When Chan was little, he had always dreamed of attending Maxwell, one of the best space schools in all of the 45 galaxies. He wanted to learn how to fly correctly and read the stars. He wanted to say that he came from that school to support his parents. He wanted things and wanted things, but now, he’s shoving clothes into one of his gym bags, and he’s running away from the school he had been calling home for the past seven years. Seungmin would be here in three hours, which means he has to make everything quick. 

There are tears in his eyes when his fingers run over his family’s pendant, the memories of his father handing it to him are fresh in his mind. A wave of pain passes through when he begins to think that he’ll never see them again. 

He wants to wail, a loud one that would shatter the windows but he knows he doesn’t have time for that. He needs to finish to get out there. 

With the final piece of clothing shoved in the bag and tears dripping down his cheeks, Chan throws his door open, surprising his blue-eyed almost-boyfriend who looks at him with tears in his own eyes. Hyunjin blinks before wrapping his arms around Chan’s shoulders before full out sobbing onto them. It’s an awkward angle for both of them as Hyunjin is a good two heads taller than Chan, but he says nothing and pats the younger male on his back. 

“Jinnie,” Chan whispers as he drags the other into his room. 

Hyunjin pulls away and stares at Chan. “They’re gone,” he says. “I called home after you did and they’re gone.” Hyunjin’s face crinkles in sadness. “They’re gone Channie.”

Chan feels his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he listens to the words coming from Hyunjin’s mouth and that horrible feeling racks through his body. He can’t breathe when he thinks of Hyunjin’s mother’s bright smile as she welcomed Chan into their home. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them again and steeling himself to his mission. 

“I’m leaving,” Chan says. “I’m leaving to find out what happened to them. Come with me.” 

Hyunjin didn’t even think twice before he nods and rushes out of the room, clamping his hand over his mouth.

Chan throws his bag over his shoulder and stalks out of the room, letting Hyunjin go the opposite way he was heading. His mind races to Jeongin, the fourth year boy who had inched his way into Chan’s heart with his bright smile and hopeful eyes. He had called his parents to make sure they were still alive, finding that they were. With a sigh of relief, he warned them of their impending deaths. Jeongin’s mother begged Chan to get her child out of there when he told her his theory, but he was already five steps ahead of her. 

He makes his way down the maze of hallways, classmates of his milling around the area in various states of activities. It pains him to see everyone so hopeful and so full of life when Chan knows the pain they’re going to be going through very soon.

Jeongin’s room is at the far end of the last hallway away from the entrance, the younger always complaining about having to walk too far to bed. The door is closed when Chan reaches it, his knuckles rapping gently against the wood. Jeongin opens the door with a bag in his hand. He doesn’t say anything and only sends Chan a small smile. 

“Let’s go,” he says quietly, tightening the hold on his bag. “Seungmin’s coming soon?” 

Chan can only nod, not understanding how Jeongin had known about them fleeing the school. He hadn’t told anyone his plan other than Jeongin’s mother, but maybe that’s why. 

Jeongin makes his way to the hallway but not before turning around and looking at the room that housed him for a few years. He sighs when he turns off the light, a frown tugging at his lips. 

“We had a lot of good memories here,” he says. “Ones where you fought all day with that Vopian for hitting on Hyunjin and when you first kissed Jinnie. Is it bad that I’m going to miss this place?” 

Chan places a hand against Jeongin’s back, shrugging his shoulders. “We’ll always have good memories of this place because this is where the three of us met. And we’ll always cherish those memories, Innie but…” he trails off, and Jeongin looks at him, determination in his eyes. 

“We have to make things right,” he says. “We have to, there’s no other way.”

Chan nods as Jeongin grabs his hand and pulls him away from his room. It doesn’t pass the older the way Jeongin holds his hand tightly. 

Hyunjin meets them halfway out of the building, his eyes rimmed in red. He smiles when he sees Jeongin and leads the way out of the building. People nod at them as they pass, someone even going as far as to shout their names and question where they’re headed, Chan quickly making the lie of stargazing in the field of Starleaves. No one questions their movements after that, the three of them quiet when they finally step outside. 

Irotois is an entirely different place when the sun goes down with bioluminescent plants showcasing their natural colors. Instead of the greens, browns, and golds, the world is illuminated in neon reds, pinks, and purples. Tiny light bugs fly around creating more of the soft ambiance Chan is already used to. 

The bag against his shoulder feels slightly heavy as they’re mindful of the triggers that could possibly inform the headmaster that they are out late when they’re not supposed to be. Getting caught outside of dorm hours is one thing, but getting found leaving the school is another. He could be killed, but there’s too much at stake for him. He needs to figure out what happened to his parents and expose the school for killing the people closest to him. 

Something cracks causing the three of them to pause in their steps. Chan looks around, his eyes wide as he listens for anything else. Jeongin’s eyes are narrowed into slits, looking further than Chan could ever look while Hyunjin just grips the back of his uniform shirt, his knuckles turning a scary shade of white. 

“Move,” Chan whispers through his teeth. “I don’t see anything.” 

As they walk, Chan wonders if anyone is going to notice that they’re missing, that they’re actually not at the place they said where they were going to be. It was an excellent cover at the time, but is someone going to go and look for the three of them at one point? He has no doubt that someone is going to raise the alarm that the three of them are missing and in a couple of days, people are going to talk. They’re going to talk about how the three top students separate division has disappeared suddenly. 

Chan’s hand wraps around the pendant around his neck. He takes in a deep breath with they reach a massive meadow filled with nothing but bright purple flowers, the flora looking a lot taller than the ones by the school. 

He’s the first one to walk through the meadow of flowers, the footsteps of the others coming from behind him. They’re silent as they walk but like every good hero story, something shifts and suddenly there’s a high pitched whining sound. 

Chan whirls his head around, looking for anything, his gaze, finally landing on hooded figures coming their way. He in a breath, wrapping his hands around the Jeongin’s and Hyunjin’s wrists, dragging them along with him. Hyunjin squeaks but makes no other noises while Jeongin just keeps looking back to the hooded figures. 

“Chan, I can take them,” Jeongin says, trying to twist his wrist out of Chan’s grip. “Please.” 

Chan wants to say no, but this is Jeongin he’s restricting. Yang Jeongin, a child from Zelara , one of the planets that excels in Terrakinesi s and Jeongin is terrakineic . Chan drops Jeongin’s wrist and glances back for a moment before pulling Hyunjin along towards the cliff. 

He doesn’t need to look back to see the different formations and the way the earth around them had formed to Jeongin’s will when he can feel it. The ground rumbles almost like it’s trying to wake before small chunks of rock are flying in different places, one of them landing not too far from where they’re running to. 

“Jeongin, don’t hit the pod!” Chan yells. 

“Sorry!” Jeongin yells back. 

Hyunjin manages a laugh, and Chan smiles back at him. 

Something shimmers in front of them, the beautiful landscape of Irotois shifts into a small pod looking ship. The pod is grey with large black lettering reading ATINY 01 on the side. A massive window takes to the center of the ship where one person sits where it looks like he might be flipping switches to get them out of there. A door slides open, and the first thing Chan sees is a bright smiling face that he’s missed for a long time. The boy has bright cherry hair and skin pale enough to rival those of one of the ice planets. He wears black pants tucked into knee-high boots and a simple white tunic top.

“Chan!” the boy yells and beckons him to hurry. 

Chan pulls at Hyunjin a little harder, the other male getting the message to run a bit faster. 

“Go to Seungmin,” Chan breathes as he lets Hyunjin’s wrist go. 

“Chan!” 

“Go!” 

Chan turns around and sees Jeongin struggling to fight against the hooded figures. Burning anger floods his system as he watches his youngest friend being almost beaten in his attacks. He knew that the school’s discipline unit was something else, he just didn’t know how much stronger the unit is compared to Jeongin. He doesn’t think his powers are going to work, but he can try. He has too. 

But before he can do anything, he a body slams into his front, sending the two of them backward. He looks to the redhead in his arms, sighing when he realizes that it’s Jeongin who only smiles sheepishly at him. 

“We need to go,” Jeongin says. “Like now.” 

Chan looks over Jeongin’s shoulder to find, that yes, they need to leave like now . He scrambles up with Jeongin in his arms and bolts towards the ship. Someone is yelling (is it himself or is it Seungmin because whoever is driving the ship has started to take off and holy  are they going to make it?) for them to hurry, but Chan can only run so fast. 

He tries really hard not to look at the people coming behind him, but it’s hard and a little scary when he can hear the rushing footsteps of people running towards him. But the thought of his mother, his kind and beautiful mother, devoid of any life, her eyes looking at nothing, causes him to run a little faster. He wants to avenge his mother. 

The ATINY 01 looks about five feet in the air, which is naturally too high,, but Chan can make this work. He’s always been able to, and why is this situation any different? Plus with Jeongin in his arms, it might actually work more in the favor. 

“Jeongin,” he says or really tries to speak, but Jeongin understands as he begins to mumble something under his breath. 

The ground rumbles again, which causes Chan to smile. He takes a couple of steps at the growing earth before massive leaps. Jeongin holds on tighter (maybe it’s Jeongin screaming because Chan’s ear hurts) and nearly strangles Chan when the stepping walls of earth become no more, causing Chan to leap into the air with Jeongin hanging on him like a koala and reaching for Hyunjin’s hand. 

They almost don’t make it, if not for Jeongin summoning a massive and he means a gigantic chunk of the earth that sends them sailing into the pod ship. Hyunjin yelps and something shut. For a second, no one says anything, everyone just breathing and reeling in what exactly just happened because Chan isn’t sure. What he is sure about is the growing pain in his head from slamming his skull against something it shouldn’t have. 

“Wooyoung! Book it!” Seungmin says after a couple of moments. “We have the packages.”

“Jeongin,” Chan says. “The steps.” 

“Gone,” Jeongin says, still situated on Chan’s lap and looking around. “Seungminnie!” 

And then the weight is gone.

Chan slumps to the ground and looks up. Two pipes intersect with each other, each one covered in warning stickers in what looks to be at least five different languages (and he’s pretty sure that there’s a warning there for Jisung and San in at least ten ).

The pod looks to be the same from the last time Chan had seen it. The pod’s walls were still covered in those silly stickers Felix and Changbin liked to collect. Seats are mounted to the sides of the ship with frayed seat belts dangling in the air where people are supposed to be sitting. A single bag is strapped in on one of the seats, the contents spilling out over the opening. A jacket Chan thought he had lost with a single lily on the pocket followed by the damn thing he swore he threw out. 

“Hongjoong wasn’t going to let it go that easily,” Seungmin says from somewhere. “You have something else coming if you think that losing the captain’s badge was something you could do.” 

Chan groans and forces himself up with the help of Hyunjin (when had he gotten there?). “I don’t want to be captain.” 

“You’re not the only captain,” Seungmin says, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting at Chan when the older finally sits up and stares at his crewmate. “I guess I should call you co-captain because if you think Hongjoong can run this mess of a crew on his own well…” he trails off and Chan isn’t sure if he wants Seungmin to finish his sentence. 

Seungmin rolls his eyes and tries to push a whiny Jeongin away from him which confuses Chan because how did Jeongin know Seungmin? Why did Jeongin know Seungmin but the disgusted look on Seungmin’s face, he figures that a question for another time. 

“Get changed,” Seungmin says, sighing at his fate and allowing Jeongin to latch on. “We should reach Stray Teez soon.” 

Chan sighs and stands, his legs a little wobbly as Woohyun? Wooyoung? drives the ship out of the atmosphere. He hasn’t given the “you need to be sitting for me to actually exit the atmosphere” speech yet so it all must be okay.

He’s already wearing black pants but everything else, he wants to get rid and possible throw out into the void of space never to be seen again. It’s what he wants, but it’s something that he’s not sure that he can do. Reaching for the bag, he pauses before whirling around and catching sight of Hyunjin watching him. He looks a little lost and confused on what’s happening, but he throws Chan the best smile he can muster. 

“Jinnie?” Chan says quietly. “How are you holding up?” 

Hyunjin shakes his head and lowers his eyes. “It’s all odd,” he says just as quiet as Chan. “I can get used to not being able to take classes, but it’s all just hard to wrap my head around all of this.” 

For the first time in a really long time, Chan doesn’t know what to say to him. He wants to offer words of comfort, but he’s not sure if he’s the correct person for the job as Hyunjin’s entire world has been thrown upside down. It’s no longer the cookie-cutter world that he thought it was where all the cadets at the Space Academy didn’t have parents, but a world where the Academy itself killed the parents and covered it up. 

Chan crosses the space and wraps his arms around Hyunjin’s torso for the second time that night. He holds the younger male close to him, almost as if he was scared that he was going to be blown away at any given moment. Hyunjin hesitates for a moment before wrapping his arms around Chan’s shoulders and burying his head against his neck. Chan’s neck suddenly feels wet as soft muffled cries fill Chan’s ears. Hyunjin is mumbling something Chan can’t hear, but right then and there, Chan decides that he’s not going to make Hyunjin cry like this again. He doesn’t want Hyunjin to cry like this. Never again. 

He became someone to protect his loved ones, and that’s something he’s going to do.