Title: Drenched, Drownded

pg-13, adventure, hurt/comfort
(MAMA!AU) After a mission on earth gone horribly wrong, EXO-K is missing and feared dead. EXO-M is tasked with the impossible; to bring the 12 back together and come out of Earth alive. What makes it worse - EXO-K's powers are now corrupted, and they would stop at nothing to kill EXO-M. 

Chapter 5
 

From a day we were behind the bars of a smart prison voluntarily
0 & 1 were used digitally to make my personality
There is no life, feelings and warmth over there

- EXO, MAMA

 

“Tao,” Chen said in a pained voice, “I pushed my Trainer into the Neutral Room when he tried to force me in. He’s in there now and I don’t know what to do.”
 

XXX

It was relatively simple to Tao what they had to do. “Run,” he said, grabbing hold of Chen’s arm and dragging him up. It was like manhandling a rag doll; Chen remained limp and allowed himself up without much difficulty. However, there was a dead expression on his face. Tao shook Chen’s arm in an attempt to garner some response. “Yah.”

“He’s going to kill me,” Chen whispered faintly, “when he gets out.”

Tao faced him head on. “I won’t let him,” he promised. “Now, run.”
 

Like how Lay, Suho and Kyungsoo studied medicine and Luhan poured over his building engineering modules, Xiu Min read up on psychology. He knew the intricacies of the human face, but now he wished he wasn’t perceptive. His schoolwork was supposed to apply to real life scenarios, but Chen was never meant to be his case study.

Chen was standing behind Tao, his head turned to the side and his eyes squeezed shut. Kris stood in front of the duo with his hand outstretched, in a failed attempt to reach out at Chen. The lightning guardian had rubbed the side of his red cheek raw.

In all honesty, it didn’t take a psychologist to understand that Chen was merely acting out as a very frightened boy right then.

“Disorganized attachment,” Xiu Min said, before thinking. He was leaning against the now-bare dresser.

There was a look of shock from Kris. “Chen, I’m not going to hurt you.”

When there was no response but Tao gently fussing to Chen, “You don’t have to hold so tightly”, Xiu Min continued. “He doesn’t know that.”

Luhan closed the door after peering outside for any unwelcomed visitors. “What?”

“Chen looks at you as the source of his alarm as well as his safety,” Xiu Min said, referring to Kris. “It’s probably the same case with his Trainer.” Kris glared at him for that and they exchanged a silent conversation.

I’m innocent.

Xiu Min flapped his hands half-heartedly, in poor imitation of a dragon’s wings. You were a bloodthirsty dragon this afternoon.

Chen visibly flinched at Xiu Min’s words. “Shut up,” he said without any conviction.

“I want to find Lay,” Luhan said cautiously, pressing his back against the door. He held fast onto the doorknob. “I don’t like this.”

“We’ll find him together,” Kris added firmly.
 

There was a shockwave of power in the room. Then, a low moan sounded from where the white coat fell against the cabinet.

“Luhan, don’t hurt him,” Lay commanded weakly, his body draped on the hard plastic chair. He had his hand on his stomach. “He was helping me.”

Luhan folded his arms, raising both eyebrows. “Really? Well, Kris is the one manhandling him now.”

Chen pushed past Tao to get a better look at the white coat. Kris seemed to have changed his mind halfway, and instead of slamming him against the cabinet again for answers, he put him on his feet. “… Jino?”

Jino looked curiously at Chen before recognition dawned on his features. “Kim Jongdae! You look... worse for wear.”

Tao narrowed his gaze. “You must be new. This is the Lightning Guardian, you better show him some respect.”

Lay turned his scornful laugh into a coughing fit midway, at Luhan’s quizzical glance. “I don’t think we have to worry about etiquette. The scientists have made it clear that they don’t want us anymore.”

“I-” Tao wanted to mention his Trainer, but Chen talked over him. “Who’s Kim Jongdae?”

“Oh.” A look of guilt descended upon Jino’s face, and it was just so familiar that something tugged at Chen. It transported him to the past, when he was treated better. There, maybe he was not happier, without EXO, but life was certainly easier.

Xiu Min chipped in his two cents. “It’s his human name, isn’t it?”

Jino looked up sharply. The hopeful look on his face, however, was displaced. “You know about it?”

“Time,” Tao cautioned.

Kris cleared his throat. “Yes, Chen is still in trouble, can we not forget that?”

“I don’t like it here,” Lay echoed Luhan’s words unintentionally, uncharacteristically taking a stand. “Wait- Chen is in trouble?”

“This is good!” Jino exclaimed, and immediately covered his mouth. All eyes trained on the intern. I’m in the correct time. “EXO-M, I know how you can get out of Exoplanet.”
 

XXX

Save EXO-K. That was the plan.

(“And then what?” Lay asked blankly. There was a pause. Chen looked up, particularly interested in the answer. On the spaceship navigated chiefly by Kris and Luhan, he felt safer. Relatively; since they were using instructions written down on a sheet of paper. At least, he was away from the immediate threat of his Trainer.

Kris answered in an off-handed manner, as he squinted at the handwriting. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”)

XXX

Time Skip

(Earth)

The birds took cry to the sky. The howling winds shook the trees, swaying even the sturdiest of branches. The hard sheet of rain rendered the background grey, its rhythm fast and relentless. Everyone who had sense had already scurried indoors, those who did not were ultimately convinced by the startling flashes of lightning and the thunder that threatened to rip the sky to two.

There was a single boy standing on top of a rickety bridge. He stood with his head downcast, watching the muddy water below him churn in violent waves. His eyes were strangely blank. In the rain, a stranger could only discern his side profile by his black jacket with its collar upturned, black jeans and sharp jaw line.

“Jongdae-ah,” called the stranger, and the boy’s shoulder jerked at the name.

“Don’t call me that, Xiu Min,” the boy hissed back. Their conversation, impossible to be heard under normal circumstances, was loud and painful to the both of them. The boy, however hard the rain tried to soak through his clothes, did not touch his pale skin. They were not ordinary people. They did not even belong to Earth.

Xiu Min sighed in exasperation, running his fingers through his short brown hair. “Fine. Chen. Will you at least let the rain up? You’re not only scaring the other members, you’re completely destroying this planet’s natural eco-system.”

Chen’s only answer was to have consecutive lightning flashes, illuminating the different sides of his face. The air around them practically cackled with electricity. “The rain is not my doing,” Chen replied flatly.

The next lightning strike flooded the entire alley with light, temporarily blinding Xiu Min. He quickly shielded his eyes with his arm. “Yah!” Xiu Min cried out finally. The surrounding temperature suddenly took a nosedive. A layer of ice skated through the river stream, making cracking and dull thud sounds as water beneath continued to thrash onto the ice top.

Xiu Min, though drenched in the rain, did not feel the uncomfortably clamminess of the skin. With the sudden utilisation of his power, Chen shuddered. His breath came out in white mist. Xiu Min would have reached out and grabbed his friend’s shoulders, but the latter was so charged up that one touch could send him flying. For the first time, Chen looked up to Xiu Min. The edges of his jacket collar were white, where the rainwater had frozen. He had turned several shades paler already. Despite their powers, they still had similar body functions and immune systems.

Horrified at what he had done, Xiu Min reached into his power. Before the ice thawed, Chen’s knees gave way and he fell forwards. Xiu Min lunged forwards to catch the younger boy. He gritted his teeth as he experienced the mild electricity shock, compounded by the water on his skin. When he felt ready to move, he lifted Chen’s arms over his shoulders and helped him move.
 

“You found him!” Tao was the first to jump up and run towards the entrance of the shelter they had found. It was an abandoned guardhouse in the middle of an unpopulated region. Completely devoid of human contact for miles around, it was the perfect hideaway for the six boys to adjust to their new habitat. So far, they were coping terribly.

Chen glanced up blearily at Tao, and regret etched all over his face when he saw the tear streaks on the maknae’s face.

“Thank goodness,” Lay said in relief, slumping back against the wall. Then, a spasm of pain washed over his face. It was barely noticeable anymore – he had gotten good at hiding it – but they were all too close to be fooled. Chen’s eyes flashed and again, the small cottage brightened for a brilliant second before fading back into darkness.

“Chen,” said Kris quietly. “You worried us when you walked off. In human terms, you’ve been gone for three hours.”

Tao looked back and forth from the leader’s disapproving face to Chen’s blank one. To ease the tension, he put in, “It was fine, but it started to rain so badly in the last hour that we thought something happened to you.”

“Stop guilt-tripping him,” Lay said, from his corner of the room. Kris turned around sharply to him, but Lay raised his hand. “Two days ago, you took off for an eight-hour flight.”

“That was to scout the area,” Kris explained, but his features softened. He would be lying if he said the flying did not clear his mind. He clapped his hand on Chen’s shoulder. “Next time, get someone else to follow you, alright?” It sounded harsh, like a suffocating restriction on the grown boy, but the concern in Kris’s voice was obvious and well-intended. The last time someone was out by himself in this world had experienced dire consequences.

Was experiencing.
 

The boys could have put it down to silliness from the locals, but they were partially to blame too. Their spaceship had crashed in the middle of a field in the outskirts of the town. The resulting impact caused a low-pointer earthquake that scared many of the locals, causing chaos. The town had sent armed scouts to find the source of the noise, believing it to be an invasion by border neighbours with whom they were at war. Kris barely had enough time to activate the spaceship’s shields before he set after the members, who were running as fast as possible after being confined for the journey.

Disorientated, they had cornered themselves into a building. Sharp fires rang out alarmed the boys. “What’s happening?” whimpered Lu Han, wide-eyed. They had run up a staircase to the top floor, but there was nowhere else to go. The rooms were all sealed and none of them had the strength to open them. Xiu Min had barricaded the staircase landing with a wall of ice that was being hammered as they spoke.

“We need to fight?” Tao asked hesitantly. He held up his hands, frustrated at his ability. Ironically, he had insufficient time to study the flow of time in the planet. He could stop time as and when he wished, but when he had no hint of how long he froze time, they could have been shot down the next second or worse – catapulted themselves into the next century unknowingly. That would have greatly endangered the planet’s natural flow.

“How?” Lay asked back. He got into a fighting stance as well, but there was fear in his eyes.

Xiu Min and Chen copied Lay’s movements, but as one they all turned to Kris for instructions. Perhaps it was because he was the tallest; or he was the only one who still held on to his impassive face. That was impressive in itself, in the heat of things. He made a snap judgement.

“They’ve got weapons,” he said quickly, as the hammering grew louder. “It’ll be suicide to go out.”

“That would be beside the point of us coming here,” muttered Lay.

Kris took a deep breath, wondering if his plan was the best. “Bring the building down on them,” he said, “Lu Han, centre onto the building’s pillars and tear them apart.”

“Alright,” Lu Han said in determination, his solemn voice out of place with his baby wide eyes.

“We’ll all fall!” Tao said, open-mouthed.

“I’ll hold onto you,” Kris promised.

“The men will all die,” Chen said, gesturing towards the wall. A gunshot ricocheted off the wall and they all ducked instinctively.

Kris looked at Lay, who nodded.

“Hold on to each other,” he ordered, before all of a sudden, the floor beneath them swooped and there was a giddy rush of air. Kris grabbed onto Tao and Xiu Min, who were the nearest to him. They clung onto him as he shot into the air. His main priority was to find a safe place for them; their entrance to Earth had been messy already. The two loads on him were weighing him down heavily, so he needed to be swift.

“KRIS!” He did not turn back, but he heard the rumble as the building fell down. His heart plummeted along with it – s were alright, he told himself, they had endured harsh training just to get to where they were.

“Down there,” Xiu Min said faintly, clutching onto Kris’s arm even tighter to get his attention. They descended quickly. As soon as the two dropped off, Xiu Min yelled, “Go get the rest!”

Tao was already crying, having turned behind when he heard the roar of the building in its final moan.
 

No normal person should have survived that day.
 

Lu Han had concentrated on the building easily. He had studied human architecture on exoplanet, and knew that he could break at least the pillars. When the floor fell down, he felt the rush of wind as Kris took off in flight. Lay wrapped an arm around his neck.

The first thing that went wrong was factoring the number of humans. Since he could not picture all of them, he tried to make sure the debris flew as far away as possible from them. Switching his focus from the pillars to the humans was not an easy task. The terrified screams of the vulnerable humans made Lay flinch uncomfortably.

The second thing that went wrong was the forgotten EXO member. Kris had assumed Lu Han was going to support the remaining members with his telekinesis, and Lu Han had likewise thought Kris was going to leave only Lay with him for healing.

The building was only three storeys high, and the rubble beneath them resembled nothing more than a highly-piled rubbish dump. Lu Han stood on the top, with scratches on his exposed skin where shrapnel went past him, helping Lay move the bigger debris to heal the unconscious humans. There were not many of them, but they were all heavily armed with guns. Without a doubt, they would have been shot on sight. Lu Han wished wistfully that they knew where they were so they could at least know the history of these civilian fights.

The second Kris touched the ground he started running towards them, panicked. “Where’s Chen?” he shouted, counting only two of s.

Both Lu Han and Lay froze in mid-action.

“We-we-” Lu Han’s voice faltered. He whirled around to view the destruction beneath him. “CHEN!”

There was no response. The fear in all their minds was palpable. “Where were you standing?” Kris asked, trying to gather his thoughts. There was time to think horrifying things later – he’s dead, he’s dead, you stupid fool of a leader. There were sirens in the distance.

“Hurry up!” Lay urged, healing the last of the humans in sight. There were more than a dozen of them, and his energy was spent. If he is under there for too long, the damage might be too great.

Kris was throwing rocks away, his arms white from the plaster. Lu Han made more progress, but there was a crazed look on his face. His vision was slowly becoming blurry, from fatigue and tears. A gnawing feeling in his stomach worsened to a sharp pain. The guilt was eating him up in the inside.

Then, like a sign, a soft rain started. The three of them exchanged glances, this time with a faint glimmer of hope. Chen had the power of lightning, but like a charm, the rain fell whenever he could not suppress his emotions. It happened seldom, but it was a god-given gift then.

Lay’s sharp eyes saw the rain being strangely repelled at a small area of rubble. “HERE!” he yelled, waving his arms. Lu Han stumbled as he ran, but the three of them shifted enough wreckage remains. They saw his pale skin, covered in blood.

“I got him,” Lay murmured. Kris used his strength to drag the body out, just as Lu Han blasted away the debris with unnecessary force. The sirens were growing louder. The four of them needed to get out of there.

A white light shone dimly under Lay’s hands, which made him anxious. Usually, the light would be much brighter, and the healing would be faster. Chen’s chin dipped to his chest. He was barely breathing.

“Let’s go,” Kris muttered. I’m so sorry. He cradled the smaller boy in his arms, and the other two held onto him tightly. He leapt into the air and flew off.
 

It was their third day on Earth, and there was little motivation to carry out their original plans. Kris had scouted the area and told everyone to their relief that they were in an isolated area. Being out of contact with humans would make their job harder, but nobody felt the least inclination to do so.

Lu Han had been quiet for a long while, sitting on the makeshift bed and playing with an abandoned toy left behind. It was a jigsaw puzzle, of different shaped pieces that had to be slotted into the wooden square frame precisely to fit. It took his mind off things as he replayed the first day over and over again, wondering how he could have not noticed. The soft cry of exclamation behind him when the floor gave way; the fact that Kris never told him not to hang onto the second youngest member…

Training had given Lay much stamina, but his powers were not omnipotent. Healing more than a dozen humans already demanded much of his energy. He healed Chen’s battered form to the best of his ability, rested for a while in agitation, before pushing himself again. Colour had returned to Chen’s cheeks by the second day.

Tao had instinctively known what the rain meant, and the other four had returned to a sobbing maknae and a harassed-looking Xiu Min who had alternated between comforting Tao and making sure the guardhouse was safe. The temperatures had fluctuated wildly when the four came back. Lu Han and Kris had minor cuts all over; Lay looked dead; they thought Chen was dead. Xiu Min had to be taken out for a walk with Kris, just to make sure they could all stay in the warmth while the rain continued to fall.

On the third day, Chen had woken up, fresh as if nothing had happened. He had taken one look at the other members. Demanding a complete explanation, and received that and unwanted apologies. He had taken off afterwards.
 

“So,” Xiu Min said, breaking the silence, “how are we going to find EXO-K?”

XXX

There were open empty cans on the wooden table top and bottles of water that were half drunk from. “By tomorrow, we have to look for food,” Xiu Min explained in a forlorn voice, seeing Chen look around at the guardhouse properly for the first time.

“We need to send a message to tell EXO-K we’re on Earth,” Kris said, sitting down on the floor so that his long legs were outstretched in front of him. Everyone else started to make themselves comfortable. Chen sat down next to Lay instead of his usual spot near Luhan or Xiu Min. Lay looked down at the smaller boy at his shoulder and smiled slightly, proud of his handiwork. When he looked back up, he caught Luhan gazing at them with a hurt expression on his face.

“They could be anywhere,” Lay pointed out, forcing himself back into the conversation.

“Not unless we broadcast this message to the ends of the Earth,” Kris replied firmly, “and in a way that only EXO-K will understand.”

They sat in silence, pondering and wondering.

That night, Luhan crept to the furthest end of the house. He tip-toed over Kris’s long legs, gave a sideways glance at Xiu Min who was using Tao as a substitute pillow to hug, and held a breath when Lay rolled over the bed that everybody insisted he took given how tired he was. It was raining softly in the background again. There were occasional lightning flashes, which Luhan took to mean that Chen was awake. He was usually right.

“Hey,” Luhan whispered quietly.

Chen turned his head slightly.  “Mm,” he voiced, without spite or anger.

Luhan paused. “Are you mad at me?” he burst out suddenly. The question had been in his mind the whole evening. “Is that why you took off, and didn’t look at me during the meeting?”

The questions sounded painfully childish and impatient to his ears. With his youthful face and child-like mannerisms, Luhan was often looked down upon. He never minded it. His telekinesis power was in high demand, but because of his impression on people, he was normally skipped over for very dangerous missions. That day was one of the few where Luhan wished he appeared remotely mature so that Chen could feel safe and able to depend on him. Or at least, he would stop looking at him as if he would be in grave danger within two feet of him.

Chen’s eyebrows went higher. “I’m not angry at anybody,” he said.

“You have a right to be,” Luhan replied automatically, not believing him. “I’m sorry.”

There was a hand to his face suddenly, touching his mouth. It was a respectful gesture that those of very high positions such as the Trainers used to silence someone of lower rank. It was seldom used because it was far easier to tell another person to shut up instead – though Chen’s Trainer usually just gave him a tight slap to shut up. The gesture showed that the higher ranking official respected the person and his words, but he did not wish to hear it.

For Chen to use it, it proved beyond doubt his sincerity in his previous words. However, especially since he was younger, it was almost rude to do it to Luhan. Chen looked up almost fearfully.

Luhan crashed the younger into a hug, Chen stiffened for a while – he was not as uppity about skin contact as Kris, but still unused to it – but made no move to pull away.

“That’s alright now,” Chen said finally. He looked down at the mop of light brown hair against his chest. “Don’t sleep on me, Luhan.”

There was a light laugh. “You’re almost as bad as Jongin,” he scolded jokingly. The comparison simply rolled off his tongue, but the both of them froze at the same time. Reality reared its ugly head.

“I was thinking,” began Chen, “that Suho is nearby.”

This time, Luhan pulled away from Chen and gaped. “What?”

“It keeps raining,” Chen pointed out, gesturing to the windows.

“That doesn’t mean much. Some parts of the world get more rain per square area than exoplanet.” Luhan beamed as Chen opened his mouth slightly in disbelief, and then frowned in suspicion. “I looked over Kyungsoo’s transcripts with him, before he left.”

“But I know Suho’s rain. I’ve been listening to it for hours tonight,” Chen shot back stubbornly.

“That still doesn’t help us much,” Luhan said after a while. “But it’s a comforting thought.”

“Yeah?” Chen did not sound convinced. They remembered the useless meeting beforehand.

“Yes,” Luhan said resolutely. “It means he’ll be safe with us soon.”

XXX To Be Continued XXX

A/N: The chapter is choppy, but it's been long coming that EXO-M comes to earth so I took out some parts (Ch is 4K words alr). The previous Ch1 is here - and I wrote that in June 2012 so it was difficult to tweak it to fit better. Chen acts tough (well, he distances himself) but actually emotions fleet by him easily. So he gets riled up and calmed down in a shorter time than one would think. He also converses easily when one prompts him, so him talking so much to Luhan in the end isn't out of character. And I like olderbrother!Xiu Min. EXO-M wants to get out of Exoplanet, and what other place better than to be with EXO-K? [clue] Jino turns out to be a semi-important side character, did you see when he came from and how convenient the spaceship was given to EXO-M? -___- And lastly - no Luhan, Suho nearby doesn't mean anybody is safe. R&R.