Character: Suho
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1030 words

 

 

"Stop... please," the man in target pleaded. He was helplessly afloat, one foot above the ground. Tiny water droplets were impossibly floating above his abnormally skinny, bluish upper arm. A young, beautiful man was moving his fingers slowly in the air from a distance. He released his distant grip and his target fell limp, one dead arm hanging cold. The unpolished stone floor was sprinkled with the once floating water.

It was water from the man's body fluid.

The man groaned painfully as soon as he fell, soon surrounded by aid. All of his body was alive, except his right upper arm. It was dead, physically dehydrated by force as water was dragged out of the million cells inside. It was a task like separating a soul from the body, multiply the pain by the number of cells. He could not sense his fingers and he did not want to bother looking.

The young man playing with his fingers, Suho, fell as pale and as limp as his victim. No matter how much expert water benders are used to it, it was an extremely draining task to do. A tall man, Chanyeol, slid and caught Suho's body.

"Your progress is inhuman," Chanyeol said to Suho's ear. The always-empty practice auditorium was enormous and covered in very detailed, classic wall carvings. The place feels eerie and dead to ones not accustomed to it.

Suho's very light skin was turning white as he grew pale of fatigue. He was part unconscious as he was on the verge of fainting.

Suho, leader of Special Squad One, was becoming one of the most feared men in the special army, for his water-bending ability had somehow turned into a scary ability: extracting water from anything, including humans.

The boy in his aid, Chanyeol, was a fire bender, also part of Special Squad One. He could make any flame look like an accident. The only reason why he sticks to Suho is because they balance each other. Physical contact with each other would make them heal faster at times like this.

At times like this when Suho had overdone himself, Chanyeol would carry Suho on the back to the first aid room and let him spend the night there. Both of them were not reckless, but Chanyeol knows that his energy is valuable and he should not use too much. Chanyeol stood there carrying Suho, waiting for the elevator to come.

The Military Squad Training System Building was one of the most prestigious installments out there, decorated with ancient dragons in dead colors and equipped with the latest gears. The first aid room of the building was also special. The air inside was a catalyst to body repair.

The bed beside Suho’s was occupied by his junior, regretfully his practice target for today, Sehun. The mature boy was reckless enough to volunteer as he was so intrigued watching his senior practice. Although always careful to anyone as long as he intended on not killing them, Suho had warned him not to regret his decision.

To Sehun, even the permanent loss of limbs would not interfere his air bending skills, because he need not move any part of his body. Lay, the healer, was holding Sehun’s badly impacted arm. He moved from the unconscious Sehun to Suho’s bed, touching the pale skin of Suho’s sleeping face. He could not compress the benefits of rest into a spell.

“He can’t be doing this all the time,” Lay commented sadly to Chanyeol. “I gave Sehun power aid and IV. Filling his muscles back with water was out of my league.”

He hid his face. It was always a shame for a healer to fail his job. “Watch over him,” Lay stood up from his seat and patted Chanyeol’s head. He brushed over the curtain and sat back at his place. He took a deap breath and firmly, yet softly held Sehun’s affected arm. He cleared his eyes and gradually, Sehun’s dead arm grew closer to life.

“No… no…” Suho mumbled in his sleep. He was stirring, sweating, expression feared. “Don’t… Please…”

He kept stirring and pleading in his bed. The sleep-talking startled Chanyeol and alerted Lay, who hurriedly came back to Suho’s bed.

“No… please…”

 

“My lord!”

Suho calmed in a sudden as if he fainted in his sleep. Seemed so because his face did not show any relief.

“What was that?” Chanyeol asked half panicked. He was holding Suho’s gripping hand tight. “What was he dreaming of?”

Suho’s lips and nails were stained with slight streaks of blood from the inside. They were reddish in a very scary, inhuman way. It was as if Suho’s capillary veins inside leaked of pressure.

“The Red Soul,” Lay mumbled to himself.

“What?” Chanyeol clarified. He could not really hear it.

Lay averted his gaze from Suho’s blood-reddened fingernails. “The Red Soul, Chanyeol. Any lucky water bender Suho’s level would soon meet him in their dreams.”

“...What does it do?” Chanyeol asked.

“I’m not sure, but it likes blood. It teaches how to control blood and can do bad things to water benders trying to.”

The two young men heard rustles from the bed. It was Suho waking up and all conscious and alert in one second. He does not wake up like this. Suho was staring blankly towards his feet, then slowly, his right hand started dancing.

Lay was dragged to dance along with Suho’s finger movements. His and Chanyeol’s eyes widened as they witnessed what they feared.

Lay shouted very loud in pain as bruises suddenly grew visible on his skin and he started coughing blood.

He was dragged by air on the chest so he would stand upright. Too upright.

His weak, powerless hands crawled to his chest, saving his heart that felt like being gripped tight.

Still in blank vision, Suho’s arm that was resting on the bed silently moved in a grabbing motion into a tight fist. Lay’s eyes grew so wide as if they were to pop, then he fell to the ground.

A dead, blue tone crawled slowly up Lay’s face.

Suho flinched and started groaning weakly as if he just woke up.

Chanyeol was pale with shock. His feet were glued to the ground.

 

Too many things were happening before his eyes.