Warning: This prequel spoils a little of the rest of the story so I'd recommend reading this after reading the preceding chapters =3=)/ (But if you don't care--I'm not gonna stop ya ha). Hope ya like~

???, ???, April 29 (Evening)

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Suddenly, Lay stands up with his hands clenched into fists and his head lowered in regret. Sweat drips down his forehead from all the energy he's used up and he's scowling after his argument with Tao. Baekhyun quickly moves to place his hand on his back to comfort him and Chanyeol looks at them with a frown before looking outside at the fallen soldiers and then up at the ship's ceiling where Luhan's still at.

He then scrunches up his face in sympathy at the other's long-held position and starts imagining ways to get him down while Sehun moves back to guard the ship. He imagines creating a ball of fire and having the smoke from it float up and do...well, anything. But then he scraps that idea after imagining his friends coughing to death, and turns to look at the space-ship's control panel. If he set fire to that then things would probably turn out even worse.

This whole situation's some bull, he thinks.

---

While the others are trying to figure what to do next, Sehun stares blankly at the fallen soldiers outside. Fallen or not, he doesn't trust anything today.

Nothing's this easy.

With a sigh, he turns his head to look at his friends and his eyes widen at the sight of them all now crowding around Kris. So, he rushes back over to see what's wrong, and just as he reaches them, he and the others hear a piercing scream coming from above and quickly lift their heads to the ceiling. There they see a very awake and panicky Luhan still connected to the ceiling by the anti-gravity belt. Kris is awake too, and after looking around at everything with utter confusion and fear, he slowly asks his friends what the is going on.

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun quickly summarize what happened, while above them, Luhan continues to scream with his breathing getting more and more ragged. He's too focused on how the floor seems so far away and how it's gonna kill him if he falls that he can't use his power even if he tried.

", Luhan--quit it!" Kris shouts, clutching one of his temples.

Meanwhile, Tao keeps sweating more and more while trying to find a different time-path than this current one. The exhaustion quickly becomes too much and he just about manages to let out a They're awake to his friends before his eyes roll to the back of his head and he drops to the ground. Sehun automatically reaches for him first while a few of the others warn him not to and he lets out a sigh when nothing happens as he cradles Tao into his arms.

Chanyeol looks down at Tao with furrowed eyebrows. "What's so bad about them being awake?"

"Unless..." Baekhyun says while watching Tao groggily wake up in Sehun's arms a few seconds later. "!"

They all start freaking out and Kai races to check the entrance only to quickly duck his head behind the wall. They watch him and judging by the terrified expression on his face when he turns around--they're all screwed.

Tao tries to lift a hand to rewind time again but Sehun lowers it and pleads for Lay to heal him. But before he can do that, Kyungsoo looks from Kai to Lay and asks if he can check Kris' energy. Lay looks from him to Kris and purses his lips as he bends down to feel his forehead with a hand.

Sehun has to keep lowering Tao's hand while telling him to stop and Kris leans back a bit while Lay's hand hovers above his forehead. After a quick moment of silence, Lay gives a hint of a smile and tells them that Kris' energy flow isn't being blocked anymore. Kyungsoo lets out a relieved sigh and watches as Lay moves to heal Kris before turning to look at Kai who's peeking outside of the entrance again. Lay places a hand above Kris' heart and the majority of them watch as little healing wisps fall from his palm and work their magic.

At the entrance, Kai watches as two very much awake soldiers extend their hands out to their fallen comrades. Red-colored magic glows from their gloved palms and he's not sure if they're helping their fallen comrades or doing some kind of cannibalistic-like sacrifice.

Kyungsoo suddenly whispers Kai's name and he turns to look at him only to tense up when the ship's power suddenly cuts off. They all start freaking out again (besides Kyungsoo who only looks around with wider eyes than normal) and Kai swivels his head from his friends back to the outside only to let out a gasp.

All four of the soldiers are gone.

---

After Kai returns to them and hurriedly tells them of what he saw, Chanyeol wraps his arms around a stunned Baekhyun and squeezes him like his life depends on it. Kyungsoo puffs out his cheeks while trying to stay calm and watches as Lay moves from Kris to Tao before asking Baekhyun to create some light so they can all see better. With his lips in, Baekhyun nods and quickly creates multiple white light wisps and disperses them into the air to illuminate things.

Then, Kyungsoo stops Kris as the latter starts to float upwards to get Luhan and tells him to carry him so that he can break the belt.

"Uh...okay," Kris says, flitting his eyes from a jealous-looking Kai to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo then lifts his hands up to be carried and Kris almost laughs at the other's serious face as he does this before he floats over and lifts him up into his arms. Kyungsoo awkwardly shifts around as they float upwards and Chen watches them with dead eyes while hugging himself. The others watch them go as well and as the two get closer to Luhan, Kyungsoo gently calls out Luhan's name to try and get him to look at them and calm down. Chen shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath, and Baekhyun (with Chanyeol still clinging to him) rubs his back to try and comfort him.

Suddenly, Tao calls out Chanyeol's name and Chanyeol and the others whip their heads to look at him only to follow where his finger's pointing to. Lay, who'd been focused on healing Tao, pauses to look as well and tenses in alarm at the sight of the four red force soldiers slowly walking towards the entrance. Sehun curses (more at himself for not staying guard at the door), and Chen stares in shock at the sight of the soldiers that he thought he...killed.

Above them, Kyungsoo grabs onto the top and bottom of the anti-gravity belt, and with gritted teeth, yanks and rips apart the belt--causing Luhan to fall onto Kris' other open arm.

", get me down get me down! Please!" Luhan cries and Kris quickly lets out a long exhale and floats down towards the ground.

Down below, Chanyeol finally reacts the closer that the soldiers get and quickly pulls away from Baekhyun to launch a fire-tornado at them before they can enter. The soldiers' bodies twitch in and out of reality and they telepathically scream out noises of terror and agony to his mind. Chanyeol yells out in pain while he expends his energy but instead of them falling down like he hopes, the soldiers start laughing in his head and continue advancing towards him and his friends.

Then, a searing light strikes at them and momentarily distracts them from using their powers, and he turns his head while huffing and puffing to see Baekhyun right behind him, shooting out light-beams at the soldiers who just won't go down. The two of them back away while the soldier's raise their glowing hands and Chanyeol has to stop to catch his breath just as Kris' feet fully touch the floor. Kyungsoo watches his friends (the others too scared to react) and the soldiers with a furious expression on his fa