The following weeks were so different from those before their meeting that Junmyeon sometimes caught himself thinking of them as a bad dream. The other guys all managed to move into the building he lived in and Sehun was staying in his apartment now. Even though Chronos obviously wasn’t happy about it, they hadn’t done anything to stop them.

After a few conversations with Sehun, Junmyeon managed to ask for news about Luhan’s father.

“We searched for him everywhere in the City and the closer villages, but didn’t find him. I am very sorry, but it is most likely that he has been killed.” Ms Han seemed to feel genuinely bad for him, so Junmyeon didn’t enquire further. It might be possible that he had escaped and gone back home after the chaos in the City and hadn’t heard about what had happened. In that case, it would only be a matter of time for him to hear the news.

He had also asked her when they would go public with what the Red Force had done and he and the other guys all received the same answers: “I am afraid we can’t do that as long as we are still investigating. Please also keep in mind that revealing to the world that people with superpowers exist might be a risk for your own safety as well.”

Junmyeon didn’t care about his safety. Ever since Sehun had moved in, they had started exercising together and training with their powers again. It was more for distraction and fun than anything else and he sometimes still got flashbacks and bad dreams, but they were somehow more bearable now. He had listened to Yixing and opened up to Sehun, and he didn’t regret doing so. The pain didn’t lessen, actually his bad dreams had gotten worse at first, but it didn’t feel as lonely anymore.

They all met every few days now, mainly talking about their progress with the news-subject. They kept asking Chronos about their investigations in the test area and reasons why they still didn’t want to publish them. And apparently, they had been successful. One day, Baekhyun stormed into Junmyeon’s apartment with his laptop and his mobile phone in hands, only minutes after having messaged everyone to switch on their TVs.

“… apparently, the biggest Chronos test area was turned into a facility for human experiments and torture. We have received video footage that shows how cruel…”

“They actually did it.” Junmyeon nearly couldn’t believe it. They had hesitated for so long that he had already started thinking they didn’t have the intention to make it public at all.

“I really hope everyone will see this,” Sehun murmured.

The others were one by one entering the apartment now, all euphoric over the good news.

Junmyeon patted Sehun’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it will be possible for anyone to miss it, those reports must be airing all over the world right now.”

As good as this news seemed, a glance at Baekhyun showed him that something was very wrong. He was hunched over his laptop, typing and scanning the screen with a concentrated face which was turning darker by the minute.

“What’s wrong?” He went to see what Baekhyun was doing. There were several little windows of news programs open, like the one they were watching now. He couldn’t hear anything, but the pictures they were showing had nothing to do with the test area at all.

“Why are you looking at that?” Minseok asked.

Baekhyun clenched his jaw and didn’t answer. “Switch the channels,” he said.

Not quite sure what he was getting at, Junmyeon grabbed the remote and switched between a few channels. All were showing similar pictures, speaking of the same topic.

“That’s what we wanted, isn’t it?” Namjoon was as confused as the rest of them. “What happened?”

Baekhyun closed his laptop so quickly Junmyeon feared he had broken it. “They’re trying to fool us. This is a scam. I’ve been looking at news reports from all over the world now and none are showing these pictures.”

It was dead silent while they were trying to figure out what that meant for them. “What you’re trying to say is… these news reports are fake?” Junmyeon motioned at the TV.

Baekhyun nodded grimly. “They’re probably showing them exclusively on our TVs, or maybe everywhere in this city to make sure to fool us. The people living here are all employees of Chronos, so of course they know what’s up.”

“But… that….” Jongin was speechless. “Why don’t they just tell us they don’t want to do it? Why would they go that far?”

Junmyeon didn’t understand it either. Giving people only the information you wanted them to have and keeping them in the dark about everything else was something they all had seen before and he didn’t like where this was going. How else had Chronos been deceiving them?

“We need to get out of here,” said Jongdae, looking at the others. “We have to find the other four guys and search for somebody who will actually help us.”

Jongin was motioning for them to come together when Yixing frowned. “Don’t you feel like something is… off?”

Sehun agreed immediately. “Something’s wrong with the air.”

This was bad. They had to hurry. “Let’s go, quick!” Junmyeon had barely finished talking when his surroundings blurred and his head started hurting. What was this terrible smell?

He out.

When he came to, his body was supported by somebody behind him. They were still in his apartment, which was much more crowded now that there were at least twice as many people as before. Every one of his friends was next to a muscular guy in a suit with a gun in his belt. Some of them had already regained consciousness, others still had to be supported by the strangers.

In addition to the general confusion and a very bad feeling, there was also the awful sensation of his power being restricted and Junmyeon didn’t even have to look down to know that his hands were bound by the same handcuffs the Red Force had used on them. He should have known better.

Someone was pacing back and forth in front of them, probably waiting for all of them to wake up. Junmyeon’s sight was still so blurry that it took him a while to recognize CEO Yoon.

He really should have known better. “Back then, you told us you had noticed anomalies in the Red Force’s computer systems and only started realizing what had happened after more investigations.” Junmyeon had trouble keeping his voice calm. “That was a lie, wasn’t it? You had noticed that Baekhyun was messing with the other files. You were afraid that information on your experiments on the Tree and human beings would get lost. That’s why you flew to the City to ‘help’ us.”

Yoon gave him a generous smile. “You must understand that it took us a lot of time to gather that much information. Your friend,” he looked at Baekhyun who had just opened his eyes and was staring around in confusion, “managed to destroy all of that hard work and I still made the mistake to underestimate him until today. It really is unforgiveable on my part.”

“What would have happened once you had gotten all the information you needed from us?”

Hearing Minseok’s question, Yoon sighed and inspected his fingernails. Well, it wasn’t like they didn’t already know the answer. Chronos would have had to be even more careful with the experiments, since they didn’t have the protection of the people’s fear and still had to uphold the good reputation of being fighters against climate change, but in general they would end up exactly like how they had been treated during their first stay in the City. The more he thought about it, the clearer it became to him that they had never actually defeated the Red Force, just alerted them and allowed themselves to be captured once more. 

“What do you even get from that?” Junkook was struggling against his guard but obviously couldn’t do anything with the handcuffs on. “I thought you were already more powerful than any government in the world?”

Baekhyun snorted. “It’s probably mainly about money. Imagine telling people you can give them superpowers. It would be even better if you found a way to control everyone who receives one.” He glared at Yoon with a gaze so full of hatred Junmyeon was sure it would bore holes through him. “Do you have a single employee who actually deals with climate change?”

Yoon’s eyes widened. He spread out his arms in a supposedly generous gesture. “Naturally. That used to be my motivation for starting this organization. The Tree of Life has so much power, it’s so old that you would think it could easily deal with a problem like this. It was already known in Norse Mythology under the name Yggdrasil, for example. Back in the time when carbon emissions rose and started affecting the climate, it started working against this development with its own magic.” He shrugged. “But the more time you spend on searching for solutions, the more you realize that it’s actually hopeless. The Tree has spread its seedlings all over the world to increase its influence, but it’s still not enough. We can’t fight climate change. We humans just have to adapt to this change, become stronger. That’s how the Tree will actually help us.”

Junmyeon couldn’t help thinking that the Tree probably would have achieved its goal, hadn’t humans discovered its power and decided to use it for their own desires instead. Now that he thought about it, it was no surprise that it had started giving parts of its power to humans to protect it. They were not only its protectors. They were supposed to help it spread its message in the world. The Tree would be able to help them if they managed to understand it.

“It’s probably fun to know that you’re the one who will get to decide who deserves to ‘become stronger’.” Jongin’s voice was dripping with disgust.

Yoon folded his hands and his even more pretentious words made Junmyeon feel like vomiting. “We will naturally have to make that decision. The world is facing the problem of overpopulation. Imagine every living person not only surviving, but also becoming more powerful and producing even more children. It would be disastrous.”

He couldn’t listen to this any longer. How could they get out of here? Their only hope were the four guys who were currently who knew where and didn’t have a clue what was happening right now.

He suddenly remembered how Jongdae had mentioned them earlier. Since Chronos must have been constantly keeping watch over them for them to react this quickly earlier, it was more than likely that they had heard them talking about the others. Unless…

He stole a glance at Namjoon who was thankfully right next to him. The other leader understood and gave him a short smile.

Junmyeon released his breath. He had probably put up an illusion as soon as they had realized that they had been tricked. That meant Chronos still didn’t know about them and at least the four of them would be safe for the time being…

“You’re going to be brought to our company premises,” Yoon announced with another generous smile. “You will be surprised-”

There was a knock at the door and another man in a black suit entered. “Excuse me, Sir.” He walked towards Yoon and the CEO turned his head.

“What is it?” He seemed slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

The man leaned in more closely and Yoon did the same.

The man said “ you” and hit the back of his head with a rock.

In the same moment Yoon’s body slumped together, the guards drew their weapons and the door opened again. With a single motion of Tao’s hand, every single one of them stood still.

Junmyeon couldn’t believe his eyes. Yoongi transformed from the guard back to his original body while Jin and Yifan entered the room behind Tao.

“Did anyone get hurt?” Yifan took his time scanning them and making sure everyone was fine. His gaze lingered on one of the guards and his eyes widened. “Tao, can you unfreeze this one for a second?”

Tao frowned but did as he was told. The bodyguard looked pretty confused at first. Until he saw Yifan. His eyes widened. “Kris?”

Yifan smirked. “I honestly never thought I’d see you again, Jinho.”

Junmyeon vaguely remembered how Yifan had told them about his friend who had been a spy of the Red Force. Even though he didn’t remember his name, it seemed quite obvious who he was from Yifan’s reaction. Before Jinho was able to answer, Yifan had already punched him in the face so hard that the other guy fell on the ground, knocked out. He motioned for Tao to freeze him again. Then he looked up at them and smiled. “It’s good to see you again.”

The four guys helped them with getting rid of the handcuffs and Junmyeon was so happy to see them again that he hugged all four of them. “Your timing was incredible! How did you know we needed help?”

“We were actually really lucky,” Yifan answered. “We came here a few days ago, but this city was so well guarded it would have been hard to enter, even with our powers. Luckily you guys caused a commotion today and most of the guards were busy running around or were ordered to come here, so we sneaked in and went to save you.”

He smiled proudly and while Junmyeon thanked him, Tao teared up and hugged everyone again, even Namjoon and his friends whom he had only seen shortly during their escape from the Red Force. “I missed you!”

“We missed you too.” Minseok ruffled his hair. “But we need to get out of here before they notice something is wrong.”

Jongin took all of them and teleported into a forest right outside the city.

“Isn’t that still too close?” Jongdae worried. “They know we wouldn’t stay after this.”

Jin gave them a smile that made him look quite satisfied with himself. “Oh, they have bigger problems than searching for us.”

Trusting them, they settled down and let the four of them tell their story.

The four boys had only found each other three weeks ago. Since Tao and Yifan had still been careful not to be noticed by the Red Force, they hadn’t used their powers. And Yoongi and Jin of course didn’t remember what they looked like. But since Jin knew that Tao had the same power as him, he had pulled a few tricks with manipulating time which were just obvious enough for someone just like him to notice. Intrigued, Yifan and Tao had investigated this matter and met the two of them. They had updated each other about the latest developments. Jin and Yoongi had told them how the Red Force had been defeated and they had all been brought to ‘safety’. And Yifan and Tao had told them about their discoveries inside the other test areas.

It turned out that the situation in every area was basically like it had been in theirs. The only difference was that apparently, the Tree of Life that had given them their powers was much stronger than the ones (its seedlings, according to Yoon) in other areas, making them less successful in their search for people with powers. Having discovered this, the two friends had quickly realized that there had to be something wrong with Chronos itself. But since they had to make sure not to be discovered, they had to figure out an absolutely bulletproof plan. During these considerations, Tao had sensed that there was someone somewhere who was messing with time.

Yifan shrugged. “That’s it.”

“You didn’t tell us why Chronos has a bigger problem than us at the moment,” Junmyeon reminded him. “Did you find a way to blow their cover?”

Yoongi smirked and pulled the USB drive from his pocket, showing it to them. “We actually wanted to get you out of there before publishing this news. But today, it looked like you had already found out. We had already prepared everything beforehand; it was just a matter of sending these files to a few people before coming to your rescue.”

Chanyeol whistled. “We were really lucky this time.”

Junmyeon silently agreed. “What happens now?”

“We had actually already shown these files to a few people before publishing them,” Yoongi explained. He rolled his eyes. “Please don’t ask how we managed to do that. I will never ever talk to a politician again in my entire life. I’ve never met someone this frustrating, and I’ve been living with you guys for quite a while.”

“Long story short, they are euphoric about having found a way to break Chronos,” said Yifan, sounding about equally enthusiastic. “They also seem very happy at the thought of having us on their side.”

Junmyeon felt like Yifan already shared his feelings, but he still said it out loud for everyone else. “Let’s not side with anyone right now. If there’s something we’ve learned during all of this, it’s that you can’t trust people with too much power.”

The others nodded. They kept talking for a while, catching up with everything that had happened until the phone in Yifan’s pocket vibrated.

He took a look and his eyes widened. “They’re asking us to come to the company premises of Chronos. It seems like they’ve found something important.”

“They?” Baekhyun sounded suspicious. “Can we trust ‘them’?”

Yifan understood his worries and nodded. “The police are there, they’re currently arresting people, and there’s already a bunch of reporters. Nothing will happen.”

Junmyeon shared a look with Namjoon. “But we shouldn’t let anyone see us using our powers, just to be safe.”

Everyone agreed and Tao looked at them with an excited sparkle in his eyes. “Yifan hyung can fly us there!”

Sehun raised an eyebrow. “He was barely able to hold onto you and Jongdae the first time, how is that supposed to work?”

Tao gave him a triumphant grin and Yifan scratched the back of his head, not quite successful in hiding the pride in his voice. “Well… Since we were mostly in places with no people anyways, I had a lot of opportunities to practice.” He shrugged. “I would be able to carry all of you in my dragon form.”

Junmyeon’s jaw dropped. Yifan had been practicing for so long without success that he had actually started thinking it wasn’t possible.

Jongin leaned forward and stared at him interrogatively. “Can you spit fire?”

Yifan pressed his lips together and Tao giggled. “Not if he wants to stay conscious.”

The other guy gave him a glare and then sighed. “It would be too obvious; I can’t fly us there. Imagine what would happen if people saw me.”

Even though everyone knew of their powers now, if anyone saw Yifan in his full dragon form, they would probably see them rather as a threat than anything else. Since this extent of his powers was not in the files that had been published, it would be better to keep it a secret for now.

Since that was the case, they would have to rely on their teleporter again. Jongin concentrated for a few seconds and they teleported and landed behind a tall building. Thankfully, there were no people around and Junmyeon sighed in relief. 

Yifan led them to wherever it was what they had found and Junmyeon couldn’t help but be intimidated by the size of the company. It was basically a small city in itself with its countless huge buildings, broad roads and signs that indicated where each facility was at. Since most of them had to do with what the company actually stood for, technical development and climate research, they were probably code names. Junmyeon was more than able to imagine the things that were actually going on there and started feeling sick.

After about twenty minutes of walking, they arrived at another building. It didn’t look too different from the others, but there were a few people waiting for them. Yifan seemed to recognize one of them, they bowed and shook hands and the man greeted them and pointed inside. “Please follow me.”

He didn’t prepare them for the sight inside. Junmyeon had seen rooms like these before and he knew what this building was for. He even recognized some of the apparitions. He lowered his gaze to the ground and followed the man. Was the person he wanted to show them someone Chronos had been experimenting on?

He couldn’t suppress a faint spark of hope. Maybe they had found Luhan’s father? But… Actually, it was better if it wasn’t him. Junmyeon had never met the man, but going through something like this was nothing he would want for anyone.

The man opened a door and let them enter.

There was a man cowering on the ground, middle aged, trembling and staring at them with wide eyes. He was probably convinced that this was a trick of his captors.

Junmyeon crouched down slowly in order to not frighten him even further. He tried to smile, which was quite difficult regarding the circumstances. There was something familiar to this man, but Junmyeon couldn’t quite put his finger on it. There were bruises all over his body and face, so he couldn’t even be sure whether he had actually seen him before.

“Excuse me, Sir.” He used the softest voice possible and the man just kept staring at him with big eyes. “May I know your name?”

The man suddenly stretched a trembling arm out towards him and Junmyeon nearly flinched back. “L-Luhan?”

Junmyeon froze when he heard that name.

He wanted to be happy to have found Luhan’s father, but the man before him obviously didn’t know that his son had died.

“I’m not Luhan.” He took the man’s hand regardless, still unsure about what to say. “He…” his voice failed him. “I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t see the man’s reaction as there was suddenly a commotion behind him. “Junmyeon!”

The man winced and curled together and Junmyeon spun around to scold Yixing. As a healer, he should be more concerned about his effect on seriously injured people.

But Yixing didn’t give him the time to say a single word. He was breathing heavily from running so fast. He grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the room.

“What- are you doing, let me go, I found Luhan’s father!”

“I know” was the only answer he received. He gave up and just let Yixing pull him wherever they were going.

They entered a second cell, identical to the one before. There was once again someone lying on the ground, unconscious this time. It was a really skinny guy, his body curled together and his face barely visible under his hair and through the numerous bruises that were not less than those of the man before.

Junmyeon knew who it was even before he sank to his knees next to him, his breath so short that he probably wouldn’t stay conscious for long either. He still managed to reach out with a trembling hand, brushing the guy’s hair to the side.

It was Luhan.

Luhan was alive.