“Keep running, Jungwoo. Don’t you dare look back.” John hissed as he, and the mutants he just “recruited” ran. They left rioting mutants, two important mutants missing, and ten body guards deadly murdered. The humans wouldn’t even doubt to think it was John’s doing. 

They needed to get away, and fast.

Jungwoo stumbled as he struggled to keep up with John and Renjun. He was panting heavily, and his feet were heavy as they touched the floor. Anyone could tell he wasn’t the type to move in combat. Renjun rolled his eyes and groaned. He had enough.

He picked up Jungwoo from his feet, threw him over his shoulder, and kept running.

“You won’t slow John hyung and I, Jungwoo.”, he groaned.

“You are bold to call me Jungwoo, shapeshifter.” 

“Whatever.” He scoffed.

“Will you two shut up? Less talking, more escaping.”, John hissed.

The door was so close, only a few steps more, a few steps more and his plan will we be practically perfect. Only a little more.

John came to a stop. What would lie behind the door? More guards? An army? Or those human-faithful N.000 mutants? 

“Be careful,” he said, “we don’t know what’s beyond that door. Maybe here’s where we die.”

“Beyond that door,” Jungwoo said, as he wiggles his way off Renjun’s shoulder, “is the new era.”

Renjun stomped on the door, opening it in a spring. 

Nothing lied there. No army, no mutants, no guards, nothing.

Jungwoo smirked, “As I said, the new era.”

“Jaemin!”, Jeno said as he ran to said mutant. He hugged him in crushing embrace, his kisses totally opposite than his embrace. Soft as feathers. Jaemin giggled, used to this kind of welcome Jeno always gave him, even when he knew he would come back. Jeno was so afraid he wouldn’t...

“Hey hey, enough, love. There’s a new face here!” He shook Ten’s hand, a bit too hard for his liking. “I’m Na Jaemin, pleased to meet you!”

“Jaemin,” Sicheng sheepishly said, “he was here before you. He’s Ten.”

Ten could only feel akward.

“Oh! Well why didn’t you say so, love? It’s an honor to finally meet you, hyung! Jeno has told me much about you!”

“The honor’s mine.” He simply said.

“What were you talking about, love?” Jaemin was now placed in a way that had his head on Jeno’s lap, and his hand rested on his own stomach, fingers intertwined with Jeno’s.

“Freedom.” Yuta answered, still shocked that he’d be freed soon. His eyes were pools of hope, his boyfriend’s heart sung seeing him this hopeful for the first time in a while.

“Free...dom?”, the word sounded foreign in Jaemin’s lips. He looked up to see Jeno looking at him, little tears escaping from his eyes, and splashing on Jaemin’s cheeks. Though crying, he smiled the way the man resting on him loved. It made him fall in love all over again.

“Nana, our walks. We can finally go, hand in hand, enjoying our daily stroll. Remember?”

“How can I not? We were barely twelve when we first started! You were too nervous to even grab my hand!” 

He giggled, recalling his obvious crush on Jaemin, and how his breath hitched every time their shoulders brushed. He kissed the area between his eyebrows, then his eyelids, then a soft press to his lips.

Ten shifted in his seat awkwardly. He didn’t mind seeing Yuta and Sicheng display affection,but Jeno? He felt like he just walked in to his son making out with his boyfriend. He wanted to sink into the walls and disappear, and forget he ever saw that. He knew he was overreacting, but he could not help the blood rising to his cheeks.

“What will we do after... after we are released?” Ten decided to change the subject. 

“Go back home...”, Yuta whispered. 

“Hyung, I don’t want to be rude,” Jeno started, “but is your “home” still a home?”

“Why you-!”

“Yuta,” Sicheng interrupted, “Jeno’s right. We haven’t been there in about three years now. God knows what state is it in. It’s better if we don’t go back.”

“But our home...”. Sicheng took his hand, and pressed a kiss. Lips feeling his pulse. A weak, faint pulse. Testing really did take a toll on him, huh?

“Home is with us two. We can make a home out of anything.” 

“I was thinking,” Ten suddenly spoke up, “about maybe doing campaigns for humans to accept mutants.”

“Not all humans hate mutants.” Jaemin said.

“True. But we are not loved either. We could- uh I don’t know. Get involved with charity work or something like that.”

“Hyung, for now, I think it’s best if we just hide.”, Jeno said sadly, he was already accepting this reality. 

Ten sighed. He knew he was right. Humans could never accept them that easily. Their best choice was to live hidden, but this was no freedom. 

A single tear, fell out of his eye, shocking everyone in the room. He did that a lot these days, cry. He shamefully wiped it away, though it was useless since new ones replaced it. Sicheng wrapped his arms around him, pulling him tightly. 

“It’s okay, it’ll all be alright.”, he shushed him.

“Nothing well ever be okay again.”

Scorch. That feeling was a stranger to his body, although it was made for this. His hands couldn’t resist fire like they used to, he could regulate his body temperature no longer.

 He wore nothing but shorts, the room appropriate for a polar bear. 

After Ten left for N.000, he felt nothing but lonely. He went drinking with Doyoung, spent his evenings with Taeil, for once not speaking about the company. But he always came back, to nothing but emptiness.

It was wrong of him, but whenever he thought of Ten, his heart ached for him. He craved to hold him between his arms, to kiss him softly, to show him how sorry he was. To love him entirely, and to let Ten love him too. 

He knew he deserved none of that. He was not worthy of Ten’s love, and his forgiveness. He deserved his hatred and resentment.

A tears danced in his eyes, threatening to spill. He wanted nothing more than Ten holding him between his arms, and whisper sweetly that he was no monster.

If that day ever came, Ten’d be lying. He was a monster, and he will always be.

His flames grew larger in his eyes, a warning that he’d soon have nasty burns across his palm. He welcomed the scorching sensation and relished in it. He deserved it, he wished he didn’t, but there was no escaping the truth.

He was a monster, through and through.

He had dyed his hair back to black again, he looked too much like when he was young, and it disgusted him. 

He had kept it red to remind himself of his.. “curse”,-he’d called it that way-, but now he understood that his real curse was his past.

He had too much blood in his hands, he practically bathed in it.

He was a monster, and Ten could never love him. He claimed to have loved Taeyong, but he could never do that. An angel could never fall in love with a demon.

It was a selfish wish, but Taeyong wished for him to still love him, no matter how blood-stained he was.