“Guys… they've sent soldiers to the Tree again!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Jongin had volunteered to regularly teleport to the few villages he knew to keep watch over what the Red Force was doing.

“I thought they don’t know we are here?” The disbelief in Kyungsoo’s voice was obvious.

“They don’t. They must know we were transported outside and they didn’t catch us coming in, so why would they search for us here? No… Now that we’re gone, they’re coming for the Tree.” While speaking, Junmyeon realised how lucky they were to not have been caught outside.

Sehun’s voice was shaking when he turned towards the teleporter. “When will they arrive?”

“Two days maximum.”

Everyone looked at Luhan. How could the Tree not have told him about something as important as this?

“It tends to focus on showing me only what it thinks is important. And that every day.” Luhan’s voice indicated what Junmyeon had been suspecting for a few weeks now: What he kept seeing was nothing nice. But whatever he did to convince Luhan to tell him - it failed.

Chanyeol didn’t comment on (or maybe didn’t notice) Luhan’s frustration. “We need to get away before they arrive! We can’t let them know we are here.”

“Our only task is to protect the Tree. And now that they are attacking it, you want to go?”

Minseok’s argument made Junmyeon realise that he had actually really forgotten about this task. The only way to make sure it would never be harmed was to bring down the Red Force, which had slowly turned into the main goal.

“If they don’t suspect us to be here, there won’t be many Patrol members.” Kyungsoo frowned. “There might be more scientists than soldiers.”

“Which means they won’t be hard to defeat,” Jimin added with a relieved smile.

“But if we consider this as a first try to examine the situation… They won’t be expected to stay here for long, either. We will only have a few days afterwards. And as soon as the people in the City feel like something seems fishy, their guard will be up. We need to be quick. And we’re actually not ready yet.”

The reactions to Junmyeon’s argument were mixed. The younger ones started arguing that they were, in fact, more than prepared for a fight. But Minseok and Namjoon agreed with him, as did Yixing and his father.

“This means we need to attack them quickly and quietly,” Yixing concluded. “No one can escape. And I think it would be the best to have Jongin teleport us in, too.”

While everyone agreed on the first part, Jongin himself had arguments against his plan. “Guys… teleporting into the City is too dangerous. They know my power, most likely better than I do. And you know how getting out of there ended last time. We’re even more people now.”

“There is another reason for not teleporting,” Namjoon interjected. “We didn’t talk about this at all… But the Patrols between the villages have lessened a lot. They were the reason why we couldn’t form a proper resistance until now. That there are that many rumours about us proves that it’s a lot better now. It might be too dangerous, but I think we should stop by a few villages and show that we actually exist. If something in our plan goes wrong, we might need as much support from the people as we can get.”

Junmyeon threw a glance at Luhan. He remembered their discussion about the public’s opinion concerning them. But his second leader was surprisingly silent today.

“If there are no other objections, we will do what Namjoon said,” Junmyeon concluded, looking at the others.

Waiting for the Patrol to arrive must have been the most unnerving thing Junmyeon had ever done. He started thinking that he would have rather rushed to the City right away, thinking of a plan on the way. Everyone was tense and arguments kept coming up.

Fighting the Patrol wasn’t the biggest problem. They had done so before and now there were less soldiers and more of them to defend their home. But he knew how scared the others were of going back. He could have coped with that if they had confronted him, argued with him, shouted at him for this decision. But no one did. If he couldn’t defend his opinion, he would slowly lose their trust. He had hoped that Luhan would tell them something like ‘It’s the only way’, but his friend hadn’t commented on anything regarding their plans at all. Maybe this was another reason why he felt as if he had made a bad decision.

And it wasn’t as if the mindset was their only problem. Their plan with the tunnels hadn’t succeeded before and the Red Force had probably prepared for countering their powers. Namjoon and his friends would be a surprise for them, but they had to admit that they probably didn’t have enough practice to be a big help in this first step.

Numerous plans and ideas were brought up and turned down again just as quickly… Until their last discussion before the Patrol would arrive and everyone had already more or less decided to focus on this task first.

“I have an idea,” Jimin stated abruptly.

“If it doesn’t concern the problem at hand, please keep it to yourself.” Yoongi had his arms crossed on the table and his face buried in them. He hadn’t uttered a single word until now.

“Every idea might be helpful.” Junmyeon couldn’t stand to see how Jimin tried to hide his insecurity behind a shaky smile. He knew Yoongi hadn’t meant to hurt his friend, and he was sure Jimin knew that as well. But Jimin had no reason to be shy and therefore Junmyeon tried to encourage him whenever he could.

“I don’t know how many they are, so this might be a useless idea… But do you remember the uniform of the Patrol?” How could anyone forget about the feared red and white uniform and the helmets? “Those helmets are scary and they make everyone fear them even more… But they also guarantee a certain kind of anonymity. That’s great for the soldiers, because they can commit crimes without the people seeking revenge, and great for us because we can sneak inside the City without being noticed!”

How hadn’t they thought of this before? This was the simplest of tricks, but they had been too occupied with searching for more complicated ways. With Jimin’s idea, they could sneak inside without having to use their powers and the danger of someone identifying their faces was banned due to the helmet!

“Guys, we need to fight these people later,” Jongdae reminded everyone in the excitement that came up. “Won’t they suspect something if we turn up in damaged uniforms? What are we supposed to say, that the Tree beat us up?” 

Junkook smiled triumphantly. “We actually only need one undamaged uniform. I can get us the rest.”

“There are enough of us who don’t have to damage the uniform.” Minseok scanned everyone carefully. “We have Junmyeon’s power, mine, Sehun, Kyungsoo…”

“Jongin could teleport into the sky and let them fall down!” Taehyung was really excited over his idea, until his brother reminded him that this was too risky, especially since Jongin was probably their only way out of the City. They couldn’t risk him exhausting his power in this fight. Actually, using all of them as little as possible seemed rather wise considering what was ahead of them.

“A rock against the head might do a good job, too.” Junkook’s fingers drew circles on the kitchen table while he was thinking about a way to make his power useful. He completely missed the offended look Yoongi gave him after finally lifting his head now that he was mentioned.

Baekhyun’s worried face brightened up when he thought of something. “Maybe… I mean, it would be dangerous… But everything we do is dangerous, so it shouldn’t matter. We could take one of them with us, as hostage-”

“- But do you really think they would care about losing one of their people? That wouldn’t…” While speaking, Chanyeol’s voice got weaker and weaker under Baekhyun’s glare who didn’t appreciate being interrupted.

“I mean,” he stressed, “We could take him with us and before entering the City, Jimin could take over his body. We would have the face of one of the real Red Force members and gain even more credibility because we brought back a fugitive.”

Jimin’s eyes had gradually widened in terror during Baekhyun’s explanation. He looked at Namjoon, silently begging for help. His friend gave him a reassuring smile before turning towards Baekhyun.

“Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?” His eyes met Junmyeon’s. “They would immediately take him to the labs.”

“We could insist on taking him there by ourselves,” Junmyeon suggested. “This would also give us the perfect excuse to start searching for footage. As soon as we’re in the building and start searching, Jimin can take his own body back. If we’re seen while searching the labs, having Jimin with us will be the smallest problem anyways.”

“But what if they won’t let you?” Jimin still wasn’t convinced. Junmyeon understood his worries and felt bad for supporting this idea, but they would let them take him.

“We will stay close at all times,” he reassured the anxious guy. “Jongin will be ready to get us out as soon as something seems wrong. We can find other ways to fight the Red Force, we won’t take any risks for this mission.” He looked at the others, feeling the urge to stress the importance of his last sentence. “Understood?”

Junmyeon hated giving orders. But they were rarely discussed and had always been followed, and he knew these guys well enough to see when an order might be necessary. The guys nodded at him and he looked at his second leaders to wait for confirmation. Minseok smiled and Luhan didn’t object.

Namjoon and his friends sat there awkwardly, like they usually did when leader business was concerned. Every one of them treated the leaders with respect, but they seemed to be insecure about their own place in this situation. It was also hard for Junmyeon because he couldn’t and didn’t want to tell them what to do, but on the other hand couldn’t leave them out either.

“This is your business and I don’t want to interfere,” Minseok stated carefully, “but maybe you guys should discuss about something like a leader position as well before we leave. That might make things easier for you… and for Junmyeon, Luhan and me as well, to be honest.”

Junmyeon gave him a thankful smile. This seemed like the last chance to address it.

“Everyone who is for Namjoon,” grumbled Yoongi. Six hands were raised. Namjoon gave them a nervous smile and his dimples appeared on his cheeks.

They didn’t want to elect anyone else, saying it would be weird with three leaders out of seven people. This whole matter had been solved in a few minutes and they went back to planning with new confidence. When Kyungsoo said he felt them approaching, they went outside and hid behind the house. No one knew how quickly this group could contact the Red Force if they saw them.

When they heard noises, Junkook glanced around the corner carefully. He held up three fingers, then five.

Three scientists and five Patrol members. Junkook stepped back and stood next to Hoseok. The wind, barely noticeable at first, gained strength quickly. Junmyeon risked a glance.

The scientists had trouble keeping their equipment in their hands. The Patrol seemed to sense that something was fishy, but hadn’t found the cause yet. They slowly made their way towards the Tree, but had obviously difficulties doing so.

“That’s everyone,” Luhan murmured. “It’s only those eight.”

The strong wind had turned into a little tornado now, surrounding the enemy and shielding the Tree from them. With a mischievous smile, Jongdae stared at the sky above them. It started rumbling and lightning cracked and spread all over the sky, one of them passing the Tree and aiming at the group in deadly precision. No human sound was heard aside from the other men shouting at each other. Jongdae had told them once that his lightning was so strong that people were dead before they had the chance to scream, but Junmyeon actually hadn’t quite believed him. He shuddered at how powerful Jongdae had become over time.

But he didn’t have time to marvel at his friends’ powers. It was his turn.

Junmyeon concentrated. In a matter of seconds, the remaining seven people were surrounded by water. He had tried to form a water bubble around them, but it looked more like a cylinder. Panicked shouts were silenced by the raging storm and the water and once in a while they saw an arm or a leg from somebody who tried to escape. But they didn’t stand a chance. When the resistance was gone, Junmyeon pulled one of them out and let him fall to the ground. Jongdae balled his fists and with a deafening thunder, lightning met water.

The storm died out as quickly as it had come. The water bubble splashed on the ground and revealed six lifeless people. They fell on the other one who had been killed by Jongdae’s lightning before.

Jin winced at the sound of the bodies falling down. Jimin turned around and hid his face in his hands.

“What if the lightning damaged the uniforms?” Junkook asked, anxiously eyeing the scene.

“Jin can repair them if it’s nothing too big,” Minseok assured him. “Don’t worry.”

Yixing carefully stepped towards the Tree. Chanyeol walked in front of him, hands raised to use his power in case something unexpected happened and he had to protect their healer. 

But everything went as planned. After feeling the pulse of the one who was unconscious, Yixing motioned for them to come over. They checked on the Tree and then looked at the eight men.

“Don’t you feel… bad for killing them?” Taehyung whispered. His eyes were fixed on the bodies.

Jongin’s hand touched his shoulder. The smaller boy flinched but relaxed when he saw him. The teleporter smiled at him reassuringly.

No one knew how to answer. They did feel bad. But these people would have done even worse things to them. And letting them live would mean to risk their exposure.

Upon searching the soldiers, they discovered handcuffs and a few guns. Junmyeon hoped they wouldn’t need those, but at least they made their disguise more believable. Junkook inspected the uniforms for a while and then summoned sixteen of them that looked exactly like the original ones.

They stored those things in the house, along with the soldier who was now tied up. Summoning them right before they entered the City would be far less troublesome, especially since entering the villages while looking like the Patrol wouldn’t be wise. Yixing’s father ushered them to leave already, promising to make sure nothing would happen to the uniforms and to watch over the man.

He didn’t really say goodbye, just hugged his son tightly for a few seconds and then went back to the house. Junmyeon remembered the last time they had said goodbye like this and how they had come back and he couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for the man. If things went wrong, he would never hear from his son again. No one could predict what would happen if their plan succeeded.

They went on their way. It felt like they were caught in a time loop, and the more Junmyeon was reminded of their last time, the more anxious he got. He tried to focus on the things that were different now. They had more people with them now. They had a better plan to get in (well, they had a plan now). They were looking for houses instead of avoiding them. They were going by their own choice now, not because they had been pressured into doing so.

Towards late afternoon, they found what they had been looking for. A small village with around thirty houses. Many people were outside at this time of the day, stares turning from curious to shocked to something Junmyeon couldn’t quite identify. But at least they didn’t run from them, which wasn’t a given seeing how the only ones who ever visited villages was the Patrol.

“We’re far too many people to stay together,” Namjoon muttered after Luhan had checked for spies in the village. They gathered at the side of a tiny marketplace in the centre of the houses. “We could split up in, maybe, groups of two to three people.”

“Remember that we’re not hiding, we want to know what they think about us,” added Minseok after everyone had agreed with Namjoon.

Forming groups worked out pretty quickly. Sehun and Minseok wanted to join Jongdae, and so Junmyeon and Luhan were left as the last group. Junmyeon wasn’t sure if Minseok really wanted to join the two guys rather than give Luhan a little space. While the others always treated him with a lot of respect and tried to avoid him in order to not make him angry, Minseok just seemed like he understood his feelings and wanted to make things easier for him.

“If you’re done staring into the void, we could think about finding a place to sleep before tomorrow.”

Junmyeon snapped out of his thoughts. Luhan was the only one left on the side of the small marketplace.

“Sorry,” he mumbled while turning to leave. It was only now that he noticed the tone his friend had used. His voice was less biting, but had instead taken a softer note, as if he were gently mocking him. “What-”

Before he could bring himself to ask something, Luhan had already started walking. He was faster than necessary, and when he finally caught up, he could see fingers gripping his clothes tightly. He wasn’t feeling bad for letting down his guard for once, was he?

When Luhan spoke again, his voice was back to normal. “I know where we can go. None of the others have been there yet. Follow me.”

So he did, until they were standing in front of a small house next to a large field at the end of the village. It was nothing special, so he couldn’t really understand why Luhan had led him here. On the other hand, the others had probably already found places to stay, so this would save them some effort. It had two storeys, the little garden in front of it looked tidy and well-cared for. It wasn’t big, maybe enough for a small family. 

He tried to knock loudly enough to be heard, but not too loud out of fear to be rude. When nothing happened for a while, he started fearing that it had been too quiet.

The moment he decided to do it again, a woman opened the door. She was smaller than him, middle-aged. Her eyes widened at the strangers before her. Junmyeon bowed and smiled as politely as he could. “We have been travelling for a while now and are looking for a place to spend the night. We were hoping that maybe you have a spare room where we could sleep…” It was obvious that he hadn’t talked to strangers in a while. Luckily, the woman understood his intentions.

“I have a spare room upstairs.” She smiled, but when she continued, her voice shook a little. “It belonged to my daughter, she… left a few years ago. But it might be a little small for you two.”

“That’s not a problem,” Junmyeon assured her hastily. All of them had spent months cramped together in Luhan’s home, this was luxury compared to that.

Luhan snorted. The woman gave him a curious look, but stepped aside to let them in.

It looked just like he had expected from the outside: clean, bright, no riches but not run-down either. She led them up a narrow wooden staircase. Three doors were on this level. She hesitated for a split second before walking towards the door on their right and opening it carefully. Slowly, like she expected someone to be inside and didn’t want to disturb them.

She held the door open for them to step in. It wasn’t a big room, but it had a small window, a bed underneath it and a desk and a chair on the opposite side. There was a wardrobe as well, and everything was covered by layers and layers of dust.

Junmyeon sneezed. She looked at him with an apologetic smile. “I haven’t been in here very often. I will change the sheets so at least the bed won’t be dusty.”

“It’s fine, really,” he insisted. He didn’t want her to make an effort when they couldn’t pay her back. “Thank you.”

The curiosity in her gaze returned when she looked at Luhan. Junmyeon knew why. Travelling seemed like a difficult and dangerous thing for someone who was blind. Even if he wasn’t alone. Not many people would take that risk.

“I don’t want to pry, I really don’t, but you must understand that we rarely see new faces,” the woman started slowly, looking back and forth between them as if afraid to scare them away. “Where are you headed to?”

“The City.”

Luhan’s short reply drained all the colour from her face. She made a few steps backwards and Junmyeon helped her sit on the chair. For a moment, she didn’t even seem to notice him, her eyes staring into space without focus. This was a surprise for her, but she surely wouldn’t faint, right?

“You are…” Her weak voice pulled him from his thoughts again. “You have…”

“Yes.” With a little wave from Luhan’s fingers, the bed rose into the air and remained hovering above the floor.

She pressed her hand to . He partly expected her to scream, but not a single sound left her lips. “We do not intend to hurt you.” Junmyeon really didn’t know what the people were saying about them. “I wasn’t lying earlier.”

After a few moments of silence, her hand dropped back on her lap and she looked back at them. “Is it true what they say? Will you…?”

He didn’t need Luhan to figure out what she meant. “We will fight them,” he replied curtly.

It took a while for her legs to gain enough strength to get up again. Junmyeon had half expected her to voice her support or something like that. On the other hand, she didn’t throw them out right away, so she couldn’t be a supporter of the Red Force. She mumbled something about bedsheets and hurried out of the room.

It was Luhan who broke the tense silence. “It’s just the shock. She will be fine.”

He remembered something he had been wondering about. “Do you know what happened to her daughter?”

“It seems like she fell in love with the wrong person and got chased out of the village.” Luhan slowly extended his hand to touch the wall and made a few steps towards the window. “They probably think the Patrol killed them.”

“That’s terrible!” The poor woman… “Why was he the wrong person?”

Luhan snorted. “Out of the many problems we’re facing right now that’s the thing you are interested in?”

He either didn’t know it himself or didn’t want to talk about it for some reason. Junmyeon decided not to insist on getting an answer. “Do you know how the others are at the moment?”

“I’d tell you if something bad happened, don’t worry.” For some reason, he seemed to have said something wrong. Luhan was clenching his fists and he nearly worried about his friend’s heated glare setting the house on fire. “Everyone you care for is fine.”

“That’s not true.”

Luhan’s head snapped towards him after hearing his whispered answer.

Junmyeon barely noticed how he was crossing the room, approaching the other guy while talking. “Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong? We’re friends, you know you can trust me.”

These, again, seemed to be the wrong words. “Stay where you are!”

Junmyeon froze. He was nearly close enough to touch him. A cold shiver swept over him, lingering over his heart for a matter of seconds. Luhan was pressing his body against the wall as if he wanted to disappear through it. He hadn’t exactly shouted his response, but it was close enough for someone who was deadly calm most of the time.

“Just what did the Tree show you?” he whispered. “What are you afraid of?”

Something in his friend snapped. His jaw clenched. In a split second, he had grabbed him by the wrist and shoved him into the wall. Junmyeon’s wrist was pinned next to his head with a strong grip. Their positions were switched now, except Luhan was a lot closer to him than before.

Junmyeon had trouble breathing properly. His mind was a raging river of questions he could barely even form. He was painfully aware of Luhan’s fingers around his wrist and the second hand on the other side of his body that effectively caged him against the wall. He just didn’t understand what was going on, why Luhan was reacting like this or why he himself didn’t fight against being treated like this.

Until he thought about moving or fighting back and realized he didn’t want to.

Until he noticed Luhan’s heavy breathing that couldn’t be the result from pulling him in.

Until-

“I brought the bedsheets so you can-”

Luhan turned his head to the side, as if listening intently. Halfway ripped out of his stupor, a part of Junmyeon’s brain marveled at the fact that he had just now realized that Luhan was taller than him. He closed his eyes in disbelief at his own thoughts and then opened them again to see the owner of the house standing in the door, the fresh bedsheets on the dusty ground in front of her.

“Well, I guess you know how to-, I mean, I won’t disturb you… I’ll be outside.” She hurried out of the door quickly, her face as white as snow.

Luhan’s grip hadn’t loosened all this time, and now it worsened even more. Junmyeon hissed at the hot pain that shot through his body.

This finally seemed to rip Luhan out of his thoughts. He let go of him as if he had burned himself and took a few steps back.

Junmyeon inspected his injury. There was a fiery red circle around his wrist. He stared at Luhan in disbelief.

Luhan smirked. “These dreams were only about me, so they are none of your concern. Don’t get involved in my business if you don’t mean it. You’ll regret it.”

Without waiting for an answer, he turned towards the door. Junmyeon wanted to call him back, but he really didn’t know what to say. Just how had he been able to hurt Luhan this much without even noticing it?

His back was still pressed against the wall. When Luhan left, he let his wobbly legs give in and sank to the ground. What even was this situation?

These dreams were only about me, so they are none of your concern. Don’t get involved in my business if you don’t mean it. This was obviously Luhan’s strategy of pushing away people. He had just thought they were over this by now. Just why did it feel like those two sentences had been about two different matters? What had made him react like this?

Junmyeon’s face was still burning from their earlier position. Just why, though? They were both men. This wasn’t possible. And they were friends, above that. At least I thought so.

He buried his face in his hands and fought the urge to scream. This really was the worst time for personal drama. In a few days, they would stand in front of the City again. Their chances were already low enough as it was, he couldn’t afford distraction.

His mind obviously thought differently. No matter how hard he tried, his thoughts always came back to circle around the earlier situation.

There were only two options. Either Luhan had been too angry at Junmyeon to notice his reaction. He wanted to deal with his problems on his own and wanted to scare his friend into leaving him alone. But no matter how Junmyeon thought about it, Luhan hated touching people and it wasn’t like he didn’t succeed in constantly pushing people away. This left the second option: he had deliberately come this close. He had definitely noticed Junmyeon’s confusion. His thoughts. And he hadn’t moved away. Luhan wasn’t cruel, he wouldn’t play with Junmyeon’s feelings. Especially since he himself hadn’t even known about them.

Feelings? No, that was wrong. They were friends, yes, maybe best friends considering how close they were –

Best friends? a voice in his head shot back. Was he this used to Luhan that he imagined his voice to be judging him when he wasn’t there? You’re best friends with Sehun. You’re close with Chanyeol and Minseok, too. Are your feelings for Luhan even remotely similar?

Well, they had been, at least until a few minutes ago. Right?

His head hurt. He needed help. He would ask Sehun for help or Minseok, he was good at giving advice. Or maybe Hoseok could tell Junmyeon what this meant for him.

But he suddenly remembered the faces of the first two guys when they had told him they would go with Jongdae earlier today. His body temperature went from burning hot to freezing cold in an instant. They hadn’t done this deliberately, right? They didn’t know. How could they, when Junmyeon himself hadn’t known?

He was so tired. But his mind just didn’t stop throwing one question after the other at him. The room was spinning around him and he closed his eyes.