towards a large door a few metres in front of them labelled “Storage #9”.

“Let’s go investigate, then”, Chanyeol said loudly. “Right?”

Chen nodded as Chanyeol squeezed his shoulders once, feeling like the overly affectionate act was a bit too much.

“Can’t be worse than the things we’ve seen already”, he said. Not that he believed they would find anything out of the ordinary. It was probably just one of the others, hopefully in a safe condition. And even though it seemed like the imposters were gone, Chen thought with a shudder that they most likely hadn’t seen the last of them yet. The mystery was unsolved, but now he kind of knew what to expect. Perhaps he’d be able to prepare himself better for the next time.

As they headed towards the door, Chen felt Chanyeol lean a bit closer to him. The spot on his shoulder where Chanyeol’s hand was touching him was already too hot, and he could now feel the heat radiating from Chanyeol’s body next to him.

“You know what”, Chanyeol whispered, still smiling almost conspiratorially, “I half-lied about your guy. He’s kind or weird, sure, kind of freaky, but also kind of attractive. Maybe you should try out his look some time.”

Chanyeol hadn’t even used his fire powers yet Chen was close to overheating. Perhaps the other Chen had been right; this was his greatest weakness.

“We'll... we'll keep what happened a secret, right?” he managed to ask; the breath leaving his mouth also felt too hot.

“Of course”, Chanyeol grinned, “just between the two of us.”

 

 

a/n: i hope i didn't make it too confusing with the 'other chen's etc.

in the mv, jongdae's character intrigues me since the others basically fight their counterparts, but all the other chen does is just sit there looking pretty. lol. that's my only explanation for this mess.

hope you liked it!