Their trek back to the dorms was slow but not that difficult. Chanyeol took out two supervisors at the entrance to the cafeteria, and Tao another at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the dorm rooms. But apart from that they had little opposition. Jongin was the only reason they didn’t move faster; he had passed out completely and it required at least three of them to lift him. 

They switched off carrying occasionally, but Kris insisted on helping the whole way back. He wanted to be useful, and he wasn’t stupid enough to try and fight. His chest was tight in an awful, gnawing fear, with some guilt mixed in when he looked at Tao. The blonde Guarder seemed to be making a point of not looking his way, and Kris couldn’t blame him. 

What a mess they had found themselves in. 

-

Kyungsoo had dragged Sehun to Baekhyun’s room a few minutes after the alarm had started. Something in Sehun had broken, and he had curled up with his hands over his ears, refusing to move, forcing Kyungsoo to literally pull him through the hallway. 

But when they had made it back to Baekhyun’s, everyone was gone except for Yixing, who had his laptop out. He had jumped when the two of them entered the room, but then went straight back to typing away. 

The three of them had waited, terrified and confused for what seemed like an eternity, the alarm only making them more miserable. 

So when the other eight boys piled into the room with an unconscious Jongin, Kyungsoo couldn’t help it. He started crying. 

“He’s okay,” Junmyeon reassured him, helping Kris and Baekhyun lay him across Chanyeol’s bed. “He’s not injured. It’s just anaesthesia, it’ll wear off.” 

Kyungsoo wasn’t listening, he had already pushed Baekhyun aside to sit on the bed next to his Guarder. “Jongin,” he whispered, hands trembling, and laid his head down on his chest, wanting to hear the beat of his heart. “Oh, thank God.” 

“Uh oh,” said Yixing from the floor. 

The alarm stopped, and all eleven boys immediately looked up. And then the lights went out. 

-

Mr. Lee was furious. 

It was a rare emotion on him. He had learned pretty early on in life that unbridled anger was rarely helpful. But tonight it felt appropriate. Necessary. He paced about the surveillance room, watching the chaos play out on the screens, jaw clenched. 

Losing the Telepath had been bad. That was something he could admit freely. But it hadn’t been unsalvageable. There had been hope with the Minseok boy, they had gotten some promising readings, and had been planning to finish their tests once he was rested and conscious. 

But they had been so clueless. All the pieces, stacked dominoes, falling one by one, leading to this disaster. 

Exposing Tao to the Key. Leaving it so blatantly unprotected, during such a critical hour. Not pushing Luhan anywhere near hard enough. 

And trusting Kris, who in the end had allowed himself to be played as a pawn. 

They never should have never granted Tao the privilege of individual training. He never should have gotten a second chance. 

Mr. Lee couldn’t care less about the little rebellion the boys thought they were executing. He found he was actually slightly disappointed in the way they had handled it all; given the calibre of their training, their effort was lacklustre. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was Minseok, what they had unlocked in the boy that had sent the glass cells crashing down. They could run around all they wanted right now, as long as Minseok kept putting on a show.

But they could use a lesson.  

When the boys had finally made it back to the dorms and shut their doors, Mr. Lee cleared his throat. “Shut it all down,” he announced to the room of staff. “Everything off, right now. And activate the safeguard, these boys are going in Confinement. We’re evacuating.”

-

“They shut everything down,” Yixing said disbelievingly, staring at his laptop. 

“What do you mean?” asked Junmyeon, flicking the light switch back and forth to no avail. Kris felt his heart sink. 

“They...they took the building off the grid,” said Yixing, tapping a few more keys. “Yeah...their system just disappeared. It’s all gone.” 

“No wifi?” Jongdae asked, not understanding. 

“No nothing, ” said Yixing. “There’s no power at all.” 

“I don’t even have a signal,” Kyungsoo said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “What’s happening?” 

The sound of vehicles starting drew them all to the window. 

“They’re all leaving,” Minseok said, disbelieving. “They’re just...going.” 

And so they were. The eleven boys watched in silence as car after car drove away beneath them, disappearing one by one out the Academy gates, until there was only the empty night air left. 

“They can’t do that,” Baekhyun said, incredulous. “This makes no sense. Our parents will find out, there’s no way this is allowed!” 

“How are they going to find out what’s going on?” Kyungsoo asked, scared. “If everything’s offline, we have no way to contact them.” 

“Besides,” said Tao dryly, “we did just severely injure about half of the staff. I’m not sure you want your parents to know about that.” 

“But why would they leave?” Baekhyun asked again. 

“They’re putting the Academy in Confinement,” answered Kris tiredly, and everyone turned to look at him. He slumped back against the door, eyes on the ground. “It’s their highest-level contingency plan. Mr. Lee explained it to me once. I never thought I’d actually live through it.” 

“Confinement?” Tao asked with a snort. “Sounds dramatic.” 

“It is,” Kris answered him, raising his head to meet his eyes. “We just rebelled. They’re subduing us.” 

Jongdae laughed. “By running away?” 

“No, by trapping us,” Kris said, his eyes darting back to the floor. His mouth felt dry. “They cut off all power to the building. I guarantee if we go back down to the cafeteria there will be no food, no water. We’re in the middle of nowhere. We can’t contact anyone. How long do you think we’re going to last?” 

“Well then we’ll just leave,” Jongdae said. “I don’t care if we have to walk ten miles to the next town, we’ll just go.” 

“We can’t,” said Kris. “You can try. But the exits are all sealed. They call it the safeguard- an impenetrable force field. It’s surrounding the whole building.” 

“That’s bull. We’re Guarders,” Tao hissed, fury beginning to enter his voice. “Chanyeol will just burn the place down.” 

“Try it,” Kris said, suddenly exhausted. “I don’t think fire goes through force fields.”

“How do you even know all of this?” Baekhyun asked, horrified. 

“He’s been working for Mr. Lee since he got here,” Tao answered, edging on a sneer. Eyes flashing, he turned to Kris. “I think maybe you owe these boys an explanation.” 

There was a beat of silence. For a brief moment Kris wondered if he should have gone back to the Principal after the cells crashed down. Surely anything would be better than the terrible way his classmates were looking at him now, frightened and dismayed and angry. 

“Go on,” Tao hissed. “Or I’ll do it for you.” 

Kris didn’t think he was bluffing. So he did his best, explaining the Academy’s plans, the transfers, his role as an informant, the failure that was Luhan’s death. But not a complete failure, he thought, remembering Mr. Lee’s words, and he glanced up at Minseok. 

Minseok shook his head, ever so lightly, and Kris stopped there, figuring there would be plenty of time for the boys to learn about his newfound powers. This was enough to absorb as it was. 

He also left out his encounter with Tao in the locker room. Maybe it was relevant, but also, maybe it wasn’t. And it was the last thing Kris wanted to think about at the moment. 

“So Luhan’s death is their fault,” whispered Yixing, eyes wide. “And now they’re trapping us here so no one else can find out?” 

“He’s a Teleporter,” Baekhyun said, pointing a frenzied finger at Jongin. “Can’t he get us out?” 

“They put something in him,” Tao said quietly. “A drug.” 

Kris nodded, feeling the weight of his body grow heavier by the second. “Even after he wakes up from the anaesthesia, his powers will be incapacted for a few more days. And by that time, they’ll be back.” 

“What do you mean?” Minseok demanded. “Who will be back?” 

Kris shrugged. “The staff. With probably ten times as many supervisors and weapons. They can’t leave us here to starve. You all are too valuable for that.” 

“But they think we’re such a low threat that they’ll just abandon us as punishment,” said Tao, livid. “Like children in a timeout.” 

“I don’t believe it,” Jongdae said, equally as furious. “They’re idiots to think we’ll just stay here.” He looked at the other ten boys. “I’ll fry the safeguard myself. We’re getting out of here.”