A/N: Hello friends, as promised here is part 2 :) this was a difficult chapter to write, I'm sorry if it's confusing! If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll get back to you :)

Minseok and Luhan entered the training room together, arm in arm. Minseok was in a bright mood, so Luhan had chosen not to bring him down by admitting that he had no idea what the meeting was about. But walking in he realized that may have been a mistake. 

The space was lined with supervisors. There were even more than the night of the pairing ceremony, and they were armed. Clear of furniture except for two padded training chairs, the room held an air of apprehension. 

At once the feeling he had woken with returned. 

Something bad was going to happen. 

(Minseok, something is wrong.) 

His friend turned to him with wide eyes, brow knit in confusion. Almost imperceptible Minseok shook his head- he couldn’t respond out loud even if he wanted to. 

“Good morning gentlemen,” Mr. Lee greeted them, a wide smile breaking out across his lined face. “How did you sleep?”

“Very well, Mr. Lee,” Minseok answered quick, breaking his gaze from Luhan. “Yourself?”

A low chuckle from the Principal. “Wonderfully.” His gaze slid to Luhan. “There’s been a change of plans, Luhan. We didn’t mean to spring it on you like this, but I know you’ll be understanding.” 

Luhan was starting to get nauseous. He felt the wrongness so intensely, like bile rising in the back of his throat. “A change of plans?” he managed to ask, his grip on Minseok tightening. 

“Yes. Your project with Minseok...well, we had to make some quick decisions. There’s been some updates with the War.” Mr. Lee paused here, looking not at them, but at the blue training chairs. “It’s changed our schedules. So the project will be happening today.” He turned back to Luhan, the same easy smile. “It’s all very exciting.”

“Today?” Luhan asked faintly. He tried, desperately, to remember the project that the Principal was talking about. It was there, somewhere, swirled in the roiling scarlet wickedness that blanketed the room. 

“Yes,” Mr. Lee said. “You two are both ready. There’s no reason to delay it any longer.” He nodded to the supervisors. “Lead them to their seats, please.” 

Luhan was panicking. This was not right, this was not good, this was- (dangerous.)

Minseok caught his eye again, still confused, and Luhan felt a lucid moment of anger. This wasn’t fair. He couldn’t say anything to Minseok, nothing except these fragmented, desperate thoughts, because they were in danger. Luhan was (afraid) . Only the slightest twitch in Minseok’s expression told him that he had even heard. 

But Luhan’s anger was pushed aside when a supervisor placed her gloved hand over his arm. The thudding against his temples intensified to a roar, his stomach flipping. 

“This one,” the supervisor murmured without emotion, sitting him down in one of the blue seats. “Stay still, please,” she said, beginning to dot him with the white simulation pads. 

Luhan ignored her, turning to look at Minseok again. (Baozi…)

His thought was cut off. The supervisors were placing the pads over Minseok as well. 

That made no sense. 

With utter confusion, he watched as Minseok’s eyes fluttered close, not flinching at all when the cold white circles were fixed over his skin. Wires draped down from him in a blanket of white tendrils, crossing and circling round, connecting to one side of a small black box on the ground between his chair and Luhan’s. Out the other side of the box was another set of white wires, snaking up and connecting to the pads fused to Luhan’s body. 

A memory. A shock of clarity- he knew what the project was. 

“Minseok!” 

The name came as a shout, but before Luhan could say anything else the world faded around him, the black pixels unfolding across his vision. 

-

This was probably close to the hundredth time Minseok had been in simulation. Over the hours that he had logged with the Principal, he had almost begun to share the Guarder’s familiarity with blue chairs and white pads. 

He used the breathing technique they had taught him, inhale for one...two...three….four... and hold...and exhale. The world became clear around him. He was in a white space, with no walls and no ceiling. Only emptiness. 

He let himself float there, his bodily senses slowly coming back and grounding him to a virtual earth. It had taken months of training to get him comfortable in this other universe, for him to be able to stand, and walk, and eventually gain back his fine motor control. A steep learning curve, made steeper by the fact that he was no longer a child and attempting anything new was difficult. 

The emptiness had always been disconcerting, and he fought back the crawling unease of looking at nothing. But not for long. 

When he turned around, Luhan met his eyes. 

“Minseok,” the Telepathic said, and his voice was broken. 

-

“We’re ready,” Mr. Lee said, fixated on the televised screen. He could see the boys standing together, face to face.  “Begin.” 

“Mr. Lee,” a supervisor said from beside him. Her voice was panicked. “Our system is reporting a chronon anomaly. As of five minutes ago.” 

“What?” The Principal turned to her, impatient. “That’s impossible.” 

“It’s right here, sir,” she said, and pointed to the monitor. 

Mr. Lee frowned, his fingers clenching to fists. She was right, but the numbers did not make sense. There was only one explanation for those figures, and it was a ridiculous explanation. The time bending brat was secure, and the Principal knew that for a fact. “It must be a mistake,” he said. “Zitao is in class.” He turned back to the other supervisors, hovering by the black box. “Begin,” he said again. 

They couldn’t afford any other setbacks. 

After only a moment’s hesitation, the supervisor leaned downward and turned the black box on. 

-

(I’m sorry, Baozi.) 

Luhan was crying. Maybe not in this world, the white abyss, but somewhere outside of everything. 

(I can’t stop them.)

“There’s nothing to stop, hyung,” Minseok said softly, placing his hands over Luhan’s shoulders, but Luhan heard his voice change. He was starting to understand. 

-

At first, it was like a warm hug. They had told Minseok that once the transfer began he would feel it, but hadn’t been able to describe anything more than that. But this seemed right. Luhan was with him, like he had been many times before, a blanket of rose over his mind. 

They stood like that for a minute, and Minseok smiled. 

But then it began to get hot. 

-

He was screaming. Being pulled inside out and twisting, tearing his flesh, spilling his blood. 

“Luhan!” he could hear Minseok shouting for him, grabbing for him, and they fell upon their knees together, foreheads pressed against each other. “Luhan, just breathe, it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay…” 

And then they began to melt. Skin merging together. Hands fusing into one. 

-

Minseok could see. Pure, a clear lucid grasp. 

(Luhan.)

(Minseok) Luhan said back, and when he did, it was in Minseok’s own body. 

(We’re together. You can hear me, Lu.)

Luhan didn’t answer. 

-

They wanted Luhan to give part of himself away. This he understood. Minseok was open, receiving, ready to fuse himself with whatever Luhan would give him and become something new. A boy who had no power made into one that did. 

But Luhan could not just give a part. He had never been able to. They had pushed him, so many times, to be inside someone and for a moment, take control. Own them by giving over a part of himself. 

He was not in control now. Minseok was. And he didn’t even understand what he was taking. 

-

(Luhan?)

No reply. Just the pressing heat, their bodies a tangled mess. Minseok could see nothing beyond his- and Luhan’s- eyelids, a swirl of color and fire. He was scared. 

“Luhan?” Minseok said out loud, desperate. “We’re going to get through this together.” 

Still nothing. 

“I love you,” Minseok choked out, eyes wet with tears. 

(I’m sorry, Baozi.)

-

Minseok couldn’t have him. Luhan hadn’t belonged to him in a very long time. Maybe this could have worked, once. But not now. Luhan was tired. 

He thought briefly of Sehun, of his lips pressed into the hollow where jawbone met neck, and felt himself float downward. It was getting close to the end. 

-

“Luhan? Lu, please hold on, Luhan, please -”

(...) a wash of rose. For a brief moment, and then- 

And then nothing. 

-

Minseok was torn out of the simulation into chaos, shouting and beeping and supervisors ripping pads from his skin. His face was wet from tears. “ Please !” he was screaming, throat raw. 

“Get him out!” Mr.Lee was roaring, and through blurry vision Minseok could see the Principal’s violent movements towards him, finger aimed at the door. “ Now! ” the Principal thundered, and a supervisor grabbed his chair. 

“Luhan,” Minseok reached for him, arm weak. He twisted his neck around, desperate, but he was being wheeled out of the room. 

The Telepath was motionless in his chair. His lips were parted in a soundless cry, and framed by wet lashes his pretty eyes stared upward, still and lifeless.