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By nightfall, the streets of district Eta have emptied to a handful of people. Kai leans against a thick column in front of the rail-train station. Krystal paces back and forth in front of him. The jacket he bought is too big on her, but she has it on.

“Where are they?” Krystal mutters.

They both simultaneously pick up the sound of runnng footsteps. When Krystal’s eyes turn to Kai, they’re full of hope.

But the light dies away in an instant when a bullet strikes the column Kai is leaning on, right above his head. Someone in the street screams, and the few people around starts to panic. “That’s two more of them over there!” A husky male voice shouts.

Kai takes Krystal’s hand and takes cover behind the column. Through the glass doors leading into the station, Kai gets a glimpse of the few people inside, frozen in fear, but he doesn’t have time for that. Another bullet whizzes by him and ricochets off the brick wall. He tries to get to the door with Krystal’s hand in his, but she pulls back. “They’re coming!” She exclaims.

In the wide street lit on both sides by tall lamp posts, four men in black combat uniforms are coming toward Kai and Krystal. But when Kai looks closer, he sees two more figures, slunk in the shadows of buildings, carefully making their way toward them, too.

Relief washes over Kai as he recognizes Taemin, leading Jessica. “We have to distract them!” Krystal hisses beside him, and the next thing he knows, Krystal jumps out from behind the column.

One of the hunters fires, and Krystal hops behind another column just in the nick of time. “Stop it!!” Kai warns, but he can see Taemin and Jessica reach the end of the buildings. Krystal jumps out in the line of fire again, and on cue, Taemin and Jessica take off running into the street.

The men fire at Krystal. She quickly moves out of the way, but one screaming bullet finds a different moving target.

“NO!!!!” Krystal’s scream rings in Kai’s ears. Without hesitation, he flips his pistol out from his belt, pulls the safety, and shoots. One uniformed man falls to the ground, and Kai doesn’t stop. He almost keeps a four note beat, and with his last shot, silence floods the dark street.

Krystal shatters the quiet when she sprints out from behind the columns. “JESSICA!!!”

Kai shoves his pistol back in his belt, and clenches his eyes shut. His hands are trembling, and he doesn’t want to go forward. But his feet start moving.

Taemin has collapsed to his knees, his hands covering his face. Kai’s feet stop right in front of his friend, but Taemin doesn’t look up. Kai feels his own face contorting, as he looks down at the body on the ground beside Taemin.

Jessica lies lifeless and crumpled in a splatter of blood. Krystal grabs her sister’s head, shaking it, screaming agonizing cries into the soundless night. It’s not long before Krystal’s hands are covered in blood, but she keeps trying to lift her sister off of the bloody street.

Kai’s body is numb. His mind is blank. He tears his eyes away from the sisters below him, and when he does, he meets bright, flashing, yellow lights. He thinks he’s too numb to do anything about it, but the widening of his pupils and the quick blinking of his eyelids tells him otherwise.

“Taemin,” Kai utters, his voice cracked. “Taemin, we have to go.” He shakes his friend’s shoulders. For a moment, Taemin doesn’t react. But then, he pulls his hands away from his face. The messy tears gleaming all over his friend’s face rips at Kai’s heart, but he repeats himself. “We have to go. The district patrol is on its way.”

The flashing yellow lights indicate that a district patrol car is heading toward them. Whether the district patrol in Eta is friendly toward time travelers or not, Kai doesn’t know. But he won’t be there to find out. He squats down and puts his hands on Krystal’s shoulders. “Krystal, we need to leave,” he says. The minute the words come out, he wants to punch himself.

Krystal doesn’t even act like he’s there. She buries her face in Jessica’s hair. “You can’t Jessica, you can’t…” she moans, but Kai can’t let her sit there any longer.

He gently puts his hands below Jessica, and pulls her lifeless body away from Krystal. “NO!!” The girl protests, but Kai lowers the body to the ground. “I’m sorry…” he whispers. He then puts his arms around Krystal and lifts her up. “NO!!!!!” She screams. Kai slings her over his shoulder, and turns to Taemin, who is standing on shaky legs.

“Come on,” Kai mutters. Taemin nods and follows him into the rail-train station.

“JESSICA!!!!” Krystal wails. She struggles and slams her fists into Kai’s back.

Kai heads straight for a waiting rail-train and deposits Krystal in a long seat. She looks up at him with eyes full of pain and hatred. He can’t break the eye contact and feels like he’s going to turn into a stone statue right there, but Krystal does it first, bringing her knees up and burying her face out of sight.

The rail-train shudders and begins gliding out of the station. Kai turns wearily to his friend. Taemin’s eyes are glazed over, and thick, silent tears flow from them.

“It... it wasn’t your fault Taemin,” Kai says. His voice is sincere.

Taemin staggers as the rail-train rumbles in its path. Kai puts his hands out to keep his friend from falling. He sits Taemin several feet away from Krystal, and his friend chokes, the misery overwhelming him.

Kai sits between Krystal and Taemin. Both are pouring out enough tears to flood the rail-train car. And that’s why Kai thinks he’s the one stuck with being the numb, disoriented one. His limbs feel like rubber and he thinks he won’t be able to move for the rest of his life.

Krystal and Taemin exchange sobs and whimpers on either side of Kai. He tries in vain to think of things to say to either of them to make them stop crying. Instead, he finds his head falling back. His eyes fall closed. He dreams of himself killing and killing until there’s no one left but him and his pistol.

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Kai’s eyes flutter open. Someone has just called his name. Taemin’s head pops into view in front him.

“The rail will stop soon,” Taemin says. The boy’s eyes are red and swollen. He doesn’t look like he slept.

Kai feels a weight on his shoulder. He turns his head, and sees a curtain of black hair leaned against him. Krystal breathes lightly and rhythmically, and everything that happened just a few hours ago slams back into Kai’s memories. He cringes at the dried blood stains on Krystal’s jacket.

The rail-train creaks to a stop. Taemin stands up forcefully, the backpack on his shoulders seemingly weighing him down. “Let’s go Kai,” he mutters.

Kai painfully brings his arm up and shakes Krystal’s shoulder. His muscles still feel rubbery.

She brushes her hair back and reveals tear stained cheeks. Her eyes are distant and she sees, but she doesn’t. “It’s time to get off,” Kai coaxes. He expects her to protest and start punching him. But she gets on her feet immediately.

They trudge through a poor, coastline district, district Rho. It’s still the middle of the night, but unlike district Lambda in 2011, the streets of district Rho are brightly lit by two, shining moons in the sky. Taemin leads the way because the directions are scribbled on his arm.

The place they find is a run-down shack in the middle of a moonslit beach. When Taemin knocks on the flimsy door, Kai expects to end up at gun point. But there’s no response.

Taemin pushes the door open and ducks in. Kai waits for Krystal and goes in last. There’s nothing inside the single room except for piles and piles of fishing nets.

“Is this the right place?” Kai mumbles. He frowns and kicks at the fishing nets. Then he sees the piece of cloth tied to the net at his feet.

The message is short and simple. ‘Take one. 5 years.’ Kai is reluctant to show it to the others.

“ it,” Krystal spits, and she goes and puts her back against one of the walls in the shack. She throws her backpack down and lets her back slide down the wall carelessly.

She looks up and meets Taemin’s eyes. Immediately, Taemin looks away, and face contorting, walks out of the shack.

Kai uselessly watches his friend until he’s out of sight. Krystal lets out a deep sigh.

It’s the only thing he can think of. He fumbles in his backpack, trying to ignore the heavy submachine gun that he has yet to use, and grabs the bread they packed back in Sehun and Luhan’s factory. He walks over and squats in front of Krystal. “You should eat,” he says.

Krystal still has that dazed look in her eyes. Without any change in her dejected face, she raises a hand and slaps the bread away from Kai.

Kai watches the bread roll away into the fishing nets. Clumps of sand wrap around it. “I’m sorry,” Kai hears.

He looks at her again and shakes his head. “It’s okay,” he replies, and lowers himself on his knees. Before he knows it, Kai reaches out and pulls Krystal close to him. She doesn’t resist.

He hugs her tightly but he can tell neither of them feels warmth. She starts crying again. He doesn’t think it does anything to help Krystal calm down, but he her hair. It’s really for his benefit, Kai realizes.

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