I have seriously never been so happy to be on the ground.

Well okay, it’s another airport as something went wrong with the flights and we got redirected to Singapore so we’re delayed yet again on this blasted flight from hell but at least I can finally get Luhan back to normal, get him some damn sleeping tablets and hopefully not have to face the constant rushing to the toilet scenario when we do get reallocated onto a plane for Tokyo.

I really hope that Kevin has some good info for us when we get there, else he’ll be pissed off which will just make everyone else pissed off.

However, with it being midnight right now, we’re all kinda catching up on sleep in the waiting lounges though as per usual I cannot close my eyes. There’s something deep within me that still worries about these beautiful idiotic boys of mine that if I fall asleep, I’ll wake up and they’ll be gone. I don’t know quite why, but I’m sure that there is some reason, something that I’ve forgotten. Something important that I really should be focusing on but there’s too many distractions.

Like the bratty kids running around in the corner, playing some game, the big American fat guy who’s snoring so loudly that it’s echoing back around the room and Suho standing by the vending machines.

Wait, what?

Lifting my head up again, I blink and still see Suho standing there. Exactly the same Suho who I saw on the rooftop the other day. Still in the same clothes, with that all too familiar leather jacket on and before I can even think of the sense of it all, I’m on my feet and heading towards him.

He finishes buying whatever drink he’s getting and moves away from the machines. I could call out to him, let him know that I’m here but for the life of me I cannot get my vocal cords working in the slightest. I hurry to catch up to him but every time I think I’m getting close, Suho evades my grasp or else mysteriously ends up further away from me than before.

Suho enters a door marked ‘Staff Only’ and for a moment I pause, scanning for signs of anyone watching only for Suho to open the door with a clear look on his face which demands to know what I’m doing and quickly I hurry in. Of course, he’s not by the door when I get there, which is ever so slightly irritating but it’s easy enough to spot him.

We go down numerous corridors, through doors that are marked with all sorts of different names but honestly it all becomes a blur because I’m just focused so much on getting closer to him. Heaven help me if I need to get back or run into someone, I doubt I’ll be able to talk my way out of this one.

Though finally we come to what must be the cargo loading bay and this time I lose sight of him completely. There’s a series of boxes and creates, some larger than others, all with international markings on them and it’s what would be playfully described as thrown together. I have zero idea why I’ve been lead here but I know there’s no point in turning back unless I want to be on the end of the withering ‘you disobey me and I’ll punish you look’ which Joonmyeon has that seriously makes me go weak at the knees.

Don’t ask me why, but he’s y as hell when he’s pissed off or angry.

But that’s enough thinking about that scenario, right now I’ve got to figure out why he’s lead me here and I guess the easiest way is to start walking in-between all these flaming boxes. Even if it’s boring and uninformative.

Ten minutes later I’m still wandering and I can practically feel the impatient huff that’s coming my way but come on, I’ve got absolutely nothing to go on and if it were just as simple as finding a box marked ‘EXO’ then I’m sure I would have found it by…

Oh, there is actually a crate marked ‘EXO’.

About two feet away from the doorway I came in.

Okay Suho, you win that one. I’m Benben

Making my way to the crate, it’s rather oddly shaped. For one thing it’s standing upright, nearly a head taller than myself but it’s quite narrow. I mean there’s even a little lock key hatch on the side that doesn’t take much to open and I’m beginning to think that just maybe this is some kind of weird old fan thing or something.

Bar the slight humming noise that I only just notice because the lid or more correctly speaking door has sound proof paneling on it which just sends alarm bells ringing in my mind.

Slowly I turn my eyes to the contents of the crate and I’m so glad I’m not carrying anything because I would have surely dropped it to the floor because there’s a tube in the crate. One big enough to hold a human being, suspended in some kind of life prolonging fluid with several tubes fitted to their body so that they can breathe and electrodes wired to their brain.

Pushing aside my shock, I step closer to the tank and take a closer look at the features of the boy in the glass tank. He’s tall, not quite as tall as me with black hair, a body built for fighting and ever so familiar eyebags that are still present despite the fact that his eyes are closed. “No…” I whisper, reaching out to touch the glass, “No, my little panda, no.”

As much as I want to look away just to grab something so that I can smash the glass and get him out of there, I know I can’t and it nearly breaks my heart. “Tao?” I call through the glass, resting my hand on the cold surface, “Tao, baby? Please, please, if you can hear me…”

“They’re all like that,” Suho’s voice makes me jump and I turn around, “All the ones that we don’t have with us.”

“What are they doing?” I ask, feeling horrified at the thought that the others are like this, trapped in this terrible form.

Suho shrugs, “Whatever their ordered to do. I’m sorry Kris, I couldn’t get them all out. There wasn’t enough time.”

“I know,” I sigh, shaking my head, “If I hadn’t have screwed up…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Suho replies with a smile, “We can save them. There’s still time.”

Blinking I turn back to ask him a question but Suho’s eyes widen suddenly, “Hell. Get back to them right now Kris, right now.”

My body jolts, waking me up in the middle of the airport lounge and for a moment I’m completely disorientated because what the hell just happened? Though that strange tingling starts in my spine and instinctively I turn towards the main doors of the airport which are in the process of opening to allow someone in.

Or correction, to allow two people in.

Instinct kicks in once again and I’m immediately grabbing hold of a just about waking up Luhan to drag him behind a more sturdy pillar whilst jabbing Baekhyun in the side to hopefully wake him the damn hell up before these two goons start firing. I’ve no doubt that they will immediately start firing but if I can gain a little advantage then I will.

“What the hell?” Baekhyun immediately complains before his eyes snap up automatically at the sound of a gun being loaded, “!”

The first round of bullets stream through the air and pierce through the chairs that we had been sitting on not a moment before. Baekhyun immediately draws his own gun to start firing back, forcing the two gunmen to split before pulling back rapidly, virtually dragging Yixing by the foot as he does so but thankfully there’s no arguments from the elder.

I fire off a couple of rounds, mainly to keep the assailants down for a second or two, praying that the security here is at least a decent shot and scramble over to where our little kitten is still sleeping. How the hell he has not woken up in a panic I don’t know but I grab him and hurriedly shake his shoulder, “Sehun, come on, time to move.”

There’s no response and for a second I’m completely bewildered as to why, Sehun is one of the easiest people in the world to wake up which is why it’s best to leave him alone when he’s sleeping because he packs a mean punch so why now of all times he chooses to be a heavy sleeper I’ll never know.

Another flurry of bullets rain down on our location and airport chairs are probably the worst cover ever. “Sehun!” I yell, pulling the youngster down off the chair only to come to a horrific conclusion. There’s blood on my hands, on the chair and rapidly splattering onto the floor and suddenly I know why Sehun isn’t responding. He’s been shot though I can’t see the actual damage as of yet because the two assailants are still firing.

“Kris!” two voices yell at the same time and suddenly Yixing and Baekhyun are over me, the former grabbing onto the youngster’s prone form whilst the latter starts taking more precise shots towards the two who are firing at us.

I snap out of whatever fear has gripped me and help Yixing to get our little baby across the floor to a slightly safer location, though realistically we need to be getting out of here as soon as possible. I turn away from the bloodied sight of Sehun, letting Yixing try to do his best whilst I shoot back at the other two and feel my rage boil over.

Though it’s quickly replaced by yet more horror as I recognize the two who are firing at us. The two who have just injured Sehun and don’t seem to be phased about the fact that their discharging firearms in a very public place or that they’ve already taken down three security guards.

My throat runs dry as I change my target from a chest shot to a leg one on the nearest one, hoping against all hope that the Jongdae I’m seeing in front of me is just a copy. A clone with only basic capabilities to follow orders and be expendable because another could be produced. Though even I admit that it is an extremely horrible term to use.

But it’s the only hope I’ve got to cling to at the moment because the other guy who’s lining a shot up on us is Xiumin and my heart is beginning to hurt. Neither one of them would willingly try to hurt Sehun, I know this but they just have and I really don’t want to have to take them out incase it’s the wrong ones.

A shot goes off and blood splatters from Xiumin’s shoulder, sending him down to the ground and I glance up to see Luhan looking on with a determined, cold expression on his features.

Before I can feel too bad though, both Jongdae and Xiumin are back on their feet, guns raised and hailing bullets back towards us.

Well, life has certainly gone to hell in a hand basket.

authors babbling: So I rewatched XXX3 on the flight home from South Korea the other week and I grinned myself stupid and mentally planned to get back on track with this fic but life has been busy once again. Though hopefully I'll stick to the plan and get this going again a little more regularly. If the plot bunnies would stop randomly attacking me it would totally help as well but that's the fun of those little buggers. 

Anyway hope you enjoyed and catch you all again soon