What exactly do you want me to do?

Hug her.

Are you out of your mind?

I am your mind. Hug her.

Not even questioning my brain, I stepped forward, my eyes strained on Doctor Huang when I reached out to her. She flinched and Mingyu was about to step forward when I wrapped my arms around her and laid my head on her shoulder.

That’s it.

I am going to puke.

Tell her you need her. Lie your way out of it, remember she knows nothing about what is going through your brain.

“I was trying to find you but you were gone,” I said softly, my face against her shoulder when Doctor Huang pulled away, her eyes searching mine while I stared straight at her.

Better love story than twilight.

I will ing kill you.

“Why were you trying to find me?”

“Because I need you,” I said back, blinking slowly and she frowned.

“Mhm… interesting. But no hugging, child,” she said, pushing me away before leading me by the elbow to the seat before pushing me down. I sat down, Doctor Huang seating herself in front of me when she tilted her head. “Johnny Suh. You remember him?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel about him?”

Tell her nothing. Tell her that you have no weaknesses.

“Nothing.”

“You don’t feel like you want to kill him?”

But I do want to kill him.

Yes, I know but that’s besides the point.

“No,” I replied and she nodded to herself.

“Amazing….” She smiled. “So, unlike the rest with the Marvel drug who wants to eliminate their weaknesses and kill the people they love, you have no weaknesses at all. You automatically got rid of them. Oh well, one—which would be me, no?”

“Yes.”

“I really need to find out how to remake the Marvel-U,” she said, pressing her lips together. “And when you look at me, what do you feel?”

“I need to be with you.”

“Oh, child.”

And for a moment, I saw her eyes soften and it had occurred to me that she was still a mother. A very ed up one at that but still a mother and I watched as she hummed to herself, standing up and moving towards me. She knelt down, smiling before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“You are so beautiful,” she whispered. “Imagine hundreds of you.”

Okay, never mind. She was still crazy.

“Go and get some sleep and continue on your training tomorrow. You are going to protect me, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well then. I take your word for it.”

And with that, she ordered Mingyu to bring me back to my room.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She was asleep, I knew she was and I had stuff to do. Other than the fact that I knew about Brunei and the process, I sat up writing everything down on a piece of paper for when I needed it. I massaged my neck, finally hiding the paper in the room when my brain began to babble.

Find a way to get out of the mansion.

Now, that… I agree with.

Practice makes perfect, Dana. You are not going to go to sleep until you nail it.

Ideas?

The body shoot, if you’re fast enough you’ll be able to climb it back up.

Loving the motivation.

And that is how I ended up slipping away from the bedroom, opening up the body shoot just to make a face at the smell. I closed my eyes, pushing myself down it, my feet digging against the metal to slow myself down until I was out of the mansion.

That was steep.

What if I can’t go back up?

Then you gotta use your brain. Try. Let’s see how hard it is.

I huffed, slipping back into the tube before pushing myself up the shoot but it didn’t work. It was too steep and I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to find a way back up.

Higher, push harder!

Brain, will all due respect, I have nothing to level myself against.

Dana, you’re an idiot. Two hands to the sides, press your feet against the walls and then push up.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Well—

I drowned my brain up, placing my hands on the sides of the walls before beginning to climb. One hand after another, my feet pushing against the sides as I gritted my teeth.

It’s hard.

Let me give you a push.

Stop telling me and just do it!

Suddenly a rush of energy washed through me and I began to gain momentum bouncing up as I made my way up to the body shoot. My brain chanted motivational quotes and I found myself heaving myself up when I finally was able to climb back up.

Good job. Now again.

What?

You took 7 minutes to climb up the body shoot, Dana. Too slow.

.

And with that, I found myself sliding back down again, my brain counting the seconds as I managed to climb up the second time.

More! More!

You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?

This is for us, Dana. I need to push you. You’re going to go nowhere with a weak mindset.

Wow.

And with that, I spent the night climbing up the body shoot, cutting the time to 2 minutes with me slipping back into the room to shower and drown myself with exhaustion. I had only two hours of sleep, my brain waking me up once more and I groaned—turning to the side.

I need sleep.

No, you need to train. Your body got enough sleep, the more you sleep; the more tired you are going to feel.

What now?

Knives, Dana. You are going to throw knives.

I had no idea why I needed to do it but the moment I thought it, scenarios of going at war with the hulk army and Doctor Huang flashed through my mind and I closed my eyes with frustration before pushing myself out of bed.

Time to practice my aim.

That’s right.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Peiyang]

“Now that we are done, I do have to tell you that they are going to be a bit emotional—” Doctor Jongho said when he was cut off by a screaming Jaemin. The pink-haired male had woken up and everyone knew that it was time for some drama, Jaemin bawling.

“Oh, Jeno! Forgive me for I have sinned!” He was saying, Johnny frowning. Jeno looked confused at Jaemin’s words, the male stepping towards his lover. “I have emotionally cheated on you!”

“What?” Jeno asked, his voice dropping an octave and everyone went quiet, Jaemin sniffling. You did what? On who?”

“It’s not that I wanted to! I was just thinking it—”

“That’s the same thing,” Renjun pointed out at the side and Jeno blinked, his eyes clouding over.

“Oh, Jeno—But he is so handsome and I promised honesty so this is honesty!”

Jeno looked at Renjun, the male shrugging, having no idea what Jaemin was talking about when Jeno looked back at Jaemin.

“Who is it? I want to talk to him—”

“No, Jeno! You can’t see him. I forbid you—What if you fall in love with him too?”

“Excuse me, ‘too’?” Jeno asked, bewildered at the words that are coming out of Jaemin’s mouth.

“Well, Mingyu—”

“Ah, Mingyu.” Renjun nodded. “Oh, he’s always been a looker. You know,”

Renjun’s voice went down to a whisper.

“If Nana met him first, you wouldn’t have been chosen.”

“That’s true—” Jaemin began and Jeno glowered at him.

“If you weren’t sick I would have already smacked you senseless, Na Jaemin,” Jeno said, Renjun giggled when he glared at Renjun, the male clearing his throat.

“Mingyu would never say that!” Jaemin said.

“Mingyu would never say that. You’re right.” Renjun nodded.

Jeno threw his hands in the air. “You met him once! And Huang Renjun, you aren’t sick—”

And with that, he slammed his fist against Renjun’s shoulder, Renjun howling in pain.

“I will use you as a punching bag, watch me,” he said and Renjun pouted. “Because when you hurt, he gets hurt too—”

“Oh, this is nice. Everyone is back to normal,” Sehun said to Johnny, coming from Jisung’s side. “Chenle just yelled at Jisung for wanting to kill him and now they are cuddling, look at that.”

“Mhm… I have no idea where to go from here,” Johnny said when Winwin came running over, device in hand. “We got a call?”

That’s all Johnny had to say, everyone gathering around Johnny to hear the voice through the phone. It was Minghao, Johnny already acquainted with the male with 20/20 vision—Minghao speaking in rapid Korean, sounding like he was panicking.

“They got Mingyu,” Minghao said and with the mention of the name, Jeno perked up. He marched towards the phone, glaring at it as if it was his enemy.

“Mingyu? Let me talk to him,” he said and Johnny slowly shuffled away from an aggressive Jeno.

“Stand down, Jeno. I think what Minghao means is that he’s in trouble—”

“Oh, nice.” Jeno paused. “I mean, no. I hope he’s fine.”

“Don’t lie,” Johnny whispered and Jeno rolled his eyes, marching back to Jaemin. “What happened?”

“Mingyu’s father said that Mingyu is now one of the processed guards and he is furious. He wants his son back and he is going to lead a riot of non-believers. They said they want to go to the stone walls and demand their people back.”

“When?”

“3-4 hours from now,” Minghao said, heaving a sigh. “We’re trying to get weapons.”

“And weapons, you mean…”

“Uh… Broomsticks and rakes.” Minghao’s voice was thick with sarcasm with a tinge of truth. “No, but I’m serious. They have guns and we have nothing. People are going to die! We can’t stop them either.”

His voice was cut off when Junhui’s calm voice spoke up.

“We’re just calling for help. It’s a given people are going to get shot. I repeat that our people have nothing.”

“I know, I know.” Johnny massaged his head, turning to a Yuta who was already putting on his gloves to fly the helicopter. He could see Kun on the phone and he knew he could trust his team to work fast. “Kun is going to try to get some bulletproof vests but it’s best you don’t attack them. You know the guards aren’t the enemy here.”

“We won’t, we just need to protect ourselves,” Junhui said. “Are your people coming?”

“Yes.” Johnny looked over to Sehun who was already formulating a plan. “I’ll send a few people over but try to keep the riot short. It doesn’t do us any good because she might just start shooting.”

Junhui hung up and Sehun exchanged glances with him.

“You’re going?” he asked Sehun, the male nodding.

“I want to see if Dana is there and if she really is safe,” Sehun said. “My sister, my responsibility. Besides, you have to stay to make sure everyone is safe from your father. Bring tranquilizers, remember that we don’t want to hurt the people.”

With that, Yangyang’s voice screeched throughout the warehouse.

“Do not touch him! Get your grubby hands off my best friend!”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I woke up with a loud ringing, not from my brain but from the whole mansion. People began to run down the halls and I felt my muscles ache from all the climbing and throwing of knives and jump roping but just as I felt it, it quickly disappeared.

If you say wakey wakey, I will go back to sleep.

Fine, read my mind. That was pretty funny—

What’s going on?

“Dana.” My question was answered when Doctor Huang stood by the door. She wasn’t stressed despite the sirens going off and she motioned me to follow her so I stood up, running my tongue over my teeth. “It seems like there has been an uprising.”

Ah, I actually heard a few people yelling when you were asleep.

A few?

Okay, maybe many.

“Come, dear… Let us take a look at them,” Doctor Huang said and I moved towards the balcony of the mansion, seeing a bunch of people stand there with their hats and rakes in the air. My eyes ran over them and I paused when I saw that some of them looked familiar.

Oh, it’s