Jeongin didn’t remember his parents. He didn’t remember going to school or playing with friends. He didn’t remember much outside of his cell and the experiments. He did remember that one of the older kids talked about heroes coming to save them. He didn’t know what heroes were, but they had to be something good based on how the other kid talked about them. But heroes never came and the older kid died or went insane.

Heroes weren’t coming to save them.

No one was.

Jeongin was sure that he was going to die or go insane in his little cell.

--

“Are you kidding me!” Chan snapped, “How could they do this? Just turn a blind eye to something like this?”

“You should know by now,” Taekwoon replied, “the people only know about what the news talks about. If the news isn’t talking about missing orphans, then…….”

“It’s so wrong,” Chan sighed, slumping in his seat, “I….I feel sick.”

“We all do,” Jisung replied, hugging Felix as the sensitive boy cried. He was close to crying as well, but held it together because Felix needed him to be strong. He’d cry later when it was just him and Sanghyuk.

“Well,” Sanghyuk said, “if the heroes won’t do anything, then we will.”

“Why aren’t they doing something?” Woojin asked, “You’d think that saving a bunch of kids would be a great photo opportunity.”

“From what Taekwoon and I can tell,” Wonsik frowned, “some of the money funding these experiments comes from some big name heroes. Number 3 seems to have the strongest tie to the whole thing.” He paused, “honestly, that kind of explains how he rose from 43 to 3 within a couple of years.”

“How soon can we attack?” Sanghyuk asked, “I want those kids out of there by the end of the week.”

“We can do that,” Taekwoon smiled slightly, handing over a floor plan he’d managed to dig up for the building in question, “you and Chan just need to come up with a battle plan.”

“We’ll have one by tomorrow,” Chan promised.

“Better get some coffee going, Woojin,” Sanghyuk smiled at the younger, “we’re gonna need it.”

“Got it,” Woojin nodded, “just don’t overwork yourselves. We need you both at one hundred percent.”

--

They performed the raid a couple of days later and what they found…….it was worse than they could have imagined.

Wonsik had to be taken out at one point, the feelings of the captive children too much for him to deal with. Felix hadn’t stuck around very long after they cleared the building, Jisung going with him since he also couldn’t stomach what they had seen. Woojin clearly wanted to run from the horrific sight, but he needed to be there to help whoever he could. Chan, Sanghyuk, and Taekwoon held in their feelings better, but they all knew that they were destined for many sleepless nights.

There were only a handful of children alive and most of them had clearly been driven mad by what had happened to them. Sanghyuk didn’t know if they would ever be able to regain their sanity, but….but he had to try. They deserved someone trying to help them. The group had honestly lost hope of finding anyone alive and sane when Chan found Jeongin.

“Hello?” Chan said, carefully opening the door to the cage. He didn’t know what the young boy would do and he really didn’t want to hurt him if he attacked.

“Hello,” Jeongin replied, voice strained due to lack of use, “who are you?”

“I’m Chan,” the older replied, “who are you?”

“Jeongin.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jeongin,” Chan smiled, relieved to find at least one child who was alright, “do you want to come with me?”

“I don’t know,” Jeongin replied, “where……where are you going? Where would you take me?”

“Far away from here,” Chan told him, promised him, “someplace where you’ll never be hurt again.”

“Are you a hero?” Jeongin asked after a long moment.

“No.”

Jeongin took Chan’s hand without a second of hesitation after that.

--

“Ah!” Jeongin yelled, curling up in a ball as things flew through the air over his head.

“Jeongin!” Wonsik yelled, rushing into the room, “what’s wrong?”

“I-I don’t know,” the young boy sobbed, “I don’t know.”

Wonsik carefully made it over to the child, using his power to calm him down once he had Jeongin wrapped up in a hug. As he relaxed, the things that had been flying around started to drop. Sanghyuk stood at the doorway, keeping the others back until he was sure no one was going to get knocked upside the head with a coffee mug. When he finally let the others through, Chan and Woojin were the first inside.

“You cut yourself,” Woojin frowned, getting right to work fixing the youngest up.

“Sorry,” Jeongin whispered, looking down at his hands sadly, “I….I don’t know what happened.”

“It’s ok,” Chan assured him, “it’s alright, don’t blame yourself.”

“The one to blame are the ones who experimented on you,” Sanghyuk frowned as he kneed down beside the youngest, brushing his fingers through Jeongin’s hair in what he hoped was a soothing gesture, “whatever they did to you increased your power.”

“What do we do?” Chan asked, clearly worried about what was going to happen to the young boy and his sanity.

“We’re going to need to work with him,” Taekwoon recommended, “help him control his power.”

“Would that work?” Jisung questioned, “I mean, who’s the best one to help? Shouldn’t it be someone with a similar power?”

“I know someone,” Sanghyuk said, “they can help. At the very least they can give us a place to start.”

“Call them,” Woojin said as he finished healing Jeongin.

--

“Sanghyuk,” Jeongin said, taking a seat beside his leader later that night.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Sanghyuk teased, ruffling the younger’s hair, “today was rough and you need to rest.”

“Do you think I’ll be able to control it?” Jeongin asked, cuddling Sanghyuk’s side.

“I know you will,” Sanghyuk replied, “we all do. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re strong,” Sanghyuk told him, “one of the strongest people I know. Heck, you might actually be the strongest person I know. People like that, like you, always come out alright.” He pulled the younger into a tight hug, “and because you have all of us here to support you and love you no matter what.”

Jeongin looked at the other for a moment before smiling brightly. He might not remember his original family, but this one……this family he had with Sanghyuk and Chan and Woojin and everyone……this was the only family he wanted.

“I love you,” Jeongin said, “big brother. Is…..is it alright to call you that?”

“Perfectly fine,” Sanghyuk replied, “and I love you too, little fox.”

Jeongin fell asleep like that, cuddled up with his leader. He woke up to Jisung and Felix cuddled with him, Woojin and Wonsik making the group breakfast, and the others sitting around the dining table planning the next mission. He felt himself smiling softly as he looked around at his family before getting up.

“Big brother,” Jeongin grinned, hugging Sanghyuk tightly, “when’s the food gonna be ready.”

“Big brother?” Chan asked, faking hurt that Jeongin hadn’t called him that.

Jeongin laughed happily.

A/N: I feel so horrible doing this to poor Jeongin. Like, he’s such a sweetheart (his smile will never stop turning me to mush), and here I am giving him THIS backstory. I’m not a good person, am I?