“Jaehwan,” the young hero’s boss frowned, “I have a mission for you.”

“I’ll complete it to the best of my abilities,” Jaehwan smiled, bowing deeply.

“You’re going to be infiltrating the Twin Flames and their allies,” his boss, and mother, told him, “you’re going to gain their trust no matter the cost. And when they’ve come to believe you’re one of them, we’ll capture them all in one fell swoop.”

“Yes, ma’ma,” Jaehwan nodded, keeping his concerns silent.

He was a well-known hero, how on earth was he going to gain the trust of notorious hero killers like the Twin Flames? And what was that ‘no matter the cost’ stuff about? Was….was his boss asking him to help kill people? How could he call himself a hero if he’d helped to kill people? Jaehwan liked that he was a hero, a good and real one. If he did this……could he still think of himself as that? He couldn’t turn down this job, though.

Jaehwan hid his concern under a smiling mask, one he found himself using often when he was in his office.

Or around his mother in general.

When he was finally allowed to leave, he was quick to flee to the roof of the building. Looking out over the city he protected normally calmed him, but this time he just couldn’t silence his thoughts. He knew that the Twin Flames and their allies needed to be stopped. He heard about their crimes every day on the news. Every hero he met couldn’t shut up about them, about their fear of them. He’d lost count of how many of his fans had expressed their concerns for his safety. Those always hurt the most because he couldn’t do anything to assure them that he was alright.

Not without telling them the whole truth anyway.

Yes, Jaehwan was very aware of the problems within the hero system. He was very aware that the Twin Flames had only ever killed heroes who’d done wrong. He did, after all, work with these people. He was, after all, part of the broken system. There were few people in the world who knew the problems with the hero system better than he did.

But all of those problems did not justify what the Twin Flames and their allies were doing.

Murder was never justified in Jaehwan’s eyes. He was sure that there had to be a better way. Take the former hero who had died a few months prior for example. All that the Twin Flames and their allies needed to do was reveal the ex-hero’s dirty deeds. Killing him was defiantly not necessary. In fact, it almost made him into a victim in the eyes of the people.

Jaehwan bit his lip, wondering how on earth he was going to manage to pull this off.

--

It took several months and a of luck before Jaehwan managed to make contact with a member of the villain group. Just in time too, his boss was starting to get really mad at him. The members he managed to contact were called Stone and Ash. He’d read a lot about them, every file he could get his hands on. Stone’s real name was Hwang Hyunjin. His mother hid him for most of his youth and then he’d been place in foster care after her death. He eventually attacked another kid, killing him, before fleeing to the streets.

He didn’t know when he hooked up with the Twin Flames, but it was assumed that Ash had something to do with it. The pair was always together and there had been a theory floating around that if you captured one, the other would be willing to sell out the others to ensure the return of their partner. Someone had made an attempt to test that theory and all it did was get them killed. Apparently, Ash didn’t take too kindly to having his partner stolen away.

Ash……well, he was a hero killer through and through. He and siren had been young teens when they’d popped up on the radar for killing a hero. After that, the pair started to travel the world, a string of hero deaths following them wherever they went. Jaehwan’s heart hurt for the pair. Reading their file, he’d found dozens of interviews with teachers and classmates. Everyone claimed that it was just a matter of time before the pair went evil, that they were destined to be villains. Jaehwan had heard stories about how people with ‘evil’ powers could be treated and……..yeah, it was only a matter of time before those people snapped and became exactly what their tormentors wanted them to be.

Jaehwan couldn’t help but morn for the good people the pair could have been.

Trying to talk the pair into a meeting wasn’t easy. The whole time Stone just stood there, glaring darkly at Jaehwan. Ash seemed a little more open to the idea of a meeting and Jaehwan found it rather easy to talk to him. They walked away with a location and time for a second meeting set up. Now, if anyone on the Twin Flames’ side would actually show was another story. Ash made it clear that the Twins could decide not to go and all Jaehwan could do was hope that they would.

--

“It’s a trap,” Chan said, “no way it isn’t.”

“Do they think we’re stupid?” Taekwoon huffed.

“Must if they’re doing this,” Hongbin scoffed, “you’re not going.”

“Goes without saying that they aren’t,” Minho spoke up, cuddling his boyfriend tighter.

“Actually,” Sanghyuk said, instantly earing cries of disagreement from everyone else.

“Sanghyuk,” Woojin frowned, “no. Just…..no.”

“It’s stupid!” Taekwoon snapped, “You’re stupid!”

“I…..actually agree with Hyukkie,” Jisung frowned slightly, “I kind of want to see what this guy says.”

“Exactly,” Sanghyuk nodded, “he’s a good hero, a real one. I can’t help but be curious.”

“You’re insane,” Hakyeon scowled, moving to chop his leader’s neck, “totally bat .”

“I….think I understand,” Seungmin sighed, “he’s like me, someone who grew up inside the system. And now he’s part of the system. If you can get him to talk openly……..that could give us some interesting information.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Sanghyuk nodded, “and if he or his boss or whoever came up with this plan is serious about it........well, we could get some useful information out of it.”

“But we’d have to give them information in return,” Wonsik pointed out, “what exactly would we tell them? Lies? Well, they could sell us lies, too.”

“I know,” Sanghyuk nodded, “I know.” He sighed heavily, “Look, we’ll put it to a vote. If the majority doesn’t want to do this, we’ll skip the meeting and never talk about this again. If the vote goes in favor of doing this, then anyone who doesn’t can skip this job.”

“Do you really want to do this?” Jeongin asked.

“I’m curious enough to give it a try,” Sanghyuk nodded, “but this isn’t about what I want. This will affect everyone, so everyone’s opinion should be heard.”

Everyone shared a look. They knew Sanghyuk would never risk their lives, he cared about their family too much. If he wanted to do this…….

The vote was unanimous in favor of meeting the hero.

--

“Thank you for meeting with me,” Jaehwan bowed, trying to hide how nervous he felt as the Twin Flames made their way over to him.

“No problem,” the older Flame replied, “I’m curious why a well-respected hero such as yourself would want to talk to villains like us.”

“Trying to move up in the ranks?” the younger asked, clearly trying to antagonize a reaction out of Jaehwan.

“No,” Jaehwan said, “I….I believe in your cause.”

“Our cause?” the elder asked, eyebrow raised, “and what is our cause.”

“You want to put an end to fake heroes,” Jaehwan replied, “and change how people treat others based on their power. As someone within the hero system, someone who sees fake heroes every day, this……I support you.”

“If you see what the fakes do,” the elder pressed, “why are you only coming to us now? Why are you coming to us at all? You have the power to stop these fakes from continuing to ruin the title of hero.”

“You’re defiantly underestimating my power and position,” Jaehwan sighed sadly, “if I even thought of doing something about it, my mo--.” He cut himself off before he could reveal too much. Jaehwan couldn’t lie, couldn’t keep the truth from his words to save his own skin. That was why he’d worked so hard to master fake smiles.

The Twin Flames shared a look, more than a little curious about what the hero had almost said, but dropped the subject.

“You realize,” the elder asked, “that we can’t just……trust you. You need to prove yourself to us, little hero.”

“We’re going to give you a little task,” the younger said.

“I know,” Jaehwan nodded, feeling bile rising in his throat. He had a horrible idea where this was going, but he had to do it. His mother…….she wouldn’t forgive him if he failed here.

No matter the cost.

--

“What have I done?” Jaehwan sobbed as he watched the news reporting on a death of a hero, “oh god, what have I done?”

He didn’t know the hero well, defiantly not well enough to know that she was a fake. But when the Twin Flames said she was their target……she had to be. They’d never killed in innocent before. He’d asked what she’d done, just to be sure, and they’d handed over a file. He’d been shocked by the horrible things she’d been up to. He’d thought he knew just how horrible the hero system was. He thought he knew the limits of what was being done.

Apparently not.

and at first that made it easy to gather the information that the Twin’s needed.

But then, after he’d finished the drop, he’d been alone with his thoughts and……and he realized that he’d just helped kill someone.

He might as well have set her on fire himself.

“I’m so sorry,” Jaehwan cried, “I’m so sorry.”

--

“I have a question,” Jaehwan asked.

“Shoot,” the elder Twin replied.

They’d been meeting like this for three months now. In that time, Jaehwan had helped kill four heroes. In return, he’d been able to save five. Although, a part of him wondered if he’d really saved them or if the Twins had just let him foil their plans. For one, he’d leaked the documents proving what a fake the hero was. This had been the first time the Twin Flames had let him take the files with him, until then they’d always had a policy or reading them on sight. Something about that…….Jaehwan wasn’t sure if that hadn’t been their plan all along.

“Why don’t you give this information to the news?” Jaehwan asked, “or leak it online? You could out these people as bad heroes without killing them.”

“Do you really think that’s possible?” the older Twin asked, “you should know how the heroes have control of the news. And online.......unless you have a following, no one will see what you’ve posted.”

“And now you have a following,” Jaehwan frowned, “but only those followers will believe you.”

“Exactly.”

“Look,” the younger spoke up, “we aren’t crazy about killing. If there was another way, we’d have done it. This was our only option when we started. It got the results we needed, so we kept at it.”

“I understand,” Jaehwan nodded.

And maybe he did understand just a little bit.

The Twin Flames wanted him to understand a little more.

--

“You sure you want to bring him into the fold?” Hongbin asked.

“I’m sure,” Sanghyuk nodded, “I want to at least try.”

“A power like his will be useful in the future,” Chan added, “especially with what we’ve got planned.”

“We’ve got to play this carefully,” Jisung frowned, “one wrong move and he’ll go running back to his boss spilling everything he knows.”

“Which isn’t much,” Minho pointed out, “the real loss would be the information flow he’s provided us.”

“We should introduce him to Seungmin and Jeongin,” Changbin said, “they’re the poster children for why heroes .”

“Jeongin is a cute little kid,” Taekwoon nodded in agreement, “the idea that heroes abandoned him to…..what happened……that alone should grow the doubt in his mind.”

“He’s probably got a good idea of what Seungmin grew up with,” Chan said, “so seeing him with us, happy and healthy………”

“Bring the proof,” Hongbin added, “let him take a copy to read later. Make sure that there’s time for everything to really sink in before your next meeting.”

After dinner that night, Sanghyuk brought up this plan with the others.

“Would you both be alright with that?” Sanghyuk asked the pair in question, “coming along and sharing your stories?”

“I’m fine with it,” Seungmin shrugged, “whatever helps us achieve our goals.”

“I’m alright with telling him everything,” Jeongin said, slightly hesitant.

“Don’t say you’re alright with it if you aren’t, Innie,” Sanghyuk said, ruffling the youngest member’s hair, “both of you, don’t do this for the group. Do it because it’s what you want. We won’t achieve our goals by hurting ourselves.”

“It’s like Chan said,” Seungmin insisted, “he probably already knows what I’ve had to deal with. All I have to do is show up and tell him how much better life is with everyone here. I can defiantly say good stuff about my family.”

“Can I sleep on it?” Jeongin asked, “I……”

“You can sleep on it,” Sanghyuk assured the other, “don’t worry, Innie.”

“Speaking of sleep,” Hyunjin said with a yawn, “it’s late and Felix and I have work to do tomorrow.”

“We should all get some sleep,” Woojin nodded in agreement.

“Goodnight, everyone.”

--

“You’re running late, hero,” the elder Flame laughed as Jaehwan rushed into the room.

“I’m sorry,” Jaehwan panted, “I….something came up.”

“It’s fine,” the villain said, “I was just teasing you a little. I think we’ve known each other long enough for me to do that.”

“Teasing me?” Jaehwan blinked.

He…..he’d never had anyone in his life who did that. Well, no one who’s teasing was all in good fun. Who’s teasing had no ill will hidden within. Jaehwan was the first to admit that his life was rather……lonely. Growing up, the focus had always been on training. His mother saw his potential to be a great hero and had pushing him to achieve it. This didn’t leave him very much room for friends, especially after she decided to homeschool him because the other kids at school were too much of a distraction.

After he’d debuted as the flying hero Wings, he’d still been rather lonely. No one at his company would talk to him unless necessary, the interactions as short as possible. His fans only cared about getting autographs or pictures when meeting him. The other heroes…….well, he tried to avoid them. At first he’d tried to make friends, but when he’d found out how they really were, he’d started trying to distance himself. That hadn’t sat too well with some and soon he found himself ostracized and made fun of at every opportunity.

But the older Twin Flame…….

“Yeah,” the villain nodded, “that’s what……sort-of friends do? I think? Honestly I’m not sure.”

“Hyuk,” a third person said, drawing Jaehwan’s eye to the two people standing beside the older Tw—Hyuk.

“Right,” Hyuk laughed, “Wings, I’d like you to meet two members of my family.

“I’m I.N,” the younger of the pair said, “and this is Seungmin.”

“Seungmin?” Jaehwan asked, looking over the young man, “as in….”

“Kim Seungmin,” Seungmin nodded, “yeah.”

“You…..you’re a villain now?” Jaehwan frowned.

“I’m with my family now,” Seungmin corrected, “I’m sure you’ve seen the evidence the public collected of what my father did to me. Well……”

“Seungmin came to us looking for help,” Hyuk said stepping forewords, gently patting Seungmin’s shoulder when he noticed the troubled look on the other’s face, “he needed to get away from that man and he knew we were the only ones who would do something.”

“I’m part of this family now,” Seungmin said, looking Jaehwan straight in the eye, “I’m part of a family now. No one hurts me, they love me.”

Jaehwan looked the young man over carefully, trying to find….something…..anything that would indicate he was lying or being forced to say that. All he found was honesty. He’d suspected as much. He’d been meeting with the Twin Flames, with Hyuk, for a couple of months now and he seemed……he seemed really nice. Nothing at all like other villains Jaehwan had talked to. It made him wonder just what had made him, as well as other others in his group, turn to villainy.

“And I.N?” Jaehwan finally asked, “You must have brought him here for a reason, so……tell me.”

“I was,” I.N took a deep breath, “I was being used as a…..a lab rat. Before the others found me and saved me. I…..I don’t remember how I ended up there, all I remember is my cell and…..the experiments.” I.N started shaking, eyes going unfocused as he recalled those dark days before he’d been saved by his family.

“I.N,” Hyuk frowned, pulling the young boy into a hug, “it’s ok. Remember what I said? You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Here,” Seungmin grabbed a file off of a nearby crate and handed it to Jaehwan, “this is everything we collected on the people who took part in those…….experiments. And everything we know about the other victims.”

“I’ll contact you about another meeting later,” Hyuk said, still holding a trembling, sobbing I.N.

“Right,” Jaehwan nodded, tucking the file into his coat and turning to leave. As he left, he heard the start of a whispered conversation between the three.

“Silly kid,” Hyuk smiled sadly at his youngest brother, “I told you that it was alright if you didn’t do this. I know how much it hurts to talk about it.”

“I wanted to help,” I.N replied, voice thick with tears, “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Seungmin insisted, hugging the youngest from behind and creating an I.N sandwich.

Jaehwan glanced back, smiling softly at the sweet sight.

He wasn’t smiling later as he read through the file he’d been given.

--

Jaehwan tried to hide his scowl as he made his way to his mother’s office the next day. Morning meetings had become the norm over the last couple of weeks, his mother demanding that he give her some kind of information on the Twin Flames and their allies. Apparently, five and a half months was plenty of time for him to find out something. Heck, she probably thought that the whole investigation should be finished and the villains in jail by now.

Sadly, things didn’t work like that and Jaehwan was honestly surprised by how much he’d already accomplished.

That wasn’t why he was upset though. His mother demanding results wasn’t anything new; he was more that used to her tight deadlines. What troubled him was the files he’d read last night. What he’d read……it was like some kind of Stephen King novel. It had kept him up all night, trying to understand how anyone could do something like this to anyone, let alone children. It…..it had to be fake. It just had to be.

But I.N’s face…….it was real. Hyuk had never given him false information before. Why would he give him lies now? There had been an address in the files and Jaehwan had decided that he was going to go there. Apparently, that was where Hyuk had taken the other children, the ones who weren’t like I.N. who hadn’t kept their sanity. The file said that some were better now, or at least better than they were when the villains found them, and Jaehwan wanted to talk to them.

He needed to talk to them.

He didn’t need to talk to his mother while all of this was rolling around through his head.

“Jaehwan,” his mother scowled, “tell me that you have something for me today.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jaehwan nodded, “I do.”

“Good!” she smiled, or as much as her could smile, “tell me.”

Jaehwan had debated telling her about Seungmin on his commute to the office. It would be something to get her off his back for a few days and Hyuk wouldn’t have brought Seungmin along if he wasn’t prepared for everyone to know that the young man was with him now. But it…..it didn’t feel right. Giving her the name ‘Hyuk’ didn’t feel right either. So Jaehwan decided he’d give her something else.

“It was just the older Twin and two of his allies yesterday,” Jaehwan reported, praying that his voice didn’t give away his lie, “one of them slipped for a moment and started to call him by his real name.”

“What did he call him?”

“He didn’t get far,” Jaehwan bowed his head, trying to hide his face in case something in his expression gave him away, “it started with an H though.”

“It isn’t much,” his mother scowled, “in fact it’s almost nothing.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Jaehwan said, his shame about lying to his mother easily mistaken for shame over not having anything useful.

“Is there anything else?” she asked, voice going cold and Jaehwan was……actually very surprised to find that he didn’t feel any worse. Normally he felt terrible after hearing her use that tone, so bad that he’d say anything to make her voice warm again. But this time……he didn’t mind.

“I might have a lead,” Jaehwan said, “a couple of years ago, the Twin Flames and their allies attacked an old warehouse. No one was reported dead. No one claimed ownership of the building. It seemed odd to me, so I looked into it. tired to connect it to anything else that happened around the same time.”

“And?”

“There might be something a couple towns over,” Jaehwan replied, “I won’t know if it’s connected or not until I go there and ask around. I would like to request a couple of days off to investigate, ma’am.” Jaehwan had to applaud himself for lying so well. Honestly he was terrified that she would see through him like glass.

“Granted,” his mother said after a moment, “you can have a day off this Saturday. But you better come back with something Jaehwan. The next time I see you, I want information.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jaehwan didn’t voice his irritation over having to wait five days.

--

Wings had clearly not expected to find anything that he found at the address he’d been given. He didn’t expect the place to look so nice when everything around it looked……..well, not as nice. He didn’t expect to find so many children there either, running around and happy. He defiantly didn’t expect to find Chan at the front gates waiting for him either.

“Hyuk figured you’d come,” Chan shrugged.

“So he sent you to…..what?” Wings frowned, “guide me? Chase me off?”

“Neither,” Chan replied, “he didn’t ask me to come here. Ash and Stone come here a couple times a month to see the kids and I decided to tag along.”

“Why do they come here?” Wings frowned, “and you came to….what? Keep me away from them?”

“More like ask you a couple of questions,” Chan replied, “like why there are no reports about Seungmin being a villain on the news yet. And why no one knows that Hyuk is called, well, Hyuk.”

Wings opened his mouth a couple of times before shutting it, clearly not knowing how to answer. He didn’t know why he’d done it either.

“I don’t know,” he finally said and Chan nodded. He had a feeling that the hero was questioning a lot of things now, after everything they’d told him, and felt it better to not push him when he was so unsure.

“Come on,” Chan said, turning to leave, “they should be finishing up now.”

“Finishing what?” Wings asked.

Chan didn’t answer, instead leading Jaehwan to a little graveyard behind the building. The graves all looked well-kept and there were flowers left at each one. Standing among the graves was Hyunjin keeping a careful eye on Felix who was kneeling at a grave. Wings looked around, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

“These are the kids who didn’t survive,” Chan said, “when we raided that house of horrors, we took everyone, dead or alive. I.N stayed with us, the other living children came here, and we laid the dead children to rest here.” He sighed sadly, morning for the souls they hadn’t been able to save, “we couldn’t leave them there. They’d been abandoned enough in life. That’s why Lix comes here, so they aren’t forgotten and alone.”

“Oh,” Wings nodded. He counted twenty five graves and his heart ached at the knowledge that this was only the children that they’d found. There was probably dozens more kids who had no bodies to burry.

“Wings,” Felix said as he made his way over with Hyunjin, “you’re here?”

“I wanted to look around,” Wings said, “ask some questions.” He realized then that none of the villains were wearing masks or costumes or anything. Like him, they were dressed in plain cloths. Looking at them, you wouldn’t be able to tell that they were villains who’d killed dozens of heroes. Wings was a little surprised at how normal they looked, how soft and gentle they looked

“I don’t think you should ask the kids questions,” Hyunjin said, “You might trigger someone.”

“Right,” the hero nodded, thinking back to I.N’s attempt to share his past, “you’re right.”

“The files should have enough information,” Chan said, “and your questions……I think this should answer them.”

“It does,” Wings nodded, “I……I have a question for you three though.”

“Shoot,” Hyunjin shrugged.

“Why are you here?” Wings asked, “As in….why are you villains?”

“Don’t you know how people like us are treated?” Chan asked, tone harsh as he recalled the years of torment he and Felix had been subjected to because of their powers, “we never had a choice to be anything but villains.”

“Yeah,” Wings nodded, “I….I guess.”

“You read our files, right?” Chan frowned, “then I bet you think you’ve got a pretty good idea about how we ended up like this.”

“Ash killed a hero and the two of you ran after years of being told you were evil because of your powers,” Wings replied, “Stone killed another kid at his foster home and a couple of years later he turned up working with the Twin Flames.”

“That’s only part of the story,” Hyunjin snapped, not at all liking how his boyfriend flinched when the hero brought up his first kill, “that hero that Felix killed was trying to kill them! Chan asked the guy if they could be heroes and he tried to kill them in the name of rooting out evil before it could bloom! All Chan ever wanted was to be a hero and do good! All Felix ever wanted was a quiet, peaceful life free of hate! But society thinks people like them are evil, powers like theirs are evil, and never gave them the chance to do what they wanted.”

“Jinnie,” Felix frowned slightly, squeezing the other’s hand, “hey, it’s alright.”

“It isn’t!” Hyunjin replied, “the way he said it……he thinks you wanted to kill that fake.”

“I know,” Felix sighed sadly, “but….but it’s alright.”

“The hero…..wanted to kill you?” Wings asked, eyes wide in horror, “for……for your power? Because he thought it was evil?”

“Yeah,” Chan nodded, “he almost did, but Lix…….he saved us. But no one was going to believe us, so we ran. And we kept running until we heard about Hyuk and Sunggie. They took us in, gave us a family. They promised that they’d change the world so that people like us weren’t treated like future villains.”

“I believe it was self-defense,” Wings said after a long moment of silence, “and Stone……that was self-defense too, right?”

Hyunjin winced at the memory of his first kill, cuddling deeper into his boyfriend’s arms. He didn’t…….regret what he’d done. That kid he killed wasn’t going to stop hurting him until one of them was dead. but knowing that he’d killed someone…….that it could have been prevented if society was just a little less messed up……..

“Yeah,” Chan nodded, “the other kids decided he was a danger, so they started to beat him. Maybe they were hoping to kill him, maybe they just wanted to chase him away. But one day, Jinnie just…….he couldn’t take it anymore. He opened his eyes and…….” Chan sighed sadly, “it made them stop, it saved him for more beatings. You…….when Lix brought him home, we had a doctor friend look him over. Some of his bones……those brats broke them and the people who ran that hell hole never bothered to get him properly treated so the bones healed wrong. We had to break one of his arms a second time so that it could be healed right by our healer.” Wings visibly winced, unable to imagine the pain Hyunjin must have felt over having to re-brake a bone a couple years after the original break had happened.

Wings didn’t stick around much longer after that, he’d learned enough for one day. As he left, Chan advised him to tell his boss about Seungmin. The hero just nodded, not asking anything about the other’s knowing tone of voice.

“This isn’t how Sanghyuk wanted the meeting to go,” Felix frowned slightly, “do you think he’ll be mad?”

“I think this might have gone better than the original plan would have,” Chan replied.

“Do you really think we’re getting through to him?” Hyunjin asked, “He could be lying.”

“Hongbin’s been keeping an eye on him,” Chan replied, “hacked his home a couple of weeks ago. He’ll get an even better idea of what’s going on when he starts his internship next week.” Hongbin had gotten into the office’s systems within days of their first meeting with Jaehwan, but actually being inside the building and talking to people…….it should make for a much more complete picture.

“Feels too easy,” Hyunjin scowled, “way too easy.”

“It’s taken Sanghyuk and Jisung over four years to get to this point,” Felix pointed out, “I don’t think this is even slightly easy.”

--

A month went by before Hyuk brought another new face and story to a meeting with Jaehwan.

Jaehwan had heard about Taekwoon’s father, the frozen hero Icicle. He’d looked up to the man when he was young, wanted to be a hero like him. And then he died and Jaehwan remembered morning like the rest of the world. He remembered his mother taking him to the funeral and seeing the hero’s wife and son. They had looked so sad, so broken, that it just……it burned itself into Jaehwan’s memory. Especially the wife. Jaehwan remembered seeing her expression grow more and more distraught with every person who talked to her, who gave her their condolences.

They told her that her husband died the death of a hero.

He had never seen someone that sad before.

Taekwoon was calm as he explained his father’s death, the cover up that had happened to protect the one responsible, but Jaehwan could see the anger hidden deep within the man. He found he couldn’t blame him for that rage simmering deep inside. Taekwoon had, after all, lost his father and then been forced to watch the one who’d killed him be praised for his heroic acts.

A few weeks later, Hyuk brought Ravi to their meeting.

The empath didn’t have the horrible background of the others and maybe…..maybe that made it worse. He’d had a normal life until his home was destroyed. It angered Jaehwan to know that the hero responsible had refused to help because it would be too costly and would earn him no attention. It was such a selfish though, so unheroic. How couldn’t Jaehwan feel angry about it? Ravi seemed so nice; he didn’t deserve what had happened. It made Jaehwan grateful that Hyuk had found him and given him a home.

N had tagged along on a meeting and easily offered up his story. Jaehwan had scowled as the other had relayed his tale, his anger over the other’s treatment growing with every passing word. N had needed the help of a hero, but everyone he found had ignored him. They hadn’t wanted to listen to him; they wanted a quick bust so they could get another job. One that would be more…….press enticing. Jaehwan didn’t want to think about what would have happened to N’s siblings had the Twin Flames not gotten involved.

Fixer was the final member of the family that he met.

That meeting…….it was very different from the others. Fixer had come alone, something that had alarmed Jaehwan at first. He knew that Fixer was very behind-the-scenes, so if he was making an appearance…….did that mean that something had happened to Hyuk? Or the others? Fixer had assured him that everything was fine, that he just wanted to talk to him. So they did. And it was an enlightening conversation to say the least.

“So,” Jaehwan frowned, “you…..you really don’t have a reason to have joined them?”

“I have a reason,” Fixer replied, “it just……it doesn’t involve heroes hurting me or killing someone I care about or ruining my life somehow. I just……” he smiled softly as he recalled the first time he met Hyuk and the others, “Sunggie needed help. He would have died without it. So I helped. And after he was safe, Hyuk and I talked. I’d already been reading one of the fansites, already looked into things a little. I wanted to join them right then and there, but Hyuk said to think about it more.”

“And you did?”

“I did,” Fixer nodded, laughing slightly, “All it did was reaffirm my convictions. My dad didn’t agree at first, but……thing have happened since then. My mom……she’s a doctor. She…..she’s seen some stuff. She’s supported me since the day I left.”

“And you don’t kill?”

“Hyuk goes out of his way to keep it that way,” Fixer replied, “me, I.N, N, and Ravi haven’t killed anyone. Though with how determined I.N is to help us achieve our goals, I don’t know how long before he’s forced to take a life.”

“Oh,” Jaehwan blinked. He……he’d never thought that Hyuk would do something like that.

“He tried to keep Sunggie from killing anyone for a long time, too,” Fixer added, “Hyuk……he doesn’t want the rest of us to be painted in red like him.”

Jaehwan was silent for a long time before finally asking something that had been bugging him since he started this job. Since he first heard about the Twin Flames. He’d started to ask Hyuk this question a couple of times before, but the other deflected every time.

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why is Hyuk doing this?” Jaehwan asked, “What…..what opened his eyes to the truth of the hero system?”

“Number one killed his mother,” Fixer told him after a long moment of silence.

--

Jaehwan laughed at the joke Sunggie had told. Since learning about Hyuk and Sunggie’s mother…….no, ever since his talk with Siren, Ash, and Stone, he had become more open with the villains. Their meetings stopped being about business and started being about the people in the meeting. They started actually talking, learning about each other. They made jokes and laughed and smiled. It made Jaehwan happy, happier then he’d ever been because for once he had friends. And he knew that it was probably stupid for a hero to call a bunch of villains friends, but…..

Those villains made him happy.

In the nine or so months that he’d known them, they’d made him feel more…….human then he’d ever felt before. The people at his company treated him like he was a thing, even his own mother. To them, he was a tool that they could use however they saw fit. It was pure luck that until recently, what they wanted lined up with what he wanted. Well, sort of. He wanted to be a hero, his management and mother……well, he suspected that they wanted the fame and money that come with being a top hero.

But now……Jaehwan wasn’t so sure if he wanted to be a hero anymore.

He liked Hyuk and his family, liked how they made him feel. And……and maybe he wanted to feel that feeling a lot more than he wanted the lonely, empty life of a hero. Maybe he………maybe he also wanted to be around Hyuk. He really liked how the other made him feel. He liked the warm smiles that the other gave him. He liked hearing Hyuk talk about his dream of a better world. He liked how caring Hyuk was when it came to his family and to him. He liked--.

“Your phone,” Ash frowned, interrupting Jaehwan’s train of thought.

“Oh,” Jaehwan frowned, looking down at the caller id to see his mother’s name, “I…..oh.”

“Another meeting?” Hyuk asked, scowling at the device, “didn’t you already have one this morning?”

“I did,” Jaehwan nodded, “maybe……maybe I’m needed somewhere?” Not likely. If he was needed for an emergency, it wouldn’t be his mother calling him.

“You should answer it,” Sunggie suggested.

“Right,” Jaehwan nodded sadly, “I’ll……I’ll call you on the burner to set up another meeting?”

“Yeah,” Hyuk nodded, smiling softly at him, “take care, be safe.”

Jaehwan smiled back before leaving.

He wished that he hadn’t left.

The meeting with his mother was……it was bad. She yelled at him, even smacked him at one point as she demanded results. Jaehwan forced himself not to cower under the force of her rage. He had never, ever, seen her that angry before and the part of him that still wanted his mother’s love…….that part was going crazy.

“Get it together, Jaehwan!” she finally snapped before kicking him out of the room, “you’re a hero, not a villain, act like it.”

Jaehwan stood in front of her door for a moment, her final words ringing in his ears. He knew she was right, he had to stop playing around. He had to pick a side. He had to decide if he wanted to be a hero, or if he wanted to be a villain.

The choice was easy.

Jaehwan went to his apartment and packed a bag. Once his bag was packed, he stopped and looked around. His bag was pretty small as he’d only decided to take the things he needed or really wanted and….that wasn’t much. Most of his apartment was decorated in things that weren’t his, things picked out by the interior designer that his mother had hired. The personal touches he’d made were few, small little things that he mostly added in order to pretend that his life wasn’t as empty as he knew it was. Looking at it, he wondered how he’d managed to fool himself into believing that for so long.

He left then, already calling Hyuk and requesting a meeting.

--

“I’m sorry for trying to deceive you all,” Jaehwan said, bowing deeply, “I hope that you can all forgive me, but I understand if you never do.”

“You know that we knew from day one that is was a trap, right?” Taekwoon frowned slightly, “you never fooled us for a second.”

“If it bothered us,” Chan nodded, “then Sanghyuk wouldn’t have introduced you to everyone. He wouldn’t have brought you home.”

“Why would you think we’d never forgive you?” Felix asked, “We’re friends.”

“We’re family,” Hyunjin added, “at least we are now.”

“Come on,” Jisung grinned, grabbing Jaehwan’s arm and dragging him off, “I’ll show you around.”

“I’m coming, too,” Jeongin cried, rushing after them.

Sanghyuk smiled at the sight, his heart feeling so full over finally having his whole family under one roof.

“You look happy,” Hongbin said, smiling happily over how calm his friend and leader looked.

“I am,” Sanghyuk nodded, “our family…..it feels complete.”

“Well,” Minho laughed, “until the next stray stumbles through the door.”

“True,” Sanghyuk laughed, “very true.”

“Hey,” Hongbin said, “I….I don’t think I ever thanked you for taking us in.”

“And you don’t have to,” Sanghyuk replied.

“But we want to,” Minho said, “you…you saved us, Sanghyuk. You gave us so much. A home, love and support, and a family. You……thank you for…..for everything.”

The three fell silent for a moment before Sanghyuk pulled the brothers into a hug. It quickly became a group hug when the others in the room noticed.

--

“So,” Sanghyuk said, sitting down beside Jaehwan on the balcony of the ex-hero’s new apartment, “how does it feel to be a villain?”

“Don’t know,” Jaehwan replied, “I’m…..not really sure it’s totally sunk in yet.” He sighed, “Not looking forewords to the news reports about this.”

“You get used to it,” Sanghyuk assured him, “at some point, their lies start to become white noise.”

“If you say so,” Jaehwan said, stretching out his wings.

“They really are beautiful,” Sanghyuk said, looking at the white feathers.

“Thanks,” Jaehwan blushed. It wasn’t the first time Sanghyuk had said that about his wings, but it still made him feel all warm and giggly inside. “Your fire is beautiful, too.”

“My mother said that, too,” Sanghyuk sighed, looking up at the night sky above them, “she was so proud of my flames.”

“I think she’s proud of you for using them to help make the world a better place,” Jaehwan said.

“I like to think that,” Sanghyuk smiled softly, “but…….sometimes I wonder. Not as often as I did when I started down this path, but…….with how things are going……”

“You’re finally going to make a big move,” Jaehwan frowned slightly, “no more picking off the small fries. You’re going for the big dogs.”

“The biggest dog of all,” Sanghyuk nodded, “number one.”

“The one who killed your mother,” Jaehwan hummed.

“I’m not sure if I should,” Sanghyuk admitted, “it just…….it feels less about the big picture and more……personal. I……”

“It’s alright,” Jaehwan said, “you’ve gotten revenge for Seungmin and Taekwoon. You’re going to make the fakes who are responsible for hurting Jeongin pay. It’s alright if this time things are a little personal for you and Jisung. No one would think badly about you for it.”

“I know they wouldn’t,” Sanghyuk said, “I just……..I don’t know.” He laughed slightly, “I really don’t know. Maybe I’m just……I’m worried. I don’t want my family to get hurt and moving forewords with our plans…..”

“We’ll be fine,” Jaehwan assured him, grabbing Sanghyuk’s face to make him look at him, “We’re going to be alright. With you leading us, we’re going to be alright.”

“That’s a lot of faith you have in me,” Sanghyuk said, “and you’ve only officially been part of the family for a few hours.”

“I know a good person when I see them,” Jaehwan shrugged, “and you’re a good person. I know you’ll get us all through what’s coming alive. All you should be worried about is what you’re going to do when all your dreams have been achieved.” He paused, “what are you going to do?”

“I was thinking about fading away,” Sanghyuk replied, “becoming just a chapter in the history books. But I’d do it is such a way that people would fear my return should heroes and society return to the way it was.”

“So you’re just gonna hide away somewhere and live out your life?”

“Yeah.”

“I….,” Jaehwan bit his lip feeling nervous, “I could live like that.”

“Could you?” Sanghyuk asked, smiling slightly.

“Only if you wanted someone to come with you!” Jaehwan insisted, panicking slightly, “ah! Not that I was saying I’d come with you. Just, um, just that living like that sounded nice!”

“If you wanted,” Sanghyuk laughed, “you could come along.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Sanghyuk said, taking hold of Jaehwan’s hand.

The pair sat there together for a while, just watching the night sky. Eventually Sanghyuk got up to leave, pressing a quick kiss to Jaehwan’s lips before heading to his own apartment. Jaehwan almost fell off the balcony in shock. He went to bed soon after, smiling so hard it hurt.

A/N: this is by far the longest chapter. Don’t know why I’m surprised by that, makes sense since there’s so much to cover here.