It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

 

The spray of blood still fresh on his clothes, and the memory seemed to be replaying in his mind. As the door opened, he turned to face it.

 

“…what the hell happened…?”

“Let's go back home!”

 

They all celebrated as they boarded the ship. Sehun looked back at the planet, thinking of how much they had to go through just to retrieve the core.

 

Sehun couldn’t help but glance at Baekhyun, his lover. He noticed how the latter’s eyes were unfocused, like he was unsure what was happening. When he saw Baekhyun hold onto his head, he wanted nothing more than to run over there and help him. But after shaking his head, Baekhyun seemed to have focused his gaze on him, and an obvious sign of worry painted along his face. Sehun had always read Baekhyun’s emotions since the guy could barely hide them from him. But there was a nagging feeling inside him, telling him that something was amiss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I'm telling you the traitor is among us!”

 

Sehun flinched when Chanyeol slammed his hand on the table. He was wary of everyone, and the others shared worried glances after hearing the demise of their other friends.

 

Everything wouldn’t be so tense if the emergency meeting weren’t initiated by anyone other than the victim, Jongin. It would’ve been possible for him to call the meeting if he was alive, but lady luck didn’t favour him.

 

Two bodies were found. Jongin, and the one who operated the central station, Junmyeon.

 

“I get it, Chanyeol. But shouting won’t make a difference.”

 

Leave it to the oldest to raise reason amongst the tension.

 

“The only thing we could do now… is to find that traitor and get rid of them before we all die.”

 

Ever since they were assigned this mission, countless brethren were killed by an opposing power called the Red Force. And after finally getting the core of the tree of life from Earth, they were bound home. Back to EXO planet to return it to its true origin years after it was stolen.

 

After crushing the Red Force, they thought it was over and that peace would finally reign over their lives. But this unexpected variable was something no one could’ve ever imagined.

 

A traitor was in their midst.

 

“Baek…”

 

Baekhyun turned the moment he heard that oh-so-familiar voice. The moment their eyes met; a smile spread across his lips as his lover’s name crawled out of his mouth.

 

“Sehun.”

 

Following Minseok’s orders, they were split into pairs to narrow down the possibility of deaths and hopefully pinpoint the traitor. They were each given strict orders to stay in their respective rooms until it was time for their 12-hour duty period.

 

“Are you alright? I saw you holding your head a while ago.” Sehun asked with worry. He raised his hand to reach for Baekhyun’s cheek, which the other immediately leaned into as he closed his eyes.

 

“I am now,” Baekhyun answered, opening his eyes to smile.

 

There was something solemn about the way Baekhyun looked at him. The words he wanted to ask hung inside his mind and a different question slipped out of his lips.

 

“Would you… Would it be alright if I spent the night with you…?”

 

“B-but Minseok-hyung said…”

 

“Right… You’re right. He did. I just thought… you’d trust me to stay with you.”

 

A tinge of pink puffed out of Baekhyun’s cheeks after the question. Sehun could feel his heart thumping inside his chest, all he could think of was how cute Baekhyun was. The blush just accentuated his lover’s features and he couldn’t deny how his heart continued to fall for him.

 

“Of course, I trust you. I’d even sacrifice myself if you asked for my life.”

 

Though Sehun scoffed at the thought, his chest tightened at the thought of losing Baekhyun.

 

“I don’t need anything grand like that. Besides, if there’s ever a need to sacrifice anything, I will never hesitate to protect you.”

 

“I wish you wouldn’t…” Baekhyun mumbled to himself, earning Sehun’s curiosity. “What was that?”

 

“Nothing… Shall we?”

 

Seeing Baekhyun’s nod, Sehun stepped forward. Their hands intertwined as they headed to Baekhyun’s room where silence was soon, broken.

 

Days.

 

Three days passed before they found Jongdae’s body in his room. His death raised a deeper sense of mistrust among them. The fact that his body head was decapitated meant that the attacker was also an offensive power-bearer. And amongst those in the ship, only a few would be called out.

 

This time, too, Minseok remained level-headed despite Chanyeol’s outburst and Baekhyun’s argument. Yixing was impassive despite the chaos, while Kyungsoo and Sehun tried their best to appease their lovers.

 

“So, what’s your point?! Don’t just point your finger at Sehun when you have no evidence against him! What about Kyungsoo?! He could’ve easily pulled Jongdae’s head off his body if he wanted to!”

 

“Don’t ing pin this on Soo! I was with him the whole ing time!”

 

“Well, I was with Sehun the entire time too!”

 

Without batting an eye, ice suddenly surrounded Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s mouths, successfully covering it to stop their argument.

 

“Enough.”

 

The four could see the deep creases on the older’s forehead. Despite his silence, he was thinking—hard.

 

“I think we all need to calm down a little and breathe,” Yixing said, finally breaking his silence. “We have a mission to complete, and we can’t deliver the core if we raise hell toward each other and start fighting amongst those who are left.”

 

“Hyung, what happened to the surveillance videos? Is there nothing in there?” Kyungsoo asked.

 

Minseok and Yixing exchanged knowing glances, disappointment apparent in their faces. Yixing then pushed a button and broken video images floated above the meeting table.

 

“As you can see… all the surveillance cameras have been tampered with at the time of murder and not a single one of us are accounted for during that hour.”

 

“Are the logs… gone as well?” It was Sehun who raised the question this time.

 

“We looked through everything and it seems like the ship stopped working for that whole hour. There’s no way of knowing who tampered it, or how it happened. But the only truth we can’t deny is that the traitor remains within the ship.”

 

They could all hear Chanyeol’s muffled complaints, but despite his efforts of melting the ice, it continued to grow and cover his mouth to hold his comments down.

 

Minseok sighed after Yixing’s explanation. He looked at everyone, Eyeing them one by one. “I don’t know if the traitor wants to kill everyone in here to bring back the core to earth or if they’re corrupted by something else. But there is one thing that I’m sure of… the mission will not be a failure.”

 

 

 

 

Sehun looked at Baekhyun’s sleeping form. His hand caressing the other’s cheek as he slept. His heart was serene, filled with nothing but his lover. Yet, despite this, his mind was conflicted. Filled with thoughts that he knew he’d never spill a word of.

 

“Hey, babe…”

 

Sehun couldn’t help but smile as he heard Baekhyun’s greeting. He leaned forward to press a kiss on his lover’s forehead, cheek, nose and finally, his lips. A lovely and satisfying moan emanated from Baekhyun as he opened his eyes to greet Sehun with a smile.

 

“Did you sleep well…?” Sehun questioned, to which Baekhyun answered with a nod. his lips, Sehun confessed, “I dreamt of you last night.”

 

“What was the dream about?”

 

Sehun’s teeth grazed along his lower lip while his eyes glistened. “Nothing much. Just… you on me.”

 

He smirked at the way Baekhyun’s face turned red. He loved seeing this. The way Baekhyun would turn red because of a mere provocation.

 

“I love you…”

 

Baekhyun’s eyes widened after hearing those words from Sehun’s lips, a streak of tears fell from his eyes which surprised Sehun.

 

“Why-Why are you crying?”

 

Baekhyun shook his head. Sniffing, he wiped the tears that fell. “I love you, Sehun. So much. So, so, so much.”

 

Sehun pulled Baekhyun into his arms, hugging him tightly as he listened to his lover’s unusual heartbeat.

 

“I understand.” Minseok nodded, his eyes concentrated on the man in front of him.

 

“I’m sorry, hyung. I…” The other one looked down, gritted teeth with a pained expression.

 

Minseok sighed as he held the other’s shoulder. He gave him a reassuring smile before saying, “don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be fine. I… I have a plan so… Trust me. We’ll finish this mission.”

 

“Yixing-hyung!” Kyungsoo cried out as he hugged the body on the floor.

 

Everyone had to run out of their rooms when they heard the commotion, and there, they gasped when they saw the dead body in Kyungsoo’s arms.

 

“I ing knew it. It was definitely one of you!” Chanyeol growled. A spark enflamed around him until his body was covered in flames.

 

“Chanyeol!” Minseok tried to stop the taller, but his ice was melting faster than it could cover Chanyeol.

 

“Hyung, stop it!” Sehun called out, immediately blocking Baekhyun to protect him.

 

“Shut up! I know it was one of you! I’ll just kill both of you and—”

 

But before he could even finish what he was saying, a thin shining light shone across the room and pierced Kyungsoo’s chest.

 

Everyone’s eyes widened as they gasped.

 

Kyungsoo’s trembling lips could barely call out for Chanyeol’s name as his eyes welled with tears. Chanyeol looked in shock at the ray of light that was piercing onto his lover’s chest as blood spilt out of his lips.

 

And Sehun… he slowly looked back. Eyes shook when he saw the rage in his lover’s eyes.

 

“You’re not killing Sehun this time. And I’ll make sure you feel what I felt when you killed what’s mine.” Baekhyun said between gritted teeth.

 

As the words left Baekhyun’s lips, a bright eye-blinding light leaked out of Kyungsoo until he exploded in front of the four.

 

The shock was replaced with grieve that swallowed Chanyeol. After witnessing Kyungsoo’s end, his fire ran amok, burning everything in its path and the first thing that it wanted to consume was the bearer of light.

 

Fire balls formed around Chanyeol, all of which were aimed at Baekhyun. The bearer of light simply swallowed the fireballs within his light. The brightness blinding his opponent as a wall of ice stood between the chaotic pair separating them from Minseok and Sehun.

 

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