A/N - this is 12K; [I lied it's 13K]  unbeta-ed (let's face it, all my chapters are) and there's a lil gorey scene half way through oops spoilers ok enjoy <3

The singing haunts her in her sleep. It infiltrates her screeching eardrums, wraps around her insides and holds on with an unshakable iron grip. Merciless, maddening, beautiful beyond measure. It leaves her dreams drenched with sound.

It only grows louder as the seconds tick by. More clamorous. More deafening. More hungry. Tears flood her eyes, an ocean in turmoil. And though she tries to cover her ears, to block it out, to not fall for the sickly sweet timbre that carries in every note, she detects her defences slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Until finally, finally she gives in, lets the music wash over her like a stormy wave upon the sand, rewriting her fear into peace; until she longs to succumb to such euphonious music. Jump in headfirst into the turbulent waters below.

The honeyed harmonies dampen her clothes, soak her skin, drag her under the water's tremulous surface into the murky darkness. She's busy drowning in sound when she sees it.

A brief glimpse of yellow eyes that glow from the pits of the ocean. Sharp. Menacing. Bewitching.

They focus on her, narrowed on their target.

Their prey.

"You can't hide from me little one. I am inside of you. There is no escape," they call out to her. Even rasping, hissing threats sound so sugary sweet and saccharine in this world. If she were not so terrified she would hand herself over oh, so willingly.

She feels it coming closer. The owner of the eyes. Closer and closer, nearer and nearer still, until eventually, the darkness fades just enough for the eerie presence to take on its wretchedly beautiful form-

Seulgi awakens with a jolt, soaked in sweat that rests cold over her burning body. She sits up immediately, pulling her knees up to her chin while she shakes and chatters her teeth together, whispering practised words of condolence to herself as fresh tears mar her cheeks, running as icy as the bones beneath her skin.

"It wasn't real. It wasn't real. You're safe. You're-"

Something stirs beside her. A quiet rustling of bed sheets setting every hair on her body on end.

It's a hand. It's reaching out for her. Trying to grab her. Trying to-

She screams, kicking her feet out at the limb, pressing herself up against the headboard of the bed. Crying out for mercy between the bruising, heaving movements of her lungs.

"No! No! No!" she begs, moisture obscuring her vision. She doesn't see who the hand belongs to. Just knows she has to get away.

"Seulgi," a soft, concerned voice calls out to her. Not sickly sweet as the one in her dream had been, but croaky and dry from the remaining flakes of sleep that cling to the owner's vocal chords. Cracking. Real. Human. It has her shouts dying down in .

Baekhyun, she realises, had been sleeping on the floor next to her bed and he looks up at her now, features contorted into an expression of worry. Oh, she thinks, suddenly feeling like a fool as her rapid breathing slows down to a more normal pace. She remembers begging him to stay last night, out of fear that her nightmares would return. She had been right.

He climbs up onto the bed next to her, movements carried out purposely slowly as if encountering a spooked animal but Seulgi takes no time in throwing her arms around him and releasing shuddered sobs into his chest.

"Another nightmare?" he asks her though he doesn't need much of a reply to know the answer. The spell of nightmares plague her every night, like a record stuck on repeat. Relentless. She relaxes enough under the soft touch he traces over the crown of her head to nod anyways.

He sighs quietly as he holds her shaking frame against his, enveloping her in whatever heat his cold body can offer her. She never tells him what she dreams of, what she sees at night that gets her so spooked. She's too secretive about her nightmares. Too secretive about herself as a whole. She's only a child and yet she holds so many secrets under her skin, holds back so many emotions. It won't do her any good, Baekhyun would know from personal experience. He has yet to know more about her: where she came from, where her parents are, what she had done to have wound up in a prison cell. And yet Baekhyun reckons none of that really matters to him. He's going to keep looking after her, keep protecting her no matter what. Even if she were to turn out to be a mass murderer, he himself would rather die at her hands before he let the little girl down.

When Baekhyun finally feels Seulgi's breathing evening out, tense body turning limp in his hold as she drifts off into a more peaceful sleep, he lays her head down to rest against soft pillows and pulls the duvet up to her chin. He presses a soft kiss to her forehead, smoothing over the skin with the pad of his thumb and silently wishes her sweet dreams before exiting the room, closing the door with a soft click.

( A child in a prison cell, he thinks to himself bitterly. How nostalgic.

He won't let her turn out like him. )

//

The sun greets Baekhyun, its light rays streaming in through the large windows, when he finally slinks back into his bedroom, feet heavy and mind cloudy. It's the strange sight for someone like Baekhyun who has grown accustomed to surroundings of pitch back, eerie darkness and it's not all that comforting either, for it only reminds the man that they have yet to depart from Solaria.

He sighs upon shutting the door to his room, the long, harrowing kind that makes his ribs feel like they're collapsing in on him. He hasn't been in here since yesterday's chaotic incident with Chanyeol. He hasn't seen the male since, either. He'd left the ship last night, stating a need to reunite with his father and, "clear his head." Baekhyun thinks what he really meant was that he needed to get away from him. 

He tries not to ponder too much on the thought of whether or not Chanyeol will come back at all.

Now that he's standing in the room once more, back pressed against the door and eyes dazedly fixated on the bare, white walls, he is hit with the uncertainty of where to go from here. The future has become a blur. Unclear, almost unwelcoming - though Baekhyun supposes he has always viewed it as such. He knows there's no other choice but to keep going forwards now, but forwards to where is the question. Backwards isn't an option. It never has been.

"Kyungsoo," he grumbles, rubbing away the remaining signs of sleep that cling to the tired muscles of his face. The other male bristles from his spot on the Captain's bed, unaware that the latter had even noticed his presence. "Can I help you?"

The other male doesn't reply straight away, blinking away subtle signs of shock and taking his time to carefully structure his words, arrange them in a way that would seem the most 'sensitive' though he has no idea how to be such a thing.

"Chanyeol refuses to eat breakfast. I'm guessing yesterday went horribly?" Judging by the way Baekhyun's face stiffens at the mere mention of their hostage's name, he did not do such a good job.

"He's back?" is all Baekhyun can ask as he toes off his shoes and pushes a tuft of limp black out of his line of sight. Kyungsoo nods and spares a moment to take in his Captain's haggard appearance. He hasn't changed since getting back from Solaria yesterday and his hair is lacking it's usual shining lustre. To put it shortly, he looks like a mess.

"He is - though I did not even know he'd left. The other crew mates say he returned around dawn. From meeting his father." The accusation in Kyungsoo's voice is unbearable and he looks at Baekhyun with a hardened demeanour and squared shoulders. "Is Captain Park still alive? What, are you saving him for dessert or something?"

Baekhyun chooses to look to the window, eyes locked on the specks of dust that dance within the streams of sunlight rather than reply straight away, allowing a short silence to stretch  between the two. "Make sure Chanyeol eats," he sighs out after some thought to which Kyungsoo merely scoffs. The red head's name is ever sweet on his tongue, but it only makes his stomach churn with regret. With apology.

Despite Kyungsoo's growing impatience, he finds that his anxiety is also becoming amplified by how his Captain - his friend - who was not typically a man of many words in the first place seems a whole lot more withdrawn today than usual. He can't deal with this anymore. He needs answers. "I'll make sure to force food down his throat if you tell me what happened, Baek- I don't know anything- you avoided me all of yesterday and now you're trying to skip over the subject today too-"

"That's because nothing did happen, Kyungsoo," the Captain growls out, eyes rapidly turning glassy and red-rimmed. The Technician blinks, having a hard time reading his friend's flippant emotions when there's anything other than violent fury written across his features. He’s not used to it anymore. Has forgotten how to deal with all the vibrant emotions Baekhyun wields within his tired body for they have lied dormant for so long Kyungsoo had almost thought they were extinct.

"What," the alien garbles out, brows furrowing closer and closer together with every second he remains unanswered. Baekhyun takes to resting his body against the doorframe he has not moved away from since his entry. He tips his head back, knocking the crown of it against the door with a soft thud. And then he does it again. And again. And again. Kyungsoo's levels of unease skyrocket. He's seen so many varieties, so many shades of emotions crossing the Captain's face in the length of time that he has known him, but this helpless self-loathing just looks so wrong on him. "Baekhyun what's wrong-"

"I didn't kill him." It's spoken in a breathy whisper, barely inaudible above Kyungsoo's static, outbursts. But it resonates loudly enough to silence the most fervent of thunderstorms "I didn't kill him," he repeats just as softly when Kyungsoo’s muscles deflate and are injected with the same tiredness that never seems to leave Baekhyun.

Why? His second in command wants to ask but he finds he no longer has the will to stand and instead stumbles to take a seat on the edge of the Captain's bed, his mind nothing but a blank strip of white.

"So Chanyeol really has softened you," he muses after a short pause filled only by the incessant knocking of Baekhyun's head against hardwood. Kyungsoo doesn't dare look at him, only keeps his head angled downwards, eyes searching the floor for some sort of coping aid.

"I prefer the word changed." Kyungsoo prefers it too.

"I prefer this Baekhyun, if I'm being honest." He looks up at him now, face ever emotionless though his eyes say enough. Baekhyun reckons Kyungsoo's gotten good at this whole 'feeling' concept. "You know what this means, right? You're free, Baekhyun. Be at peace now." But Baekhyun also reckons Kyungsoo still has a long way to go before he’s good enough at lying to succeed in convincing Baekhyun that he could ever be free of all things. And Kyungsoo knows it too. He knows the Captain better than most. Peace has never come easy for him. They're just empty words said in an attempt to help the Captain to move on.

Move onto what and where, though, neither of them know.

When Baekhyun lets out the bitter mutter of "how?" that sounds as horrible as it tastes, Kyungsoo expects it. He doesn't, however, expect his voice to crack so badly, nor does he expect for the Captain to blindly stumble his way over to him, vision obscured by the tears that brim in his eyes. He doesn't expect the heart-wrenching hiccups of, "I have nothing left," to leave Baekhyun's mouth, lips pulled back to release an ugly sob that bursts from his chest like a bubble breaking. "This was my entire life's work. Finding him- killing him. It was all I was living for - if you could even have called leading such a half life living - and. And yet I let it slip right through my fingers-" Kyungsoo wonders why his throat feels so small when his Captain crashes down onto his knees by his feet. The sight of him breaking down into ugly bawling that he smothers into his lap should be enough of an answer. "I let him go. I let him go. After all this time I let him go."

It is a familiar situation; Kyungsoo humming low and comforting as he cards calloused fingers through Baekhyun's dirty hair, smoothing back raven locks and running soothing fingertips over his scalp. It is not one they've been in for a while. It is not one Kyungsoo had thought they'd ever be in again, not after Baekhyun went all rogue, tortured soul on him. But here they are, here again; Baekhyun breaking and Kyungsoo stumbling after him to try and catch all the broken pieces of him that he has no idea how to put back together. That is a job he'd thought Chanyeol had taken over: a job Kyungsoo had lost due to his incompetence. It takes a human to understand - to fix - another human.

Despite it all, Kyungsoo's just glad that Baekhyun's back. The old Baekhyun. Before all the excessive doom and gloom - though there was plenty of that back then too. If only for a moment. He does his best to be there for him. He keeps silent as he listens to the human's soft sniffles, quiet whimpers, and takes in how his body shakes against his.

After a while, Kyungsoo looks down at the black head of hair buried into his lap and sighs. He wants to ask Baekhyun what he's going to do next, what he'll do with his life now that there's little left for him out in space. He doesn't ask though, for he knows Baekhyun is as clueless to his future plans as he is.

"I told Jongin I'd go back to him," he says instead, feels like although right now might not be the best timing, Baekhyun deserves to know.

His Captain and closest friend remains without words for a while, trying to grasp onto them and process them, understand them and what they mean. What they mean for them. Kyungsoo feels as if the seconds tick by far too slowly for his liking.

"So you're going back to Technos?" he finally says, the sound of his voice cracking painful for the both of them. Not really a question, not really a statement.

"Yes." Saying the words out loud make it sound a lot more final and definite. Like the curtains closing at the end of a play. Kyungsoo doesn't like it. "You're welcome to stay with us too. Start a new life and all that, Baek." Honestly, the Technician couldn't imagine his life any other way.

Unfortunately for him, Baekhyun has never thought that far ahead and even whilst he tries to now, he just can't see himself fitting into the equation.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," is his sniffled reply.

The Technician feels a slight twist in his gut. It's a dull pang but he supposes it would hurt a lot more if he hadn't seen it coming. It forces a sigh to tumble past his lips and for him to resume his soothing touch against Baekhyun's scalp.

"Baekhyun, please." He hates how it sounds like a plea. Please stay in my life. Please let me keep an eye on you. Please don't go creating trouble for yourself. Please just be at peace.

He hates how Baekhyun refuses to reply and instead smothers his broken sobs against the fabric of his trousers.

//

Chanyeol stares blankly up at the ceiling. He's been doing this for very much the majority of the day. His eyes are burning for whilst he'd tried to lose himself in the bumps and ridges in the painted surface above him, he'd neglected the importance of blinking.

"I'm sorry," his father's voice repeats in his mind. Fresh in his memory. His stomach stays very much neutral when he hears it this time, progress from the unbearable churning motion it had adopted after hearing it for the first time. He supposes after replaying the words for a couple of hundred rounds he's become immune to them, although he prefers to tell himself that it's the forgiveness sinking in.

He'd spent the night at his father's home. The old Captain had managed to do well for himself, using all the money he'd saved up from a life of working to settle down nicely on the foreign planet. He wasn't the only human in his neighbourhood and Chanyeol thought it was good, otherwise, his father would surely get lonely. He'd left at dawn with the promise to visit again but he doesn't know if he'll ever have the guts to see it through. If he'd be able to stomach the sight of his father so beaten down and broken whilst he tries to forget an old life riddled with regrets and build himself a new one.

Chanyeol supposes he, too, is a part of his old life now.

"Everything I've done - it was only because I loved you, son."

Love. Those four words remind him of the wrong face.

He groans, rolling over onto his front to bury his face into his pillow. It's not nearly as soft as the ones he'd grown accustomed to and he finds himself frowning. He's not used to being back in his own bed. It's an unnerving thought that has his ribs constricting painfully against his lungs.

"I'm sorry," his brain echoes as he finally stills himself. "Even monsters are capable of love."

This time, he pushes himself off his bed in a fit of irritation, nostrils flaring and heart burning. With unfocused eyes and white noise in his ears, he forces himself to get ready for dinner, rejecting all other thoughts. 'Monster' has too many wretched connotations attached to it. The same face from earlier that has his blood turning acidic and heart giving way is one of them.

//

Dinner feels surprisingly sombre tonight, though it may just be Chanyeol's undeniably sour mood tainting his thoughts to think so. Clad in a black suit and a dark blue, silk button up, he exudes an unapproachable aura that rolls off him in steady waves. It partners itself up with a scowl that settles over his features - once an unfamiliar expression that has since found itself a new home etched onto his face. He scans the table, observing the dozens of pirates who chatter quietly amongst themselves, a watered down version of their usual, rowdy banter. No one has tried to talk with him tonight and Chanyeol is thankful for it since he is not sure how well he'd take to social interaction in his current foul mood; irritable is a new shade on him.

He curses when he catches his gaze landing on the head of the table again, an occurrence that has already happened one too many times for his liking. Kris, who sits beside him tonight, shoots him a wary glance at the sound of his grouchy mumbles. Chanyeol ignores him and sinks further into his seat with a huff.

Baekhyun hasn't spoken much this evening, either. Not that Chanyeol has particularly been paying any attention. The Captain had chosen to brood quietly over his soup for the majority of tonight's dinner, occasionally exchanging pleasantries with his crew but nothing more. He has also chosen, it seems, to forgo his chains for today. Chanyeol recalls the wolf whistles and cat calls that had flooded the ship as soon as the Captain sauntered in, ravishing in his usual dark clothes and even darker eye make up yet glowing with a new found raw ethereality with the absence of his ever present chains. Even his lip ring was gone. Chanyeol couldn't blame the crew for loving his new look - he too had been a big fan -  however, he can't help but grit his teeth - and scold himself - at the thought of how Baekhyun looking so pure and vulnerable, even with all the kohl his eyes, should be a sight reserved only for him.

The devil scrapes his chair against the floor as he stands up, immediately stealing Chanyeol's attention away as if he hadn't been commanding it all along. His presence instantly electrifies the room, triggering a thick blanket of silence to befall over his men. With it comes palpable tension, raining down over them like a monsoon.

The Captain smiles ever so softly at his crew and then down at the little girl who sits by his side, practically radiating beauty as he offers her an affectionate on the head. Chanyeol hurriedly downs the rest of his wine glass at that thought. Baekhyun only begins to glow brighter and Chanyeol can’t bring himself to resent it.

"Listen up, everyone," ethereality personified says after clearing his throat. "As some of you probably know - or should I say all of you, since you're all blabber mouths," - a ripple of laughter breaks the growing tension if only for one second - "I have reached the end of my quest."

‘Ah, they know,’ Chanyeol thinks begrudgingly. He wonders how many others are involved in the story that was just meant to be about the two of them.

"This means that whatever I have been doing out in space - pirating some call it, searching sounds like the better word; for him; for myself - is coming to an end. As is my time as your Captain."

Chanyeol almost fools himself into believing 'him' had actually meant him until he realises he'd gotten the wrong Captain Park.

With another inhale of dark red liquid, he lets his mind wander to the tenderest reaches of his imagination. If they'd met under different circumstances, would they have worked out then? Would they have fallen into place like they should have? Like they were meant to? Like they’d so hoped they would? Would he still be the same Chanyeol he was so long ago? No, he thinks. They would not have met at all, under any circumstances if not these. If they did then they would be meet as two entirely different people who Chanyeol is not sure would have even spared each other a single glance. Chanyeol hates it, hates how his old self would've allowed himself to go on living without knowing such an enthralling creature and his true worth because he'd be too busy chasing mermaids and their princes.

Not knowing Baekhyun would have been the greatest mistake of his life. But knowing him was too. So then he is left with a paradox. A riddle with no answer. A maze with no end. Only a dull ache in his chest to remind himself he's still in constant pain.

"I have made many friends along the way - enemies too, by the bucketload," Baekhyun continues on. Chanyeol wonders which category he fits into. Neither, perhaps. "But I cannot keep dragging you all around with me on this hunk of metal for no legitimate reason so I have decided that tonight marks the final night in which we are all together as one for, after today, you are all relieved of service."

A ripple of gasps, quiet murmurs and crestfallen looks plague the room. Chanyeol joins in with none of these things, choosing instead to squeeze his eyes shut and tip his head upwards to face the ceiling. His mood is lower than ever. Just thinking about what he'll do after this - after Baekhyun, after the Exodus - causes his temples to throb.

"We'll be docking on Technos tomorrow. You are free to go your own separate paths from there onwards. I wish you the best in your future endeavours. It was an honour to be the Captain of such a loyal and rowdy bunch of rebels. I won't forget it." Baekhyun ignores the sight of his entire crew tearing up and the telltale pinpricks of pain at the backs of his own eyes as he turns to Kyungsoo, whose large eyes brim horribly with pain. Baekhyun almost feels guilty. "Kyungsoo," he says ever so tenderly, the foreign tone causing his friend to flinch. "The Exodus is yours, I bestow her upon you. She was always more yours than mine, I'll have to admit. Thank you for being my companion all these years." And then he lifts his wine glass that he holds with a shaking grasp in a toast, masking his own pain with a beautiful smile pulled too tight at the corners.

Kyungsoo's mouth opens and closes, a million, silent unsaid words tumbling out at once yet none at all as he raises his own glass weakly. "What- What about you, Baek? What are you going to do?" It is all too clear to the Captain's closest friend that the offer to stay with him had been rejected. He didn't even need to ask. He just needs to know what's next.

There is a beat of silence that passes between the two and the entirety of the ship. They wait with bated breaths for his answer.

"I don't know."

//

An impromptu party ensues after that. A bid farewell, of sorts. The booze was brought out and soon the heavy atmosphere was drowned in the intoxicating liquid and things took a lot more lively turn. Pirates twirled each there around to the music that blasts through the speakers overhead, many hugged and cried even in their drunken states while others grinded and partied like no tomorrow. Somewhere in the background, Luhan even engages Minseok - his newly found toy - in an intensive and highly inappropriate fondling session.

Chanyeol, however, stays silent in his corner of the room.

It's like Baekhyun's birthday shindig all over again, only this time he is looking at anything but him. Instead, he has his head dipped low and is focusing on intensely staring at his freshly polished black boots. He can see his reflection within them. If he concentrates hard enough, he can almost pretend like he doesn't feel the hard set of eyes that drill into the side of his head. Though the fact that the owner of the owlish orbs is stalking over to him isn't much of a help.

"Chanyeol," Kyungsoo greets smoothly, not even bothering to ask before he pulls out a chair to sit next to him. He'd made his way over faster than the taller had anticipated.

"Kyungsoo," he hums back without looking up, voice sounding nonchalant as ever though the bitter burn of betrayal chars his insides. It's a feeling he's gotten used to no matter how wrong the sentiment should be. The Technician clearly detects his emotions loud and clear - and here Chanyeol thought people of his race weren't meant to be good at sort of thing - for he sighs and slumps his shoulders.

"Listen, I'm sorry about showing Baekhyun the file, but you know it was wrong to keep it from him just as I did."

This time Chanyeol does look up. Utterly appalled. He doesn't know why Kyungsoo is turning this around to make him out to be the bad guy, as if what he'd done didn't mean anything at all, as if he could just crack the non-tasteful joke of, "haha, Baekhyun could've ended up killing your father because of what I did- but he didn't!" and make it all better.

"Oh, did I?" he finds himself snapping because, let's face it, every extra second he spends on this damned ship, he finds himself growing more and more disagreeable, becoming more and more like the Captain of this messy rabble. "If I had truly known then I wouldn't have kept it from him."

Kyungsoo furrows his brows at his sarcastic retort, eyes flashing violet. "Let go of your childish ways, Chanyeol. I gave it to him to help him, so he could finally be free of this- this stage in his life-"

"Even though you know it put my own father at risk?" Chanyeol cuts in, the hurt evident in his voice and his demeanour. His eyes turn glassy and Kyungsoo becomes silent, more for a lack of understanding than anything else. Why should Kyungsoo care whether Chanyeol's father dies or not?

"Ok, let me rephrase," the red head muses darkly when he gets no response, suddenly feeling like he needed to be a lot more drunk to take part in this conversation than he currently was. "You expected me to hand over the file to Baekhyun even when I knew that my father's own life was at risk? What kind of a fool do you take me for? I may love Baekhyun but-" The word tastes all too wrong on his tongue when it slips past and Chanyeol curses the way Kyungsoo's eyes widen in evidence that he'd indeed heard it. He wasn't meant to say that out loud. Ever. Even the mere thought of acknowledging that he harboured such feelings towards the unattainable man was ludicrous. Chanyeol had imagined, however, that if he were to one day bring himself to admit it, it would be to none other than Byun Baekhyun himself.

Shaking his head, he tries again. "I may care about Baekhyun but in truth, I wasn't planning on giving the file to him at all. I was hoping he would give up on his search and he could just move on with his life. Settle down maybe." With me, was left unspoken; another thing Chanyeol would never bring himself to admit for it was a thought that didn't make sense even to him. "But then you went and gave him that file; you went and ruined it all. Ruined us."

Kyungsoo grits his teeth, wondering if the brooding, tipsy man in front of him was truly the one Baekhyun had given himself over too. He could not possibly have chosen such a lowly man for himself.

Kyungsoo likes Chanyeol, he does. But Kyungsoo does not like Chanyeol for Baekhyun. It blatantly conveys itself in his tone when he next speaks. "Then you clearly don't know our Captain, sealegs. You're not worthy of his heart when you're so blind to the fact that he would stop at nothing to-"

"You're right!" Chanyeol exclaims, more hysterical than anything else. Kyungsoo is, once again, rendered speechless. If Baekhyun is an uncontrollable flame that sets off sparks left and right, then Chanyeol is a controlled, steady burn, one that's no less scalding; capable of morphing into a furnace if so needed. "I don't know Baekhyun at all. If anything, my time aboard this ship has proved that to me more than anything. I can try to tell myself I know him but it's just not true. I don't know why he keeps pushing me away, I don't know why he didn't actually kill my father I - I just don't know him." Kyungsoo's almost feeling sorry for his horrible choice of words - a completely human sentiment that he will no doubt blame on his prolonged exposure to the red head and his Captain - but then Chanyeol's demeanour is darkening and Kyungsoo is a lot more annoyed than he is sorry. "But don't you for a second, Soo, tell me that I'm not worthy of Baekhyun's heart. All I've ever done is try to be worthy of it, try to get him to open up to me, to let me in. By efforts alone, I should be worthy of his entire existence."

Kyungsoo thinks he's wrong. No one will ever be worthy of even an inch of Baekhyun, much less his entire existence. Baekhyun was special in that sense. His creation too beautiful - too much - for this entire, bloody galaxy. So alive. The perfect embodiment of human sensitivity and resilience. He flares his nostrils in irritation because why doesn't Chanyeol get it?

"It's impossible to know our Captain. He's a paradox in himself. You just have to believe in him, Chanyeol!"

Kyungsoo knows. Kyungsoo knows better than anyone else. He's known the Captain the longest, he's been by his side since even before the Exodus had been built, he has been on this journey with Baekhyun ever since the start. Chanyeol may think he's the only one that can stand a chance at truly knowing Baekhyun, but he's wrong. Kyungsoo is the only one. And that's why he has to make Chanyeol understand.

Baekhyun will break and bend and bruise under the pressures of the universe. Anyone would. The only difference with Baekhyun is that he mends himself: he evolves, he changes, he reverts back to normal and you just have to sit through his suffering, through his mistakes, through his darkest times and have faith that he will come back to you, that he will fix himself, put himself back on the right path - though at times he doesn't trust his own judgement - otherwise there's no point in staying with someone who is as versatile as the wind; a soft breeze one minute and a raging hurricane the next. There is no point. Baekhyun's moral compass and his conscience - though he buries them deep within himself - is strong enough to always have him coming back to what's good. And if Chanyeol can't see that then there's no point in Kyungsoo letting him have his closest friend's heart.

"How can anyone so blindly believe in someone?" Chanyeol all but scoffs.

"Because you know they're a good person." It's a soft whisper compared to Kyungsoo's former outburst and this time, it's Chanyeol who remains silent.

Rubbing at his jaw in irritation, Kyungsoo shakes his head. "These men, Chanyeol, they're not here because they enjoy pillaging and raiding and have some sort of thirsty, animalistic bloodlust - though I wouldn't put it past some of them. They're here because they owe Baekhyun. Each man aboard this ship has a special connection with him, is indebted to him one way or anther. Some owe him their entire lives. He took them out of bad situations, saved them when no one else could or bothered to. And because of this, they trust him wholeheartedly. They have experienced his kindness first hand and have faith in the person he is."

Kyungsoo's not the best at explaining, he's not the best at conveying feelings but he hopes Chanyeol hears his meaning wholeheartedly anyway. Don't give up on him, his heart wants to scream.

"And you?" the redhead asks, eyes dead serious though Kyungsoo really has to wonder whether he's missing the point. "What do you owe him?"

It's something Kyungsoo's never really thought about before. He's never had a need to. He just kept giving himself to Baekhyun, without a thought, without question. And, he supposes, that's the way it should be.

"I owe him whatever I choose to hand over to him: my loyalty, my obedience, my clear judgment. My love. He took me away from a dreary place, you see. Technos is beautiful but there's only so much you can do, so much you can experience when the people around you live like the machines they build," he breathes in shakily as he remembers the past memories of him and Baekhyun in their shared apartment, spending every waking second in the garage, building the Exodus from scraps of metal into her current glory. He remembers summer nights and winter days and how Baekhyun was an entire shining spectrum in a world of dull monochrome. "Baekhyun was human, he was feeling. He's a human who feels more than most even though he'd try and convince himself otherwise. Even when he was lost, he felt the emptiness more than anything."

It hits Chanyeol then. Like a god damn truck. Though it's more a slight knock than a full on collision because honestly, it had always been there. Right in front of him all this time. Of course. How could he not have noticed?

Everything Kyungsoo had ever done was for Baekhyun. And he'd done it all without question.

"You were in love with him weren't you, Kyungsoo?" He doesn't ask if he still is. Doesn't know how he could ever compete.

The slant of Kyungsoo's lips is answer enough. "Of course I loved him. As if that were ever the problem here." He doesn't even pretend to be bashful about it. "You imagine being in my shoes, bored out of my mind, setting out on the path of being a mechanic just like my father had, and his father had before him, and then all of a sudden, a fireball like Baekhyun drops into your life. I was putty in his hands." Chanyeol does. He imagines it. He lives it. Even now, he lives it. "He opened my eyes. Taught me new things. I wanted so badly to be like him. To feel. Whenever I go back home my parents tell me I've become more and more like a human. I can't say I mind. He introduced me to Jongin, you know. We rescued him from a dire situation and he told me to give him a chance and so I did."

Ah yes, Jongin. Chanyeol feels stupid for the way he feels relieved at the mention of Kyungsoo's current lover.

"I couldn't keep pining away for a man so emotionally unavailable. I thought that was what I was but Baekhyun was more so in ways unimaginable." The dry chuckle Kyungsoo lets out is grating. He isn't here to talk about his own failed love story. He has a different mission for today. He turns now, blazing eyes boring into Chanyeol's who can't move under his meaningful gaze. Can't breathe. "But you got through to him, Chanyeol. You did. The Baekhyun I used to know, he would have killed your father without a second thought, all he wanted was to set himself free and he did that through doing what he had to do. But he didn't this time. Because of you. Because he thought of you. Because you taught him what loneliness was and he saw that reflected in your father's eyes."

It's like a tidal wave no - it's more than that. More than a bolt of thunder, more than an avalanche of snow, more than an entire god damn freight train hitting him in the middle of the night - Chanyeol doesn't know what it is but it hits him. And once it does, he knows he can't go another second without seeing Baekhyun.

"I have to go," he rasps out but Kyungsoo is already nodding. He already knows. Chanyeol is up on his feet before he can even register it, mind alight with a thousand different thoughts, the ground beneath him turning into clouds as his feet take him to the one destination his heart cries out for.

Baekhyun.

The silver light that trickles in via the windows comes from Technos' nearest moon. They're not far from their destination now and the full moon greets them beautifully, its bright particles falling over the makeshift dance floor in a veil of shimmering dust. It's a little smaller and more sparsely packed than it had been for Baekhyun's birthday party but the latter doesn't look like he minds as he and a couple other pirates dance around a giggling Seulgi.

It's almost a sweet picture.

But it's one that's cruelly, quickly ripped apart by the bone chilling scream the little girl lets out as she crashes to the floor in convulsions as soon as the moonlight hits her skin. Her back arches off the floor and her hair spreads out by the feet of the men like a golden puddle of blood. They all stagger back in alarm. The lights flicker above their heads, the hall turns into a panic zone, shouts and screams and the smashing of glass echoing around them all whilst Chanyeol finds himself looking on at the chaos unfolding in before him with widened eyes. Paralysed.

"Seulgi!" a harrowing voice cries out. An all too familiar voice that has Chanyeol's heart lurching and finally gives his feet motive to move. He's behind Baekhyun before he even knows it, not wasting another second in contemplation to collect the man in his arms, pull him flush against his chest and drag him far away from the circle of men who fearlessly - or foolishly - begin to surround the small girl.

"Chanyeol, let go of me!" Baekhyun screams, sounding hysterical now. His eyes are fixed on the little girl and he struggles against his once lover's grip, every fibre in his being wanting to go over to her and check if she's alright, to protect her even though she may be the thing they require protection from.

From the center of the room, Seulgi howls in pure agony, pleas for mercy gushing from her lips like a mantra, a frenzied prayer. Her short fingernails curl into long, claw-like structures that tear apart her clothing, swipe at any hand that reaches out for her to draw blood with a mere touch, sending skin blistering and bubbling underneath her fingertips. The men who end up caught in her clutches drop like flies, groaning or crying out as their knees hit the floor, unable to move from the sheer pain that wrecks havoc on their nerve ends. A single scratch has them immobile.

Chanyeol refuses to let Baekhyun go, arms only holding onto the man who thrashes against his grip tighter and tighter as he watches the men around Seulgi drop one by one with horror. He clings onto the shorter for dear life. Dread pools in his veins when he realises Baekhyun doesn't seem to sense the imminent danger that Chanyeol knows is coming.

"No, Baekhyun it's not safe-"

"What are you talking about Chanyeol? Seulgi needs me-"

"Baekhyun stop-"

And then all sounds stop altogether. All movement. All thoughts. For all that invades the air now is nothing but a sweet, soft, singing voice that spreads through the room, reaches out and feels for the men that stand stock still in their terror before infiltrating their ear drums. From there onwards, the melody sinks down into their muscles, coaxing them lovingly to relax, luring them warmly to seek out where such music comes from, to follow the sound towards the centre of the room, towards the enchanting singer. Towards Seulgi.

The girl has stopped screaming now, swapping her strained vocals for those of more saccharine qualities. She looks tranquil as ever as, sitting up letting her luscious golden tresses fall down her back and welcomes every pirate who stumbles towards her voice with a chilling smile.

Chanyeol knows what this is. He's heard tales of it before. He thought that was all they were; old sailors' tales. But as he watches Seulgi beckon a pirate over to her side, drop a kiss against his cheek before opening wide, unhinging her jaw to reveal nothing but rows of endlessly sharp canines, he realises his nightmares were far more real than he thought. And far more terrifying in the flesh.

A siren.

A siren had taken over Seulgi's body. Or maybe she always was one. Chanyeol doesn't know. Chanyeol can't think. Because all he knows right now, all he can think about is one name.

Baekhyun.

The singing stops briefly while she digs into her prey. She takes care not to make it too messy, the way she rips his throat open and savours the taste of human flesh. Chanyeol supposes it's less out of mercy, for monsters - real monsters - surely can't be capable of such a thing, and more because the siren had not wanted to stain her pretty dress. The brief pause in the melody is enough to give Chanyeol control over his limp limbs, to press his hands over Baekhyun's ears and drag him further to the corners of the hall where the siren won't notice them. For now, at least.

"This isn't happening," Baekhyun whispers, bewildered, and Chanyeol feels a pang of sympathy. It is nothing compared to his animalistic urge to protect him. "This isn't real." Baekhyun has never been so terrified as he is now. Chanyeol would be too if he didn't have the smaller male to save. He can't afford to be afraid right now.

The shorter male has been reduced to nothing but a babbling mess. He shakes his head and trembles against Chanyeol, eyes suspended on Seulgi and nothing else. He refuses to walk any further, heels dragging when Chanyeol tries to haul him towards the exit. The man will be the death of them both. They're running out of time.

"You have to get out of here," Chanyeol whispers to Baekhyun, just as the singing starts up again. It settles over his skin, pulling a shudder from him before seeping in through his pores, spreading out like liquid melody in his veins. He curses when his feet itch to move. Pressing his hands over Baekhyun's ears tighter and clinging to him like a rock, he fights to urge to succumb as if the raven haired male were the only thing who could save him. Ironic in the darkest of ways. Sweat beats at Chanyeol's temples from the strain of resisting such a strong pull, but somehow he still manages to hold on. For Baekhyun he holds on.

Some men had taken the chance of the siren's momentary silence to flee the scene. Whether it's to lock themselves up in their rooms or to get a weapon from the store, Chanyeol isn't sure. He guesses it may be the former for no one here has the guts to raise a revolver against a little girl. Not when they know the Captain will probably still be willing to protect her with his own life. Other men, however, are frozen still, in horror, fear, confusion, just as their Captain is. They clamp their hands over their ears in a feeble attempt to guard themselves though Chanyeol believes they've all missed the small window of opportunity they had to escape.

"Oh, you taste so sweet, my love," the siren muses out, voice ever sugary even in speech. The voice sounds nothing like a child. She has 4 bodies surrounding her now, scarlet seeping into her pretty party dress and dying her fingertips vibrant despite her attempts at being a clean eater. It seems with every soul she in, she just grows hungrier, more feral. Red drips down from the corners of , staining the teeth she puts on display in the form of a maddening smile. Baekhyun watches in horror as she pulls a body closer. It belongs to a Choi Minki who had been a new recruit from last year. She lures his soul out from his limp body with a simple touch of her lips against his mouth that had been left wide open to form a final, silent scream. He has to shut his eyes. He has to look away.

The only thing keeping Baekhyun sane is the warmth exuding from the hands that wrap themselves over his ears, blocking out the deadly sweet melody.

He should run. He should go. He should drag Chanyeol with him. He needs to snap out of it.

He takes a single step back, a single move to make a run for it but a single turn is all Seulgi needs to be alerted of their presence. Her eyes are tinged yellow when Baekhyun's lock onto them. Pupils contracted into razor-thin slits pin him to his place but they are soon skittering away to rest on someone else. Over his shoulder. Behind him.

Baekhyun has never felt fear like this before. No. Anyone but him.

Her voice, when she speaks again, is nothing like her usual bright, tone. If anything it is sultry, alluring. It's not Seulgi. That's all Baekhyun knows. It's not her. It's someone else - something else within her. The revelation has relief churning in his stomach, merging with rising dread and it's such a sickening mix of flavours but Baekhyun doesn't care. They have a chance to save her.

"Why don't you come over, sweet thing?" the siren sings with a quirk of an eyebrow. Baekhyun thinks he hears stuttered breathing but it's not his own. No. It belongs to someone whose life matters more than his own. He dares himself to look over his shoulder with slowly widening eyes. Chanyeol's drenched in sweat, eyes quickly losing any sign of focus or fight in them and his muscles are relaxing at the sound of the melodious syllables that enchant him. "Come on, love," she coaxes him, a seductress trapped in a child's body.

Baekhyun shakes his head, tears blurring his vision as Chanyeol's hands fall away from his ears to rest limply at his sides. The taller doesn't look at him, probably can't bear to, as he steps around him and makes his way over to Seulgi with slow, heavy steps, resistance draining from his body with every passing second.

Baekhyun hears her song now, feels it tugging at the muscles in his limbs, at his heart. It's painful to fight against it, like you're at war with your own body but Baekhyun is prepared to fight in this siege if it means he won't lose Chanyeol. If he can save Seulgi. If he can just ing do something-

He does the only thing he can think of. He grabs onto Chanyeol's wrist with both hands, clings onto him though it's almost futile. He puts all his strength into slowing the man down, stopping him from walking towards his own death. But Chanyeol, under his trance, is too strong for him, his body too stubborn and his movements only cause Baekhyun's feet to slip under him, dragging him in the same direction he walks. In the direction of Hell.

The men who stay at the corners of the room - ears covered though they all know they're merely waiting for their turn to be devoured - look on with amplified horror as their Captain breaks down into hysterics while trying to hold his lover back. He should run. He should leave him. It's a lost cause. They're all thinking the same thing but Baekhyun doesn't have the capacity to be so selfish. Not now. Not anymore.

"My, my, a two-course dinner. How lovely," Seulgi coos when Chanyeol is close enough for her to reach out and touch. Her claws dig into his forearm, staking a claim on her next meal, feeling the glorious way his warm blood trickles over her fingertips. She smirks. "Feasting on a pair of lovers always tastes so god damn sweet."

And then, she sings. The pull between her and Chanyeol is stronger now, nothing is more powerful than her singing; concentrated sound directed at her prey. She knows it's the most beautiful voice in the world and she relishes in it, loves every resonant note she produces from , drinks up how it dazes the lowly human and runs over his skin like thick honey. She beckons him closer and closer - closer still - before letting a hand trail up the back of his neck, drawing blood under her nails with every inch of skin she brushes against. His flesh melts under her touch and he melts under her gaze. Oh, so limp and pliant. She loves it when they don't put up a fight. Why fight something you can't win against? She's ready to graze her lips against his, to eat him alive - because they always taste better that way, lusting for her call, ready for her taking, drenched in the delightful marinade of her sound - when Baekhyun does the unthinkable.

"Seulgi no!"

It takes everything in him to push Chanyeol away, every ounce of strength he can gather in his protesting muscles. The taller male slides about a meter away at the impact, immediately knocked - quite literally - out of his trance. He hisses at the burns the siren had left against his skin, pain from his newly opened wounds paralysing him on the spot as he quickly regains control over himself and assess the situation.

He wonders for a brief second why he is still alive when he sees it. Sees his answer. Sees Baekhyun in his place. And then he curses it all. He's always saving him. Always. Even when Chanyeol tries to be the hero, Baekhyun always has to steal his thunder. With nothing but adrenaline and pure, unadultered fear coursing through his veins, he grits his teeth and attempts to push himself up onto his feet.

"Seulgi, Seulgi it's me-" he hears Baekhyun say, a garbled choked little sound coming from his throat as the siren digs her claws into his thigh, tightening with ever passing second. She is not pleased with him interrupting her meal.

"I am Seulgi," she hisses. It sounds demonic. Nothing like the dulcet tunes from earlier. She trails her fingertips along Baekhyun's collarbone, causing the skin to bubble into blisters. At the sound of Baekhyun's pained screeches, Chanyeol physically aches to scramble onto his feet, to go over there and save him but his body won't respond to him in the way he wants it to. The agony he's in is paralysing. Both in body and in soul.

Baekhyun doesn't give up, though. Stubborn until the end. He looks the siren hard in her yellow, devilish eyes, thinking he could call out to Seulgi like this even though it makes him all the more vulnerable to her call.

The siren smirks, thinking her prey might as well have presented himself on a silver platter with an apple in his mouth. Just as she is preparing herself to devour her hunt for all he's worth, Baekhyun takes one more chance. He calls out once more.

"Seulgi, please."

Nice try, but it's not going to work, the siren thinks. However, within the next second, she is losing control of her hand that relinquishes its hold on him without her permission. Like she's not in control of her own body anymore. Baekhyun drops down onto his knees in a cry of pain, taking in stuttered breaths through gritted teeth whilst the siren lets out something between an angered howl and a shocked gasp before her constricted pupils dilate back into a more normal size, claws retracting back to shaking, child like fingers that drip with fresh, red liquid.

"B-Baekhyun," a young, bright voice dampened with terror cries out to him as a siren's soul leaves a child's body.

The entire hall's congregation holds their breath, unsure whether to believe that the whole situation was over. It seemed too easy. Too fleeting. Tears overwhelm Seulgi and shudders of grief wrack her tiny frame until finally, she is collected into a pair of warm, familiar arms. Baekhyun presses her face against his chest without hesitation to obscure the chaos and destruction surrounding them from her sight and allows himself to breath a sigh of relief though pain is all he really feels.

The action earns himself a collective gasp from his remaining crew members but when Baekhyun lives another minute, they all allow themselves to relax. For now.

//

A damage control meeting ensues after the listless clear up job of the main hall. The bodies had been placed in a spare storage room to be taken off the ship and properly buried when they land in Technos soon. Baekhyun stands in the center of a different meeting room - for no one could stomach being in the main hall anymore - surrounded by his shell-shocked team mates.

The injured are being tended to by the untouched, Baekhyun having had his own pretty serious wound treated earlier on, whilst others look off into space with a dazed expression and blank minds, unwilling to process what had just happened. There is an uneasy silence that hangs in the air around them. No one dares speak.

When Baekhyun does clear his throat as a silent request for attention, a few men flinch, wrenching a feeling of apology from his gut. Kyungsoo, situated at his right, rests a warm hand on his arm, soft and encouraging though it trembles ever so slightly. He had stayed in the hall for the entire ordeal, though he did not get physically caught up in its mess. Chanyeol stands to his left, though he keeps himself a few feet too far away for Baekhyun's own comfort.

Baekhyun sighs and runs a hand over his face before he speaks. "Seulgi is in bed and back to normal," just her name is enough to send a shiver crawling down everyone's spine. "She told me her father took her to the beach one night where he tracked down a siren and managed to kill her. However, to get her revenge the siren's eternal soul chose to reside inside Seulgi's body. That's why she was down in the dungeon when we first picked her up. She's never told anyone this before, was too scared to and whilst I agree she should've let us know sooner-"

"Four of our men were eaten by her. Sooner is an understatement," Jongdae blares from his corner of the room, arms s tightly around Junmyeon's waist as if someone were to snatch him away. Baekhyun notices Chanyeol bristle and grit his teeth at Jongdae's derivative tone in his peripheral vision, though he chooses to ignore them both. Jongdae is merely speaking out of grief. He was close to Minki before his demise.

"Not eaten by her, but by the siren within her," Baekhyun clarifies, surprised he himself hasn't snapped at his crew member yet. He must be too exhausted to.

"You should get rid of that girl, Captain, before she does anyone else any harm," Kris says up from his perch atop a wooden crate, not in any sort of passive aggressive way but as a form of sincere advice from the concerned. Baekhyun still has to count to 10 in his head and let out a long breath before he responds. He'd expected such opposition - such opinions - and was prepared to shoot them down as soon as those brave enough to speak out did, but Kris was one of his original crew members. He will not be harsh with him.

His composure is icy cold, soiled with stubbornness when he speaks next. "Seulgi is my responsibility and I will have no harm coming to her. I will not merely 'get rid of her.' Besides, we are going to dock at Technos in the morning and most of you will go your separate ways and will not be involved in the business with Seulgi and I any longer. I will find a way to help her-"

"I think Kris is right, Baekhyun," Chanyeol chimes in, utterly unwanted and yet utterly unafraid to voice his thoughts. He looks at Baekhyun with sincere, soft eyes for the first time since last night, for the first time since their fallout and Baekhyun would really rather he didn't. The heavy concern in his voice is nothing short of infuriating. Those who know him best should know nothing they say will change his mind. Either Chanyeol is not one of those people or he is a fool for thinking Baekhyun will back down at his command. "She's not safe to be around, you should-"

"Get rid of her?" Baekhyun supplies for him, lashing out in a way that makes Chanyeol falter. "You want me to take her out and shoot her between the eyes, Chanyeol? Make her walk the bloody plank?" It's been a while since Baekhyun has snapped so harshly at someone and it is clear in the way Chanyeol furrows his brows together that he doesn't appreciate it one bit. Baekhyun feels guilty, he really does. He hates the way his stomach flips with dread at the sight of Chanyeol's angered expression but to even suggest that Baekhyun does anything but try to save the girl was practically heresy.

Chanyeol must have learnt a thing or two on how to deal with him for he's taking a step forward, face hard as steel and Baekhyun would be unnerved if he weren't already so enraged. "It's a horrible thing to even imagine, I know Baekhyun but you can't look after such a- such thing-"

"You said it yourself, Chanyeol, that there's good left in everyone," Baekhyun barks out, for every step Chanyeol takes closer, he vows to take ten more if it means protecting those who need to be protected. "Seulgi responded to me. She heard my voice and she came out of that bloody trance or possession or whatever the that was- There's good left in her, Chanyeol. We can't give up on her. I won't give up on her."

"Baekhyun that was before-"

"Before what?" the Captain challenges, sanity held together by a thin thread that he fears Chanyeol will cut with his next few words. He tries to hold back the tears forming in his eyes, the trembling of his hands and lips as he spits out the next accusation. "Before you realised there was no good left in me?"

The room is quiet, the atmosphere like a storm, the tension between them like lightning and yet Baekhyun seems to fall apart before Chanyeol even says anything at all. The taller's face softens and he takes a weary step back, shaking his head.

"No, Baekhyun," he sighs out like he's tired - tired of Baekhyun and the mess that he is - "it was before I realised I almost lost you." Baekhyun is left clenching his jaw to hold back the gasp that threatens to spill from his throat, balling his fists tight enough to leave angry red crescent marks against his palms as Chanyeol swiftly leaves the room, having had enough drama for one night. The Captain watches his figure fade with distance but is not permitted to dwell on the bitterness searing his insides for too long since Kyungsoo is quick to cut in and save the situation.

"What's the plan next, Captain?" he asks. Baekhyun really wishes he knew.

Running tired fingers over his face, he lets out a harrowing sigh. His eyebrows furrow inwards together. He knows there's really only one option, one many of his crew will be opposed to. "This problem started on Earth, so I'm going back to Earth to fix it." There, now that he's said it out loud, it's final. No one can change his mind.

"Alone?" Kris pipes up, a look shining within his eyes that Baekhyun wants to run from. He wants to come with him. He wants to let Baekhyun lead him to death and destruction. He actually wants to-

"Yes alone," Baekhyun says as clearly and firmly as he can for he fears Kris will never get it otherwise. "I can't keep dragging you all into my problems. My quest for Captain Park was enough.

He doesn't even know why he bothers. It's quite obvious that the tall blonde, who looks unabashedly unconvinced, doesn't get it.

Kris gets up, pushing himself up onto wobbly feet - he'd been swiped at by Seulgi. "I don't think so, Captain. You've got a lot more on your hands than you've ever had before and I don't think I'd be a very good, loyal crew member if let you fight all your battles alone." And to strengthen his own case, Kris gives him that look he's been giving him for years when he's decided on something and has chosen to be stubborn about it. It's a look of determination that mirrors the Captain's own. It's why they'd always made such a good team.

"I'm coming with you," he announces. Firm and final.

"Kris-"

Kris, along with Luhan and Junmyeon were a part of Kyungsoo and Baekhyun's original crew. They liked to call themselves the remaining survivors; the originals. The taller male had been in his early 20s back then, filled with wanderlust, thirsting for adventure but he's gotten too old for it all now. Baekhyun can see he's not as excited when they dock on new planets, has noticed how he keeps whining for vacations these days. He's tired of it all. But he still wants to come along with him. Not for the thrill, but for Baekhyun. And he's not the only one who feels that way.

"Me too," Junmyeon and Luhan chorus at the same time. The remainder of the original gang. Baekhyun is rendered speechless when Jongdae splutters and announces he's joining too, if only out of sheer jealousy that has a wave of chuckles passing around the room. Baekhyun allows a little smile to tug at the sides of his own lips.

After that, a chorus of "me toos" and "count me in" rings through the air while several men take turns to stand on their feet and look to their Captain with beautiful loyalty and love shining in their eyes. Baekhyun can't bear to reject them. Can't bear to take up such a daunting task alone, without his trusted men. Some stay seated, however, eyes fallen to the ground in defeat with their lips sealed shut. Baekhyun smiles anyway. They don't need to come. They have a choice. This is a choice. And Baekhyun will still be thankful to his men whether they continue on their journey with him or not.

He chances a glance over to the right, past his shoulder to catch Kyungsoo worrying his lower lip between his teeth, deep in contemplation. Baekhyun would be lying if the man's uncertainty didn't make his stomach drop but he shoves the sight out of his mind quickly. Kyungsoo is free to make his own choice too. Of all people, Kyungsoo deserves it.

Widening his smile and fighting back tears in his eyes, Baekhyun looks to his crew, a silent cry of 'we are one' ringing through his mind as he scans each determined face. He has a mission and he has a crew. He supposes Kyungsoo, no matter what his decision is in the end, won't mind too much if he retracts his promise of handing the Exodus over to him. For such a quest, he's going to need a trusty ship too.

"Ok," he whispers, stifling back a sob. "Thank you."

//

The Technos sky glitters a pale purple, without a single cloud in sight, when the ship docks the next morning. Baekhyun spends the majority of the day, bidding farewell to those of his crew that he was leaving behind, wishing them well and making them promise to keep him updated on their new lives. Many were planning to settle down, having had enough adventure for one lifetime and Baekhyun sincerely hopes they all keep out of trouble. He'd arranged for the bodies of the men from yesterday night's ordeal to be sent home to their families with a small pouch of gold coins attached in a form of compensation that doesn't properly convey how truly sorry Baekhyun really is for their loss, but there is little else he can say or do in such a situation.

The hardest goodbye had been with Kyungsoo, who'd left early that morning, rucksack in hand and the image of Baekhyun holding back tears fresh in his mind. He'd laughed it off then, told Baekhyun to stop being so dramatic and that he could always come stay with him and Jongin whenever he was back in town but Baekhyun knew he was taking it as hard as he was and only when he'd turned his back, heading to catch the first train into the capital did the Technician let his own tears fall.

The easiest hello, it seems, was also Kyungsoo, who'd bolted back onto the ship just past noon, smiling like a maniac with Jongin - who carried a rucksack of his own - hot on his heels. "You see," he'd said ever so nonchalantly, "I just didn't feel good about the thought of you dying somewhere without me knowing about it."

Baekhyun had threatened to chop his most sacred regions off with his sword as he raged about the "unnecessary rollercoaster of feelings!" Kyungsoo had sent him on whilst tears once again flooded his eyes but he'd embraced his friend nevertheless, glad to have him onboard. Relieved, in fact.

Jongin - who had smiled and told Baekhyun he'd missed him once he'd calmed down - had also revealed the true reason as to why they were aboard the Exodus once more. "I could tell Kyungsoo didn't want to leave you," the gentle Veni had said, "he only did it because of his promise to me and we both know how he is with his promises. I figured Technos is not really home for me so if Kyungsoo wanted to go, I'd go with him." And then Baekhyun had cried once again and tackled both his friends into another hug.

All in all, it was an emotional day.

Baekhyun walks now to the exit of the Exodus just as the twin suns are beginning to fade from the sky in a flurry of pinks and oranges. The ramp leading to the ground had been retracted, seeing as how everyone who was leaving had already left and he's heading to shut the entrance door, opting to do it manually for he wanted to take in one final glimpse of the planet that he'd almost managed to call home before he goes back to his real one; the sea.

When he gets there, however, his feet turn leaden. He is frozen in his place, forced to take in the sight of a red headed figure who sits at the door of the aircraft, feet dangling out into the night sky.

Oh. That's right. Everyone who was leaving had already left, those who'd decided to stay were already settled in and ready for their next mission, leaving just one person unaccounted for.

Chanyeol is ever beautiful against the sunset backdrop yet his features look so sad, so distant as he drinks in the landscape before him.

Distance, Baekhyun notes bitterly. That's the thing that's between them. Large enough to span an entire galaxy.

Gathering up his courage, Baekhyun forces himself to take tentative steps closer to the taller male, closing the distance between them little by little. He must have heard him coming for when Baekhyun is near enough, he shifts to the left wordlessly, leaving a gap for him to sit at his side.

As if the thought of facing him didn't leave his hands shaking and fingertips prickling, Baekhyun settles himself next to Chanyeol and tries to ignore the thought of how easy it could be for both of them to fall to their deaths from this height. That, and how painfully awkward it feels to be so close to the man he'd once shared most of his soul with. He pushes all thoughts out his head and opts to look out at the sky instead. Forwards.

"What's your next move?" he asks quietly in case his voice should quiver, trying to sound as conversational as possible, like the answer wouldn't make or break him. He's still here. That means he's not leaving yet.

There's a beat of silence that passes between the two of them. As if Chanyeol were contemplating whether replying to Baekhyun were even worth wasting his breath over.

He seems to decide that it is.

"I don't know," Chanyeol replies, voice low and gravelly and unforgivingly lacking any real emotion. He, like Baekhyun, has his eyes fixed on the horizon of purple instead of on the other male and releases a wistful sigh into the air. "I was thinking about going back to Earth. There's not much for me back there but maybe I could rebuild a new life for myself."

At his words, liquid panic begins to flood through Baekhyun's system. His heart races. His palms sweat. His world threatens to collapse.

It sounds too much like a goodbye.

He can't risk another one.

His brain seems to forgo the original plan of acting casual and the words are soon leaving his mouth before he can even register them. They form the purest, most unfiltered sentence he's ever articulated, simplified down from the million and one other thoughts that whizz around in his head, all begging to be spoken. They all essentially say the same thing.

"Stay with me."

Chanyeol shifts to look at him blankly, almost confused, as if he wants Baekhyun to expand further. Convince him. Beg for him. Baekhyun's just glad he's looking at him at all.

"I - uh - I mean - Come with me? And the rest of the crew-" Growing redder by the second, he his lips in a show of nervousness - not catching how Chanyeol's eyes instinctively follow the movement - and prepares himself to swallow his pride when he meets the taller's eyes; so dark and so, so beautiful. "Please?"

If anything, Chanyeol and Baekhyun's relationship is like a wad of gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe. Sticking is easy. But when you try to pull it off - when either one of them tries to pull back - there is still a part of them that sticks and resists, that stays though another part of them might not want to. It's not the most elegant analogy, but Baekhyun thinks it's quite befitting.

"But I get seasick," Chanyeol blinks at him. Pink sun rays dance beautifully off his skin but Baekhyun can only notice his eyes that betray no thoughts or feelings and don't shine as brightly like they usually do. Or at least, like they used to. His eyelashes flutter rapidly. This is all his fault.

"Kyungsoo can get you some pills," Baekhyun offers, forcing the corners of his lips upwards in what must look like an utterly pained smile; too tight at the edges and seconds from falling apart. Chanyeol's eyes flicker downwards momentarily before they're locking onto Baekhyun's again. Unchanged. The shorter's smile falters visibly.

Baekhyun feels like he's reaching out, trying to hold onto something that's not there anymore.

"But I'm not a pirate," is Chanyeol's weak defence.

Baekhyun waits for a small grin, for anything to make it seem like he's not being helplessly rejected, like Chanyeol isn't giving him lame excuses as to why he can't stay with him just to mask the fact that he doesn't want to. But he doesn't. And he is.

"We're not going to do any pirating if it's not necessary." The words sound so desperate and taste utterly stale on his tongue. Baekhyun squirms a little before he sighs and gives it all up, knows he's fighting a losing battle so just throws his heart away along with all the other causalities. He decides to stop being a fool and scrambles up onto his feet.

What was I expecting?

"You know what forget it - I just wish you well in your future endeavours. It was nice, uh, knowing you-"

Just as Baekhyun makes a move to turn around, to leave the man he'd broken with the image of him blabbering and foolishly hoping that he could take him back - only to retreat, embarrassed and deflated - warm fingers wrap around his wrist. It's a loose grip and the small tug Chanyeol gives it is feeble, half-hearted at best, but Baekhyun still feels a shudder of relief ripple through his entire body. Without missing another beat, he falls to his knees in front of Chanyeol, eyes watery as they search deep into his.

"But I'm in love with you," Chanyeol whispers. It's not a dramatic confession, it's spoken softly, would barely be audible if Baekhyun weren't hanging off of every word he says. He's not smiling like Baekhyun had wanted him to. He's looking utterly lost and hopeless and deflated because he's in love with this man that will do nothing but ruin him and yet he can't help himself from wanting to stay with him regardless. Baekhyun won't admit that it stings - even though it does - because he'll take what he can get. Chanyeol isn't smiling but his eyes that roam across Baekhyun's features like he's something special to behold shine with forlorn sincerity and that's all it really takes for Baekhyun's pulse to start thundering beneath his skin like an unraveling storm.

Soft fingertips trace over the bumps of burning blisters situated on the back of Chanyeol's neck - a soft, healing touch - before skimming up to his jaw ever so lightly, ever so lovingly. "Good," is all Baekhyun can think to mumble out, too lost in a pair of brown orbs for thought. He's crying, he knows, he can feel the wetness on his cheeks, he can see the way Chanyeol tracks their paths tenderly with his eyes. But he doesn't wipe them away. He wants Baekhyun to be as raw and open as he is right now. Lord knows he won't be able to give this - them - another shot if they're not going try and make it work as equals.

He's beautiful like this, Chanyeol thinks, without his chains, crying, pure and perfect just for me. Broken just like me.

"Good," Baekhyun repeats in a half sob-half chuckle, his breathless and shaky exhales ghosting hotly over Chanyeol's waiting lips. "Because I am too."

Chanyeol's eyes widen ever so slightly before Baekhyun is surging down to capture his lips with his. He tastes salt on his tongue but he relishes in it, closes his eyes and loses himself in the way Baekhyun can break him apart and put him back together so easily, with just a single touch, with just a single sentence.

Baekhyun kisses Chanyeol like he's something fragile, pressing their lips together in a soft, warm caress before pulling away, savouring the mingle of their synchronised breaths and then going back in for more, repeating the process all over again. Chanyeol lets him take it at his own pace, just like he always has, giving him full control over him, over them while he, in turn, tries to fit against him, accommodate his every move and keep up with him.

Baekhyun knows it isn't all better yet, that a single kiss and sweet moment isn't going to mend all the bullet holes. But it will be better. He'll be better. He'll change, he'll make things right. Them. Seulgi. Everything.

A/N - it is so painful to click that 'mark story complete' thing man I'm so sad this has ended only it hasn't because imma make a sequel trolol

anyways thank you for sticking with me all this time guys!

I hope the Seulgi plot twist was not too big or scarring for y'all. I would've been pretty scarred tbh. 

if you were going to ask me to choose what my favourite bit to write in this chapter was I'd say the baeksoo and the action was fun even though I at action and omg obvs the ending because it's so raw and tender and unf [ baekhyun voice ] chicken tender 

legit felt amazing writing glorious baeksoo because I didn't think i highlighted their beautiful relationship enough but !!! now I have and !!! i sob !!! they built the Exodus together. from scratch. it just gets to me. am i allowed to fangirl over my own fic. i mean the characters and plot and relationships create themselves bro i just write them down; so yes im allowed to do it. god bless baeksoo. even tho this is a baekyeol fic. but i don't think i need to talk about how much i love baekyeol here now do i. 

anyways ok im done please comment, subscribe and upvote as always my loves <3 and also don't unsubscribe unless you hate me that bad pls i beg. once again I love you all  <3

oh and if anyone wants to humour me; can you just comment who your fave character was i'll cry if it isn't jongdae my baby rebel gangster boy who's acutally just an easily jealous, sweetheart even tho he's going to knock everyone's asses into the water in the sequel if they so much as look at him the wrong way ok bye again trolol